Brainstorming: Make It Work for You

Brainstorming is a powerful tool and an excellent way to generate creative thought. Make it a habit!

The simple rules for a great session are:

• Gather a team with diverse perspectives, including volunteers, staff, clients etc.

• Create a non-threatening, comfortable environment.

• Define the problem or challenge.

• Set the parameters: any idea goes. No criticism or evaluations.

• Start a free flow of ideas; write them down, all of them, for everyone to see.

• Be creative, crazy, outlandish, simple, impossible – they are all welcome.

• Encourage “yes, and…” As everyone to avoid “no, but…”

• Allow everyone to participate.

• Stay focused.

• Keep moving. This is not the time to work out details or consider logistics.

• Don’t stop until you’ve exhausted the possibilities.

• Wait. Don’t start selecting yet. Keep the ideas posted and allow everyone time to absorb them.

Narrowing down your ideas
When you are ready to begin the selection process:

1. Post a clean list of all the ideas (eliminating duplicates only).

2. Ask all participants to mark their favorites. You can devise a coding system that suits your needs. You may use colored dots or a numbering system. The first round of selections should not be based on practicalities or ease of execution. BUT they should reflect your mission and goals.

3. Shorten the list based on the response and do it again.

4. At any stage you may decide to give out individual copies of the list and ask participants to make selections that way; this is important if you are concerned about peer (or any other kind) of pressure. These reviews are just for your team. If you have a good Team to start with you have representative opinions.

5. When you have a list that is a manageable size (3 – 8 ideas, depending on what it is) you can begin to rate them. You might adapt the Mission Meter to fit your needs and use it to measure the feasibility and appropriateness of each idea.

6. Be sure that every member of the team knows what the final ideas are. Together prepare a recommendation to the Board or whatever group needs to approve.

7. Share the final choice with everyone! Celebrate!

Do-It-Yourself Brainstorming

Brainstorming can be done alone also! To do it well you will need to allow time. Don’t start when you are tired or rushed. In fact, I recommend starting with a long walk (or a long shower), have the challenge on your mind but don’t force anything. Then get into a comfy spot with a cup of coffee, glass of wine or box of chocolates and a clean pad of paper. Now, write. And write. Just words or phrases. Let it flow freely. Doodle if it helps. But keep the ideas flowing. You could do it on a computer but I don’t recommend it, too much structure. You can do this before leading a brainstorming session so that you have your own rich list of ideas to throw into the mix. You may need some “out there” ideas just to get things going.

Brainstorming is useful for determining fundraising options.