The document outlines seven key strategies for conducting effective brainstorming sessions to enhance idea generation. These strategies emphasize the importance of preparation, creating an inspirational environment, allowing individual thinking time, treating all ideas as equal, fostering competition, structuring the process into identification and selection stages, and having a clear follow-up plan. By implementing these strategies, organizations can ensure their brainstorming sessions yield meaningful and actionable results.

1. 7WAYSTORUNAN
EFFECTIVEBRAINSTORM
WORK WONDERS®

2. HOWTORUNANEFFECTIVEBRAINSTORM
Companiesallovertheworldoverarewastingtheir
timeinbrainstorms.Isthisbecausebrainstormsare
awasteoftime?No.
Brainstorms can be brilliant, but only if they’re run properly.
All too often they’re not and:
• staff are reluctant to take part
• preparation is usually poor or non-existent, with no
clear objective
• those with the loudest voices (or the most senior)
dominate the thinking
• the environment isn’t always conducive to fresh
thinking or idea generation
As a creative ideas company, one that’s into Co-Creative idea
generation in a big way, we’ve run a lot of brainstorms and
creative thinking workshops.
From experience, we’ve narrowed things down to seven
essential strategies that will ensure a more effective
brainstorm with brilliant outputs.
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3. BRAINSTORMSCANBEBRILLIANT,
BUTONLYIFTHEY’RERUNPROPERLY
“ ”WORK WONDERS®

