BRAINSTORMING WORKBOOK Lead your team with effective brainstorming techniques. Share This Ebook!
INTRODUCTION Effective marketing starts with great ideas. But you can t be effective when you don t know how to start. We wrote a workbook to help you lead your team in purposeful brainstorming. It will take you through activties that will hel you: Generate ideas Develop the ideas so it s better Problem solve for the best solution Refine your solutions to make it realistic Simplify a complex idea Whether you need a good starting place or you re out of ideas, this workbook will help you brainstorm ideas to accomplish your goals.
TABLE OF CONTENTS GENERATE Create a large quantity of ideas 1-3, 4, 6 DEVELOP Push an idea so it s even better 4 PROBLEM SOLVE Find the best solution 5-11, 12 REFINE Make a crazy idea realistic 13 SIMPLIFY Make a complex idea simple 12, 14
PAPER AIRPLANES This brainstorming technique is meant to create a large quantity of ideas by building on the ideas of others. 1. Each person creates a paper airplane 2. Each person writes an idea down on the airplane and sends it flying to another person 3. Upon reading what has been written on the airplane, a new idea or modification to the previous idea is written on the airplane and then is sent flying to someone else 4. Continue for 20 minutes and then collect and categorize the ideas 1
SPIN THE BOTTLE Every member of the team gets a chance to offer multiple ideas on this fast-paced exercise. 1. Get a supply of bottles and have your small teams sit on the floor in circles, each with a bottle in the center 2. Spin the bottle 3. The person that the bottle points at blurts out an idea 4. The team explores the idea for a short time (three minutes) 5. Repeat until everyone in the group has had multiple blurts 2
WALL OF IDEAS The Wall of Ideas helps you create, collect and organize ideas by using post-it notes and sticking them on a wall. 1. Each person silently writes on post-it notes 2. The leader collects the post-it notes and reads them aloud 3. Then the group, as a whole, goes up to the wall and sorts the ideas in a meaningful way 4. The leader labels each set of ideas with a topic card and pastes it over the idea set 5. The ideas may be elaborated upon by adding additional post-its 6. To prioritize ideas, each person receives 10 sticky dots and is asked to place them on the ideas they want to follow through on (they can place as many as they like on an idea) 7. The final ideas are typed up and distributed to each of the participants 3
APPLIED IMAGINATION Challenge even your best ideas by asking the following questions: PUT TO OTHER USES New ways to use as is? Other uses modified? ADAPT What else is like this? What other idea does this suggest? Does the past offer parallel? What could I copy? Whom could I emulate? MODIFY New twist? Change meaning, color, motion, sound, odor, form, shape? Other shapes? MAGNIFY What to add? More time? Greater frequency? Stronger? Higher? Longer? Thicker? Extra value? Plus ingredient? Duplicate? Multiply? REVERSE Transpose positive and negative? How about opposites? Turn it backward? Turn it upside down? Reverse roles? Change shoes? Turn tables? COMBINE A blend, assortment, ensemble? Combine units? Combine purposes? Combine appeals? Combine ideas? REARRANGE Interchange components? Other pattern? Other layout? Other sequence? Transpose cause and effect? Change pace? Change schedule? MINIFY What to subtract? Smaller? Condensed? Miniature? Lower? Shorter? Lighter? Omit? Streamline? Split up? Understate? SUBSTITUTE Who else instead? What else instead? Other ingredient? Other material? Other process? Other power? Other place? Other approach? Other tone of voice? 4
BRAINWRITING Brainwriting is a form of non-oral brainstorming where participants write down ideas for solving a problem and pass on their papers to their neighbors who then brainstorm the ideas. The purpose is to build on the ideas of others, to improve them. 1. A packet of papers is given to each participant; each packet has a theme and all packets are different 2. Participants look through their packets for a few minutes 3. The problem in the packet is presented to the group 4. Each participant is given a sheet of paper from the packet and asked to write down their ideas for solving the problem 5. Then they pass their idea sheet to their neighbor on the left 6. After reading their neighbor s ideas, the participant writes down how they would improve upon or expand the ideas 7. The process is repeated until all participants have written their ideas on each other s idea sheets 8. The leader reads the ideas out loud and writes them on a large sheet of paper 9. Discussion of ideas follow 5
RANDOM WORDS This technique produces a wide variety of ideas by using random words to generate new and unpredictable thoughts. In order to get original ideas, you may need a way to redirect your mind. The random word technique helps to move your mind in a new direction and create an entirely new string of thoughts. This helps generate an almost infinite number of new ideas. There are several ways to select a random word: Random Words List: Create a list of random words and choose one Random Draw: Cut up your list and draw a word from a box Dictionary: Open a dictionary to any page, close your eyes and choose a word by putting your finger on one Other: Use the dictionary technique with other printed resources When you have chosen your random word: 1. List the characteristics Write up a list of a variety of things that you associate with your word 2. Force connections Make a forced connection between each characteristic and the challenge you are working on 3. What is its essence? What s the principle or essence of your random word? Repeat this process for five words, giving yourself five minutes per word. 6
CUE THE AIRPLANES When you are actively engaged in solving a problem, your attention is narrowly focused and your range of awareness is likely to be relatively constricted. Only a narrow range of information is looked at and utilized at any moment. Bringing in information from outside sources may provide hints and cues that expand your focus and make you think about the problem in a new way 1. Ask each participant to silently write down three to four ideas on a sheet of paper about the subject being considered; title the sheet Ideas 2. On a separate sheet, ask participants to list their thoughts about the subject and title the sheet Cues For example: the characteristics, components and wishes about the problem and any obstacles, absurd ideas, and so on. Use a stream of consciousness technique and write everything that comes to mind. 3. Have everyone take the Cues sheet and construct a paper airplane out of it 4. At any given signal, everyone flies their paper airplane to another part of the room 5. Everyone picks up someone else s airplane, takes the new cues and uses them to improve or elaborate on their original ideas 7
