This week, I want to share my long-standing relationship with brainstorming – a skill that became central to my work as ‘The Turnaround Guy,’ one of a small number of specialists who work with independent businesses and non-profits in crisis. While I also worked with healthy organizations, turnaround work became my primary focus – and The Turnaround Guy my registered trademark – for most of my career. With a high success rate (only a handful of failures out of over a hundred projects), my secret weapon was always the same: Brainstorming.
When I started doing turnaround work, brainstorming suddenly became much more than just a tool – in many cases it became the sole means to these companies’ survival. In a turnaround there is no cash or credit to buy advertising, for example, so my clients and I became guerrilla marketers – using brainstorming to dream up ways to do ‘impossible’ things with virtually nothing – and in no time.
But there was a catch: effective brainstorming isn’t just a good idea, it’s a discipline. It has structure, and a few non-negotiable rules. Helping clients play by those rules was always a challenge. Turnaround clients were easiest to work with. They played by the rules simply because they had no choice. My clients who were not in crisis had a much harder time sticking to the rules thanks to the absence of that pressure – and, assuming that your business or organization is healthy and well – you can expect to encounter the same challenge. So. Let’s begin with a quick overview of what I call…
The Seven Rules of Effective Brainstorming…
Rule One – Make your topic crystal clear, and limit brainstorming to one major topic per session. Unless you have small additional topics that need attention, it is good practice to focus all the group’s creative energy on a single issue or opportunity.
Rule Two – Wild and Whacky wins the race. Encourage participants to let their imagination loose. The silliest idea may contain the seed of a fantastic solution.
Rule Three – No criticism or discussion of ideas is allowed as they are presented. Instruct participants to suspend judgment – to wait until the evaluation stage – before criticizing or getting into discussion. Yes, we’re allowed to offer positive reinforcement (e.g. “That’s a great idea!”) but with no elaboration at this stage, unless someone offers a new idea triggered by the original).
Key point: Criticizing ideas at this stage sends a message to everyone that brainstorming is not safe, and it’s better to keep silent – especially when it’s the leader who breaks the rule. When it happens – and it will – you will feel the creative energy drain away and the free flow of ideas seize.)
Rule Four – Create a ‘Laptop-free zone.’ Record ideas on whiteboards and ‘sticky’ flip chart pads of paper so they can be seen visually and used for reference, while keeping everyone focused on brainstorming rather than typing.
Rule Five – Build on each others’ ideas. After each new idea is recorded ask the group if anyone has a ‘trigger idea’ inspired by the original.
Rule Six – Stay focused. Traction can slip into dis-traction in seconds. Again, as leader and facilitator it’s on you to keep yourself on track and to steer the group back to brainstorming when they veer into discussion or wander off topic.
Rule Seven – Get firm commitments on action steps to be taken. When action planning, ask ‘who commits’ to do ‘what’ by ‘when’ in leading or executing particular initiatives. The goal is to ensure that action steps are fully implemented, in a timely fashion, by determining who commits to being accountable.
Special note: I share a number of examples of turnarounds fueled by effective brainstorming in other posts in this series. If you’re new with us I encourage you to review my previous posts at www.neilgodin.com.
Tipz, trix and very best practices
- Before your brainstorm meetings
- Be crystal clear about the topic or goal of each session
- Tackle just one issue or opportunity at each session
- Circulate the topic in advance
- Ask someone who is not in the brainstorm group to be your recorder – the person who writes ideas on the flip chart sheets and/or whiteboards – so you can focus on facilitating the meeting. Be sure they can write quickly and clearly (test their skill if necessary).
- Ask invitees to bring an idea or two with them as thought-starters
- Invite people to participate who are not directly affected, if appropriate
- Post the rules for effective brainstorming on poster size flip chart sheet
- Highlight Rule #3 – no criticism or discussion as ideas are presented – ask those who want to comment or critique to make a note of their comments or criticism for use later
- Use whiteboards and/or poster-size sticky flip chart paper for recording ideas
- Ask participants ‘not’ to record ideas in their laptops, as it takes time and attention away from brainstorming – and because we want to keep all ideas visible and available to be chosen during the evaluation and consensus-forming stages
- When ideas are presented that don’t fit the topic but are worth remembering, ask your recorder to post another flip chart sheet just for these off-topic ideas.
- At the close of each session, photograph all whiteboards and/or flip chart sheets for future reference – and circulate these to participants if appropriate
2. During the meeting
Introduce/review the rules of the road
- Again, focus on Rule Three, no critique or discussion of ideas is allowed during brainstorming. As the meeting leader and facilitator you must hold participants to this rule, because when an idea is shot down its presenter is shot down as well; the session almost always veers off track, and focus is hard to regain.
