Creating the Perfect Storm -- A Creative Brainstorming Session

By Gwen Moran

If your company had hidden pockets of valuable inventory locked away, you'd probably go to great lengths to recover them. Actually, it's likely such a stash exists in the form of great ideas locked inside its employee's minds. One of the most effective ways to reach that information, solve problems or overhaul a particular approach to doing business is to conduct a creative brainstorming session.

"Brainstorming sessions have the goal of idea generation, which comes from the process of creativity," says Kelly Rice, chief inspiration officer for public relations firm Manning, Selvage & Lee in Westlake, CA. "[Creativity] is a learned skill. It's the power of lateral thinking - using that idea that you had in the shower this morning with something you saw at the playgroup and tying that in to the ad you saw on the subway."

Rice's firm created her position as a hybrid public relations, human resources and creative management functions in an effort to foster new and creative approaches to running and growing the company. Through her position, Rice conducts brainstorming sessions throughout the company and with its clients. She and her colleagues have used brainstorming as a way to develop names for new products, attract talented new employees, solve specific problems and find new ways to approach tasks or challenges.

As a guru of creative thinking, Donna Shirley is also a believer in the power of brainstorming. Shirley, author of "Managing Martians: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman's Lifelong Quest to Get to Mars," was the manager of NASA's Mars Exploration Program and the original leader of the team that built the Sojourner Rover. Now assistant dean of the College of Engineering at Oklahoma University, she teaches a course entitled Managing Creativity and frequently consults with businesses on the topic of creativity. She has also written the online book "Managing Creativity: A Practical Guide to Inventing, Developing and Producing Innovative Products."

"[In the Mars Exploration Program], we would use brainstorming all of the time," explains Shirley. "We'd say 'here's the problem,' and everyone would start shouting out ideas and someone would leap to the board to write them all down."

Throughout Shirley's progression in her career, she continued to read about the impact of interpersonal relations and the role of engineering in society. She combined her personal study with practical experience and found that whether she was acting as a board member of a nursery school or running one of the world's most important space exploration programs, many of the same skills could be brought to any number of situations to solve challenges. Brainstorming was an important tool in almost every one of them.

Shirley explains that it is important to keep personality types in mind when holding a brainstorming session. Her experience has shown her that some personality types are better at pure idea generation, while others are better at drawing parallels between various ideas. Still others work better when writing or drawing as a means of expression, rather than working in a group discussion. The differences are most noticeable between introverts and extroverts.

"Extroverts love to talk things out," she continues. "But introverts like to go off and think about something. You need to be sensitive to both types."

As director of public relations for New York City-based STC Marketing Communications, Ann Higgins uses the differences personality types found in the company's various departments to bring different ideas to the table on behalf of the company's clients.

"We purposely try to pull in different types of people to get new perspectives," she explains. "You need to be careful of the dynamic, because you don't want one person's opinions to overtake the meeting, but bringing different areas of expertise to the table has led us to create some very innovative programs for our clients."

In her sessions, Rice designs various exercises to suit various personalities. By using toys and lists, she makes it a point to try to bring out the creative new ideas in each participant. Similarly, Shirley tries to incorporate a variety of techniques, including searching for metaphors for the specific situation, into her sessions.

"Fear is the biggest barrier to creative thinking," says Shirley. "If you have a hierarchical situation where the president and the stock girl are both sitting there, the stock girl is likely to be afraid to look silly in front of the president. You have to find ways to create an environment where looking silly is encouraged and where everyone feels comfortable throwing ideas out."

Creating the Perfect Brainstorming Session

When asked what the ingredients for a successful brainstorming session are, Higgins, Shirley and Rice recite nearly the same list of considerations:
  • Preparation: It's essential for the facilitator to prepare a list of questions, exercises and reactions to possible scenarios. If possible, the facilitator should familiarize herself with the participants. Remember Shirley's rule of thumb: If you're trying to solve a technical problem, provide the necessary information to participants in advance. If you're trying to achieve a broader new approach or vision, it may be best to have the participants come in cold, so that they do not form predispositions.
  • Environment: Rice favors toys and colorful environments to break the ice. The environment should be non-threatening and Higgins suggests that a setting outside the office can help spark new ideas.
  • Attitude: Absolutely no criticism should be allowed in a brainstorming session. One participant should be assigned to writing down ideas on a large easel pad and taping them around the room so that participants can see what has already been said. Participants should be encouraged to be as "off the wall" as possible.
  • People: A group of seven to ten is best. If you have more, consider holding two or more brainstorming sessions. Higgins warns that your facilitator must be able to control a situation where one individual is overly-influential. In addition, Rice suggests varying the exercises - such as using a drawing exercise or creating lists then having each participant read his or her ideas to the group.
  • Facilitator: All agree that the facilitator must be a non-threatening, neutral party able to relate to a variety of personality types.
  • Follow-up: Shirley reminds us that some members may need to think about the topic for a while to come up with new ideas. Therefore, some method of reconvening or capturing ideas after the session should be used.

Also see: