Not every brainstorming session yields breakthrough ideas, but there are certain steps organizations can take to improve the effectiveness of brainstorming.

Gathering staff members into meetings to discuss new strategies or simply toss around interesting ideas is a workplace tradition, but brainstorming doesn’t always provide useful results. In fact, many brainstorming sessions prove to be wasted opportunities, and these failures often stem from a lack of planning and organization. With the right approach, it’s possible to tap into employee creativity through productive brainstorming.

“We all know the scenario: lots of people gather in a room to brainstorm a strategy, product idea, tag line or mission statement,” BNET notes. “Veterans approach cynically, new recruits think it will be fun and after an hour — or two or three — has passed, they all emerge drained, depressed and demotivated. Why is this such a recurrent story?”

According to a study last year on the effects of brainstorming sessions, there are several cognitive obstacles that can lead to failed brainstorming, including: evaluation apprehension, which causes people to worry about what others will think of their more unorthodox ideas; social loafing, which leads some participants to avoid contributing anything because they assume others will provide the necessary ideas; and production blocking, which inhibits other people from developing ideas while someone else is talking.

Another major problem is social matching, which involves employees presenting ideas that are very similar to one another’s, reducing the diversity and originality of the concepts explored in a meeting.

The wide range of difficulties in producing effective results from brainstorming have caused some to question the validity of the process itself.

“Over 40 years of research on brainstorming suggests that the technique is not as effective as its proponents claim. The problem is that despite the ground rules, group dynamics are too powerful and the creativity of people in the brainstorming groups is often inhibited,” Psychology Today explains. “For example, members become embarrassed and inhibited, others may engage in ‘free-riding’ and not contribute to idea generation. The research suggests that individuals are equal to or better than brainstorming groups in generating creative ideas.”

Of course, most workplaces rely on collaborative efforts, and whatever the drawbacks or limitations of group-based brainstorming may be, there is always a need for staff members to listen to and build on each other’s ideas. Given these circumstances, it is useful to know how to optimize and improve brainstorming sessions.

“Most studies of brainstorming are rigorous but irrelevant to the challenge of managing creative work. For starters, comparing whether creativity happens best in groups or alone is pretty silly when you look at how creative work is actually done,” Bloomberg BusinessWeek explains. “At creative companies, people switch between both modes so seamlessly that it is hard to notice where individual work ends and group work starts.”

Overcoming some of the challenges to effective brainstorming is often a matter of structuring a meeting in the proper way. Mindtools offers the following tips to help run a brainstorming session smoothly:

• Find a comfortable setting for the meeting and prepare it beforehand;
• Select one person to record all the key points at the meeting in a format everyone can refer to and understand;
• Try using a warm-up exercise to help break the ice;
• Identify the goal that needs to be met right away and make it clear that this an opportunity to generate as many ideas as possible;
• Provide people with enough time on their own to come up with a list of ideas independently;
• Ask people to share their ideas, making sure that everyone receives an opportunity to be heard;
• Encourage staffers to expand on other people’s ideas or use them as a springboard for new ideas;
• Cultivate an enthusiastic and uncritical attitude within the group, and ensure that even shy members can contribute without being judged;
• Avoid any criticism or evaluations during the meeting, as these can stifle creativity;
• Encourage people to have fun, and let them range from practical ideas to impractical ones;
• Keep from following any single train of thought for too long, as it’s important to have as many different ideas explored as possible; and
• Take breaks if the meeting runs long so that staffers can revive their concentration.

Even the best attempts to create a comfortable, safe environment may not be enough for a reserved employee to open up in front of others. In that case, offering a written option may be helpful.

“‘Brain-writing’ is a good way to encourage ideas, and helps quieter members feel more comfortable about sharing their thoughts,” the Commercial Appeal advises. “Members write their ideas on index cards (sometimes prepared before the meeting so the handwriting won’t be recognized). The facilitator then reads the ideas from each card and members are encouraged to build on the ideas or add their own as they’re motivated by what they hear.”

Another alternative to the traditional brainstorming process involves combining individual creativity with the group dynamic into a “hybrid” model.

In this technique, “you let your employees go off by themselves and do some heavy thinking and idea-generating on their own before presenting such notions to their peers in a group dynamic setting,” Entrepreneur.com explains. “This hybrid process can loosely be compared to the concept of ‘think before you act.’ Initial ideas from individuals are also important because they are generally unbiased opinion. Providing employees with a ‘sole’ searching opportunity results in a better class of ideas and a larger number of quality solutions to whatever input the company was seeking…”

Earlier: Clever Ideas for Creative Thinking

Resources

Why Brainstorming Doesn’t Work
by Margaret Heffernan
BNET.com, May 18, 2011

Collaborative Fixation: Effects of Others’ Ideas on Brainstorming
by Nicholas W. Kohn and Steven M. Smith
Applied Cognitive Psychology, March 29, 2010

What is Brainstorming Really, and Does it Work?
by Ronald E. Riggio
Psychology Today, Aug. 17, 2011

Eight Tips for Better Brainstorming
by Robert Sutton
Bloomberg BusinessWeek, July 26, 2006

Brainstorming: Generating Many Radical, Creative Ideas
Mindtools

Working Best: How to Make Brainstorming Succeed
by Bill Repp
The Commercial Appeal, Sept. 3, 2011

Brainstorming Might Hinder Great Ideas
by Mikal E. Belicove
Entrepreneur.com, May 20, 2010