- Ideas must be recorded verbatim but abbreviations are accepted and necessary
- If someone has a question, comment or warning, ask them to rephrase it as an idea. (Instead of describing a problem they have with an idea, ask them to present an idea on how it could be overcome.
- No cutting each other off, talking over – or taking over. Most groups I worked with contained at least one member who tried (unintentionally) to dominate the proceedings. I would typically meet with the leader and the team member later – and explain the importance of playing by the rules – in order to ensure that the ideas of less assertive members are heard.
- Out of ideas? Try our ‘Write-down Game.’ When the room goes quiet it is easy to assume that the group is out of ideas – but that is rarely the case. To find out I developed a little exercise that tricks us into getting creative again.
It works this way: You simply say that you want to run a little test to see if we’re really out of ideas – or not. Instruct the group that – “when I say GO – they have 60 seconds to write down at least one idea that has not yet been presented – and preferably more. When 60 seconds is up, announce that you’re adding another 60 seconds as a bonus and ask them to keep writing down ideas. Then go round-robin, asking each person to share their first idea. Then go round again – and again, if there are still more ideas to listen to and record. You will discover – as I did, again and again – that we are rarely out of ideas, we’re just not used to brainstorming – and when we speak to ourselves, privately on a piece of paper – we tend to open up again.
- Ask everyone to act as a peer coach. Ask participants to remind each other when the session goes off track, with comments like, “We’re getting into discussion…We’re going off topic…Let’s get back on track,”
3. Drill down and get creative
- Ask leading questions that take us deeper. For example, “Let’s brainstorm ways we could somehow do this without spending money…” or “Just for fun, let’s brainstorm ways we could do this that we think would be impossible – with no judgment or criticism allowed.”
- The idea is to drive creative, off the wall thinking by asking the group to generate ideas they wouldn’t ordinarily even entertain – or may have been embarrassed to suggest.
- You are driving and focusing creativity with these approaches.
4. The Evaluation Stage
- The quickest way I found to evaluate the ideas presented was to avoid or minimize discussion.
- Instead, ask all participants, yourself included, to go up to the whiteboard and/or flip chart sheets; review the ideas presented and initial their Top Three. Then circle the three ideas that attract the most initials. In this way no one’s ideas are rejected, they are simply not chosen.
5. The consensus forming stage.
- If only the owner(s) and senior managers will be making final decisions, it is now time to thank participants and close the session with a commitment to share the outcome.
- Say that you will advise everyone of actions that will be taken as a result of the session.
- If the whole group is tasked with making choices, it is now time to allow discussion – including questions, objections and opinions, even passionate endorsement of (or opposition to) specific ideas.
- I used a quick test of support for specific ideas by asking if anyone would be opposed if we chose that option.
- If there was real enthusiasm for an idea, and no opposition, I announced that we had consensus. If there was luke warm opposition, I asked those opposed if they could live with that decision. If ‘yes’ I usually declared that we had consensus, but I had a voice as well and would lobby for or against a particular initiative, usually based on my experience elsewhere. As leader of the session you can do the same but your favourite idea(s) has to stand the test of enthusiastic support as well.
- Do all you can to make sure no one leaves the meeting strongly opposed to what has been decided.
Special Note: I explained that when I think of consensus I think of two elements: First, I think of ‘consensus’ like conducting an opinion poll, and Second, I think of ‘consentsus’ like giving our consent to something we’re not terribly enthusiastic about, but are willing to accept without resistance.)
6. The action-planning stage
- If only the owner(s) and senior managers will be deciding next steps, it is now time to thank participants and close the session.
- If the whole group is tasked with action-planning, it is now time to decide ‘who’ commits to do ‘what’ by ‘when’ to implement the actions chosen by consensus.
- Go through the initiatives that gained support and ask for volunteers.
- The goal is to have someone champion each initiative and ensure implementation occurs in a timely fashion, and that action plans aren’t stalled or derailed.
7. Planning follow-through
- As leader you are ‘the’ key to success in implementation of action plans.
- If implementation is to be handled by members of the special brainstorm group, meet with each member and help them craft or review their action plans.
- The same group should meet again to report on progress and assist members who are dealing with obstacles to implementation by brainstorming solutions.
- If follow through/implementation will be handled by members of the management team, work with members individually to plan and monitor action and reporting.
- Also arrange to meet in a special meeting(s) if needed.
Your call to action:
This week the call to action is our old favorite from Nike: ‘Just do it.’ Schedule a brainstorm meeting. Pick a persistent problem that you’d really like to solve – or a goal that you’d love to achieve – and away you go.
See you next week.
Neil
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