4. #1
ALWAYSPREPAREAND
HAVEACLEAROBJECTIVE
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5. 1. ALWAYSPREPAREANDHAVEACLEAROBJECTIVE
We’veallbeenthere.Thebrainstorm
whereeveryonesitsaroundandthe
organiserofthemeetingleapsuptothe
flipchartandsayssomethinglike,“We
needsomeideastoensurecustomers
engagewithusnotourcompetitors.
Who’dliketostart?”.
Everyone just sits there in silence as the tumbleweeds
roll through the room.
To avoid this, it’s essential that your brainstorms are
well planned, given a clear timeframe and have a clear
objective. The tighter the objective, the better the
ideas will be, as the thinking will be more focused.
For example, if the objective is to increase sales, such
a broad objective will be difficult for attendees to
know how to pinpoint their thinking. If the objective
is ‘how do we increase sales of brand X to people
between the age of 25 and 35 who are outdoor
enthusiasts’ then the clarity of that objective will
ensure the meeting generates ideas more easily.
So plan well and have a clear objective to get your
brainstorm off to a flying start.
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6. #2
CREATEANINSPIRATIONAL
ENVIROMENT
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7. 2. CREATEANINSPIRATIONALENVIRONMENT
Alltoooften,brainstormstakeplacein
meetingroomsthattheattendeesare
alittletoofamiliarwith.Liketheboard
room,whereyourbossconductsyour
annualappraisal.
This can be a creativity killer. These rooms may be
associated with more functional corporate activities,
which can be a barrier.
Our recommendation would be to brainstorm in a
different environment. This signals the intent and the
importance of the session. A change of scene is really
important to creativity.
If you can’t work in a different location, think about
how you can dress the room you are working in to
make it more fun, relevant and engaging – one that
fits with the objective of the brainstorm.
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8. #3
ALLOWFORINDIVIDUAL
THINKINGTIME
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9. 3. ALLOWFORINDIVIDUALTHINKINGTIME
Acommonbrainstormingmistakeis
toexpecteveryonetostarthaving
ideasimmediately.Bydoingthisyou’re
essentiallyindangeroflosingthe
effectivenessofthemeeting.
The extroverts in the room will be fighting to speak
immediately and do as much talking as they can. The
introverts will sit there in silence, needing space, calm
and individual thinking time to develop their own
thoughts. A good brainstorm needs time to develop.
So once you’ve set out the objective of the brainstorm,
give everyone 15 minutes thinking time to write down
their initial ideas and thoughts. Calm will beset the
room and ideas will start to flow.
It’ll be the longest 15 minutes of their life for the
extroverts. As long as they know there’ll be plenty
of opportunities to shout out ideas for the remaining
part, they’ll be fine.
Another method that also works well here is splitting
people into small teams and asking them to discuss
the objective and present their initial ideas as a team.
Whichever route you go, individual or small team,
that first 15 minutes of thinking time will make a huge
difference to the outcome.
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10. #4
ALLIDEASAREEQUAL
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11. 4. ALLIDEASAREEQUAL
You’ve heard this one a million times
before. You’ve also experienced the
leader speaking first in a brainstorm
and everyone simply agreeing with
their ideas. Or the loudest person in
the room dominating with their input
and selling to the group why their
ideas are the best ones.
The net result of these scenarios is where does it take
you? Nowhere new.
As the moderator of the brainstorm, it’s vital you
create a culture of all ideas are equal and recognise
that all ideas are good ideas. So create a comfortable
environment for all attendees to speak whatever their
personality types or relative seniority in the room.
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12. #5
CREATESOMECOMPETITION
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13. 5. CREATESOMECOMPETITION
A technique that works well to
accelerate the idea development
is to split attendees into teams and
createamoodofgentlecompetitionto
createthebestidea.Werecommend
amaximumoffiveperteam.
If all attendees have the opportunity to place their
individual vote against the final ideas shortlist, then
one idea will become the most liked idea of the
day. We’ve run workshops with toddlers, students,
scientists, engineers and OAPs – whether we had
a prize for the winning team’s idea or not, the element
of competition really seems to get things going!
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14. #6
FOLLOWTHETWOSTAGES
OFIDEASDEVELOPMENT
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15. 6. FOLLOWTHETWOSTAGESOFIDEASDEVELOPMENT
Everybrainstormneedstobestructured
intotwostages:Identificationand
Selection.SameasDarwin’stheoryof
evolution,noless.
In any brainstorm, the first stage needs to be
Identification. Identification focuses on generating as
many ideas as possible, without judging any of them.
In the Identification stage all ideas are good ideas.
The second stage of the brainstorm is Selection. This
is where all the ideas are considered again, and tested
and refined against the objectives of the workshop.
The Selection stage creates a shortlist of the most
viable ideas. These ideas can then be taken forward
for more robust evaluation and development at a later
date against a development plan.
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16. #7
HAVEACLEARPLANFOR
FOLLOWUP
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17. 7. HAVEACLEARPLANFORFOLLOWUP
Attheendofthebrainstorm,“It’snot
howbigyourideais,butwhatyoudo
withit.”
If you’ve had a successful meeting, you now have lots
of ideas and everyone leaves the room buoyant. If
nothing happens after that though, the attendees will
soon be asking themselves what was the point? And
they’ll be acceptably reluctant to attend another of
your workshops.
If you’re going to run a brainstorm, it’s important you
have a development plan for how the ideas will make
it off the flip chart pages and into the real world.
Maybe you’ll arrange a ‘next steps’ meeting? Or assign
ideas to individuals or teams to develop? Whatever
you choose, having a development plan will make all
the difference!
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18. IT’SNOTHOWBIGYOURIDEA
IS,BUTWHATYOUDOWITHIT
“ ”WORK WONDERS®

19. TRANSFORMATIONTHROUGH
HUMANCONNECTION
AUTHOR
Richard Sharp
Co-founder Creative Partner
Richard has over 20 years experience creating and building
brands in some of the UK’s top creative agencies, including
Jaywing, Tequila and as Executive Creative Director at
TBWAManchester.
With a belief in the power of ideas – how they can travel, how they
can instigate change, how they are at the heart of every success-
ful brand – Richard gets stuck into sourcing the very best ideas,
transforming customer insights and collaboration into impactful
creative results.
WORK WONDERS®
TRANSFORMATIONTHROUGH
HUMANCONNECTION
AUTHOR
Richard Sharp
Co-founder Creative Partner
Richard has over 20 years experience creating and building
brands in some of the UK’s top creative agencies, including
Jaywing, Tequila and as Executive Creative Director at
TBWAManchester.
With a belief in the power of ideas – how they can travel, how they
can instigate change, how they are at the heart of every success-
ful brand – Richard gets stuck into sourcing the very best ideas,
transforming customer insights and collaboration into impactful
creative results.
WORK WONDERS®