180-DEGREE THINKING The goal of this activity is to intentionally create horrible ideas. Bad ideas can bring out good ideas. Here s how it works: 1. Start by brainstorming a list of bad ideas 2. Brainstorm ways to make them good Benefits of 180-Degree Thinking Disengages the rational mind Beyond traditional thinking Easy and fun Eliminates fear of being wrong Builds failure into the process, takes the pressure off Use this technique to loosen up 8
PARALLEL WORLDS This is a structured technique that helps you imagine comparisons, similarities, and even similar differences between subjects in other worlds. DIRECTIONS: EXAMPLES: 1. State your challenge A lumberyard owner wants to sell more lumber 2. Choose a key word in the challenge Sell 3. Choose a parallel world. The greater the distance between the world and your challenge, the greater chance you have at producing original ideas. 4. List the images and thoughts to associate with your parallel world The field selected to sell more lumber was computers Among the images evoked by the computer field are science, user-friendly, multiple uses, hardware, software, add-ons, computer schools, business uses, CAD and recreational uses 5. Draw analogies between the images and your subject. Look for similarities and connections. The lumberyard owner s final images/thoughts were computer add-ons, CAD, and recreational uses. The combination of the images with his challenge stirred an idea. The idea: Use CAD to design backyard decks, by providing a computerized system in the lumberyard where salespeople could design decks for customers.the customer would work with the salesperson to create a custom deck, the free service would encourage more people to build decks, and the lumberyard would sell more lumber. The parallel world should be something that you know about. 9
WORLD OF IMAGINATION Creative thinking is analogical, fantastical and associative. We could think of this kind of thinking as crystalline. Creative thinking if like heating the crystal; when heated through it turns to a liquid. In the liquid state, the probability of two remotely associated thoughts or concepts colliding and combining is tremendously increased. One way to move toward creative thinking when your thinking has crystallized is to forget your problem and take an imaginary excursion. You visualize an imaginary excursion into or through some time or location in history that has nothing to do with the problem and look for ways to make analogies between what you imagine and your problem. There are three major steps in the excursion process: 1. Excursion Visualize an imaginary excursion into or through some time or location that has nothing to do with the problem at hand. Write down detailed descriptions of everything you see and feel on your imaginary journey. 2. Analogies Draw analogies between what you saw and the problem. Try to force a connection between every description of things you saw or experienced on your imaginary journey and the subject. 3. Analysis Look for ways to use the analogies and relationships to solve the problem. The more you work at figuring out what these connections and relationships are, the greater your chances for a creative breakthrough. 10
ASK QUESTIONS Get to the bottom of a problem by digging into it. 1. Ask why a problem is occurring 2. Ask four more times FOR EXAMPLE: 1. Why has the machine stopped? A fuse blew because of an overload 2. Why was there an overload? There wasn t enough lubrication for the bearings 3. Why wasn t there enough lubrication? The pump wasn t pumping enough 4. Why wasn t lubrication being pumped? The pump shaft was vibrating as a result of abrasion 5. Why was there abrasion? There was no filter, allowing chips of material into the pump *Solution: Invent filter! 11
SIL SIL is a German acronym that means successive integration of problem elements. SIL is one of the many brainstorming techniques developed at the Battelle Institute in Frankfurt, Germany. It starts with silent individual generation of ideas about a previously stated problem. New ideas are then generated by progressively combining the individual. 1. Each individual in the group silently writes ideas 2. Two of the group members read their ideas aloud 3. The remaining group members try to combine the ideas into one idea 4. A third member reads an idea and the group attempts to combine it with the one formed in Step 3 5. This process continues until all the ideas have been read and combined into one final solution. While it may not be possible to integrate all ideas, it ensures that all ideas get a fair hearing. 12
PASS THE BUCK Transform the wild and whacked-out into practical, wicked-good ideas. Sometimes Pass the Buck produces a worldclass idea. Other times, it s simply an energizer or it shows how to find brilliance in the bizarre. 1. Divide into four groups and give each a Pass the Buck sheet: Absurd, exotic ideas The buck stops here Somewhat realistic A little more realistic 2. Each team fills in the first window and then passes the sheet on to the next group 3. After three passes, the buck stops with the final group 4. In the end, each team reads its sheet out loud from beginning to end 13
PMI (PLUS, MINUS, INTERESTING) PMI is an attention-directing exercise designed to help you see all the positive, negative and interesting aspects of an idea. To explore a subject with our intellect, we need to will ourselves to direct our attention in a different way. 1. Make three columns on a sheet of paper and title them: Plus, Minus and Interesting 2. Under the Plus column, list all the positive aspects of the idea that you can 3. Under the Minus column, list all the negative aspects of the idea that you can 4. Under the Interesting column, list all those things that are worth noting but do not fit under the previous categories At the end of the exploration, emotions and feelings can be used to make a decision about the matter. The difference is that now the emotions are applied after the exploration instead of being applied before and preventing exploration. With a PMI, one of three things may happen: 1. You may change your mind about the idea and decide it is viable 2. You may still reject an idea as unsound 3. You may move from one idea to another, recycling it into a new idea 14
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