4 Tips To Promote Innovative Brainstorming
Your employees don’t need to raise their IQ’s to become masters at brainstorming creative solutions. From creating fire in a cave to building the first computer, humans have been innovating for a long time. So, take advantage of the creative abilities that your employees naturally have! Here are our top four tips and tricks to helping your employees brainstorm for innovative and effective solutions.
Separate Logic From Creativity
Even if their ideas don’t seem completely cohesive, talk about them and jot them down! Brainstorming is about generating ideas, and even the most seemingly illogical thoughts can lead to something brilliant. We just had a brainstorming session at the office to generate ideas for an advertising campaign and some of the most random words and phrases ended up being the springboard for some really unique ideas. Don’t make your employees afraid to say something that doesn’t seem completely logical because you never know what creative path it might lead your group down!
Allow Everyone To Make Mistakes
“The only sure way to avoid making mistakes is to have no new ideas.” -Albert Einstein
If your employees are worried about the mistakes when they’re brainstorming, remind them that the only mistake they can make is not mentioning an idea. Remind your employees that the worst thing that can happen if their idea isn’t on the right track is that the group will realize it’s not the best idea and move on to a better one. If your employees aren’t generating ideas at all, the group is no closer to finding a solution. Help your employees come up with lots of potential solutions before focusing on finding THE solution.
Encourage Confidence In Their Own Ideas
If someone questions one of your ideas, it’s easy to think that your idea was bad and to be discouraged from contributing in the future. Build up your employees’ confidence by respecting everyone’s ideas and asking your employees to explain their thought processes while the rest of the group listens. Every original idea seems crazy at first because no one’s ever had or used the idea before. Even if it turns out that their idea isn’t the best one, remember that making and listening to suggestions is the only way that your employees can grow as creative thinkers. If your employees aren’t confident in their creative abilities, they won’t have a chance at being able to generate solid ideas or solve problems.
Don’t Overanalyze The Problem
It’s entirely possible to think about a problem so much that your group can’t move forward with finding a solution. My math teachers in grade school told me before every test, “If you get stuck on a question, move on to the next one and come back later.” Brainstorming is exactly the same; your employees are not going to get anywhere by stressing themselves out about a challenge. If your brainstorming group is struggling with an idea, make them take a break! Send them to work on something else for a while until they can come back to the problem with fresh minds.
Christine is the Social Media Manager at The Discovery Communications Group. She graduated with a degree in Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University, where she is currently working on her Master's degree in Marketing. After spending the past few years working in various sales and marketing roles, she joined the DCG team to help them manage their social communities.
