What are brainstorming sessions and what benefits do they have?
Holding meetings with a number of workers to develop new avenues of a business and plan possible projects for the coming months. Creates an opportunity for each worker to contribute their perspective on the business. It’s an effective method to improve the communication between different departments and unify thoughts across the company, with the aim of finding a common thread that binds all thoughts together. In addition, the workers will feel more identified with the project and their motivation will increase if they see that their opinions are taken into account and that they are an active part in the development of the business.
Discover moreResources for brainstorming sessions
During brainstorming sessions it’s useful to surround yourself with online resources to streamline the process, facilitate the connection of thoughts and reinforce the creativity of the participants. Here are some of the resources we recommend using:
• Flowcharts: with this tool you can visually capture each of the ideas that arise during team meetings. In this way, it’s easier to organize and make connections between them, select the best ones and plan your objectives more productively.
• Online Slides: it’s advisable to prepare an online presentation with the key points of the meeting. With GoConqr’s Slides you can insert media resources – like videos or images – to visually portray some of the concepts you want to convey and bring more dynamism to brainstorming sessions.
Try them for free!
Steps to brainstorm
When organizing brainstorming sessions, it’s important to follow a series of steps to manage the meeting efficiently and to reach the maximum potential of each of the participants. Here are some points to follow during brainstorming sessions:
1. State the main problem and ask questions: You must be clear about the ultimate purpose of brainstorming sessions and what issues you want to address. Therefore, you must state a main topic that encompasses the entire meeting and several sub-questions that you wish to solve. The more specific you are, the better.
2. Define the group: Depending on the objective you set for brainstorming sessions, you’ll need to assess the number of members and departments you want to include in the meeting. It’s advisable to have between five and ten attendees, as it’s the right balance so that everyone has enough time to develop their points of view.
3. Set standards: so that each member has a similar time to make their contributions and prevent the meeting from being chaotic, you must first establish a set of rules.
Tips for boosting creativity
Not all employees have the same ability to develop ideas, but there are some guidelines you can apply to get the most out of them during these sessions.
• Withhold criticism: getting employees to be comfortable and safe is essential so that they can intervene without fear during the brainstorming sessions. Therefore, it’s wise to be open to any suggestion – ridiculous as it may seem – and never make derogatory remarks on the thinking of the employees. The more ideas that come up during the meeting, the more possibilities you’ll have at your disposal to work with.
• Tackle ideas: an extremely enriching exercise is to try to improve or look for another approach to the first ideas suggested by employees; in this way, you’ll be valuing all the options offered by each participant. In many cases successful projects have absolutely nothing to do with the original idea, so it’s wise to try to be constantly reinventing your project and not be satisfied with the first ideas that arise during these sessions.
• Change of space: Although it may seem secondary, the environment in which these sessions take place can influence the mood and creative capacity of the professionals. For example, getting out of the usual work area and taking a trip to the mountain or to the beach can feed the inventiveness and imagination of the workers.
