Getting More from Your Idea Sessions

Brainstorming sessions are commonly used to generate ideas, and to come up with a creative solution to a problem. But sometimes, during a brainstorming session key players speak up and express their ideas and everyone else enters the discussion about those few ideas, without considering many other ideas that could have been generated. Some members of the group may not speak up because they're shy, or are afraid that their suggestions may be rejected..

It is also possible people with stronger personality loudly push and defend their ideas, without listening to others' suggestions. People, who are concerned about voicing their ideas in a broader group, have to 'compete' with others to be heard

If you're faced with obstacles likes these how do you overcome them? The solution could be the brainwriting technique. This technique enables everyone in the group to participate in a nonthreatening way. It is also possible this approach generate more potential solutions or ideas than traditional brainstorming, because traditional brainstorming sessions allow only one person to speak at a time, which sometimes blocks or reduces creativity and productivity in these sessions.

How to use it

• Give everyone a brainwriting sheet

• Hand out sheets with space for a problem definition at the top of the page, and rectangles below into which ideas can be written.

• Identify problems

• Each person writes a problem at the top of the page. It can be a different problem for each person and it can be all the same for everyone

• Write ideas

• Now each person passes on the sheet to another person, who writes down one or more ideas to solve the problem.

• Keep going until you are done

• The sheets are now passed on to the next person, who adds more ideas, using the existing ideas as stimuli where possible.

• The sheets are passed around until they are filled up.