Page 92 - The Design Thinking Playbook

EXPERT TIP

Rules for a good
brainstorming session

Before beginning with any brainstorming, people must laugh at What are the rules we comply with in a good brainstorming
least once. A warmup that makes participants smile helps. From our session?
experience, it’s best when they smile at one another.
Thinking in hierarchical structures is a hindrance to free and Brainstorming rules are numerous. Our top three are:
unfettered ideation. An apprentice does not want to make a peculiar
impression on his boss when expressing a fanciful idea. Creative confidence
For this reason, we are encouraged to point out that the assistant and We express all ideas that come into our heads, no matter how silly
the accountant, the CEO and the marketing officer of the company, they might appear to us. Maybe the next person can base another
can all make an important contribution in the process of ideation. If idea exactly on our “silly” contribution. For this to work, we need the
participants do not know one another, so much the better! Not having relaxed atmosphere just described.
general introductions before the brainstorming session, which would
include announcing who has which role, has proven useful indeed. A Quantity goes before quality
nonbiased dialog is of great value. Very, very important! The point of this phase is to fill the hat with
When we feel there is a steep hierarchy in our company, we can try as many ideas as possible—evaluation comes later. We resist the
out the reverse approach: We form a team only from trainees, for temptation of being satisfied with the first good idea. Maybe an even
instance, so they will have the opportunity to raise their profile and better idea is only five minutes away in our brainstorming session.
show others their creative potential. In the next workshop, the groups
will then almost certainly mix at their own initiative. No criticism of ideas
The beauty of brainstorming is everybody is given the opportunity to Under no circumstances are ideas allowed to be criticized during this
come up with good ideas, no matter which function or role he or she phase. The evaluation of the ideas takes place later in a separate
has. step.

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