Simple Methods to Brainstorm Better in Teams

How to improve your brainstorming and create together better

Advertising executive Alex Osborn came up with brainstorming in the 1950s: get together, share as many ideas as possible (no judgment or criticism), revise ideas and build on the best.

Sounds great, but that Mad Men stuff just isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Decades of studies show that these brainstorms actually lead to fewer and worse ideas than people would’ve come up with alone. Ideas fuse together into much of the same where fresher, individual ideas are what we really want.

Some easy fixes have been shown to work by several studies however. We at Domestika pieced together a simple method we’ve dubbed “WAGSAD”. Just kidding, but you can call it that if you want.

Work Alone

It might sound contradictory but before converging, you need to diverge. Allowing people to think up their own ideas in isolation will mean they are more developed when they are brought to the table.

One technique for this is the 6-3-5 method or brainwriting.

Six people have to write down three ideas and then pass that idea to the person next to them; that person can then add three new ideas or build on the ideas the previous person shared. This happens five times until everyone has added to everyone else’s paper. Group sizes can vary - somewhere around 4-8 people is best - but six is the classic model, hence 6-3-5.

Once you’ve gone through this process, everyone can converge once more to evaluate the work and decide how to go forward.

Go Slow

Many groups are disproportionately influenced by members who want solutions immediately. Every office has a “Steve”.

The need for closure trait leads individuals to seek “opinion uniformity, autocratic leadership, in-group favoritism, rejection of deviates, resistance to change, conservatism, and the perpetuation of group norms,” according to the American Psychological Association. That’s no recipe for solutions.

Rather than sticking with the first few ideas people generate, letting them breathe and grow is more likely to create something of value. The 6-3-5 method is just one way of ensuring everyone has a moment to think.

And Draw

Some ideas need to be seen to be understood. Talking meetings are always going to give bias to ideas that are easy to describe and potentially abstract and difficult to apply.

Drawing is good for three main things:

• Describing spatial relationships
  Describing processes through diagrams
  Involving the large regions of your brain connected to visual processing in idea generation.
(Some members of the group may have these zones more developed and appreciate the time to shine.)

Collaborative sketching is one way to introduce drawings to meetings. It works similarly to brainwriting, where people draw their ideas and pass their sketch on every few minutes so the other person can work on it. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers found a mixture of talking and pictures was a perfect combination.

A word of warning: people tend to rush their drawings, so make sure to add notes so your illustration is clear to the next person.

Different people will come up with different ideas differently; that’s an asset. Make sure to make the most of it with these simple methods.

If you’re leading the group, don’t sit back and watch. Make sure people are heard, the group doesn’t converge on one idea before all are properly heard, and ensure the best solutions, not the loudest, come out on top.

Once you’ve got the hang of these techniques, play with components to get the dynamics and balance that suits your team.

You may be interested in:

- Creativity: Generating Ideas through Technology and Storytelling, a course by Daniel Granatta
- Transforming your creative ideas into personal projects, a course by Ji Lee
- Planning and Management for a Creative Studio, a course by Enrique Rivera