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Creative Thinking - particularly for inspiring better brainstorms

Welcome to this new section in the Website where we ask an expert in the field to give us seven tips on a specific topic. To kick off the segment we have Andy Eklund MPRIA, Managing Director of Aqus giving us tips on creative thinking - particularly for inspiring better brainstorms.

1. Brainstorms tend to work better with less time than more. This is a personal choice, but I think brainstorm which last less than 30 minutes are perfect. Gather only 2-4 people, stand-up around a flipchart or pages taped to the wall, give out enough information to be dangerous, then start brainstorming. After 30 minutes, thank everyone, then find another 2-3 people and repeat several times. Each new brainstorm might build on the previous ideas, or begin in fresh ways.

2. Pit teams against each other. Big brainstorms - more than 8-10 people - aren't always feasible. Sometimes it's better to inspire some good-natured rivalry and competition between two teams or 3-4 people working toward a common goal.

3. Provide tools, toys, materials and resources which are conducive to creating ideas. The short list of items should include flipchart paper and an easel, coloured pens or pencils, magazines with a thick content of photographs or visuals. You want anything which stimulates people’s imagination.

4. Or, pick up the easel and leave the office behind. There's nothing like a fresh atmosphere to re-invigorate the brain cells. Find some sunshine. Sit in a coffee shop. If you can somehow add caffeine and sugar (chocolate!), even better.

5. Get the people to spend part of the brainstorm in the shoes of the target audience. You can gain an entirely different perspective by visiting with or pretending to me the group of people who will use the idea. Or, even more stimulating, ask participants to pretend to be someone entirely unrelated to the situation or product and therefore brainstorm ideas from this fresh perspective.

6. Keep the participants engaged doing things. Don't let your attendees simply sit in comfy chairs and respond every now and then to a facilitator's commands or questions. Conduct your brainstorm with people standing up. Have them flip through magazines looking for provocative photographs. Hand out paper and crayons and get them to doodle. You'll often be surprised how such simple activities stimulate people's creativity.

7. Encourage - if not reward - risky, adventurous and out-there ideas. Everyone knows the process of making an idea “do-able” often waters-down the idea into something which is safe, average or vanilla. To ensure this doesn't happen, the best ideas need to be risky because the critical evaluation steps will erase much of their uniqueness. In other words, safe ideas equal complacency, and complacent ideas have never changed business results.

If you would like to contribute to this new section please contact our Information Officer.

^{November 2008}

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