Brainstorming 2.0- the hidden benefits of doing this well (or “why the idea of underwater pet spas needs to be discussed”)
Brainstorming sessions can be pretty crappy. As a leader, you envision a cornucopia of ideas, earth-shattering, kick-butt ideas that will move the company in a bold new direction. Instead, your team goes down rabbit trails that would confuse even Alice, fall into groupthink quicker than a flock of sheep. You’re left sitting there with a strained smile, nodding appreciatively while someone suggests opening a chain of underwater pet spas, complete with tiny scuba gear for goldfish. Knowing that, I still think your team should be doing these exercises regularly. Here’s why.
In a prior newsletter we looked at some of the challenges of group brainstorming sessions and discussed ways we can make this a more productive exercise for everyone.
Beyond the generation of actionable ideas, including your team in brainstorming exercises has a number of other lesser-appreciated but very important benefits that deserve recognition. Even if the session doesn’t yield the tangible results you are hoping for, your team might come out stronger on the other side for several reasons.
Here are just a few:
- Crazy ideas get released into the wild: We all have crazy ideas that we hold on to. Most of them probably are crazy and it’s not until we vocalize them that we realize they are such and should be abandoned. However, the occasional crazy idea is actually a game changing idea, or maybe it leads to an actual game changing idea. Either way, it’s good to release those into the wild and see what happens to them.
Crazy ideas deserve to be released into the wild
- Increased ownership and buy-in: Giving people responsibility and roles makes them feel a sense of ownership and commitment to the success of the company.
- Fostering innovation culture: Encouraging new ideas and contribution helps promote continuous improvement and a forward thinking attitude.
- Increased engagement: Involvement in these kinds of exercises helps team members feel valued and heard
- Identifying hidden talents: More than once during these exercises I’ve been surprised by skills and knowledge in individuals that I would never have expected and that we weren’t leveraging. It’s always good when we explore the hidden talents in our team members.
- Morale boost: It’s just plain fun for some people to break out of the monotony of daily tasks and do something creative and different. If done correctly, these exercises can be a nice morale boost for your team.
Brainstorming sessions are not just about generating ideas. They’re also about improving your team and building an innovative culture. Doing this is a force multiplier for your company. We often wrongly assume that our team feels engaged, that their ideas are being heard. But it’s usually the exact opposite, with teammates wanting more engagement and involvement in shaping the company. As leaders, it’s better to err on the side of engaging your team frequently rather than waiting until morale or company culture is affected. While there are many ways to increase engagement and buy-in, I recommend regular brainstorming sessions as a powerful strategy to achieve unique results from your team.
In a followup newsletter I’ll follow up with some thoughts from chatGPT on this topic, including a proposed framework, suggested prompts, and more. Stay tuned!
References:
- “Why Brainstorming doesn’t work”, by Adam Grant
- Mullen, B., Johnson, C., & Salas, E. (1991). Productivity Loss in Brainstorming Groups: A Meta-Analytic Integration. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 12(1), 3–23. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324834basp1201_1
- “Why Group Brainstorming is a waste of time”, by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
- “Ideation in Practice: How Effective UX Teams Generate Ideas“, by Aurora Harley
- Paul B Paulus, Huei-Chuan Yang,
Idea Generation in Groups: A Basis for Creativity in Organizations,
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Volume 82, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 76-87, ISSN 0749-5978,
