Trails to Literacy: TOOLKIT

Action Tools - Planning & Problem Solving

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is one of the most commonly used group decision-making techniques. It is designed to generate a large number of creative ideas through an interactive, inclusive process. A brainstorm starts with a clear question, and ends with a list of ideas. That's what it does well - give you a ‘raw’ list of ideas. Some will be good, and some won't. But, if you try to analyze ideas in the brainstorming session, you will ruin the session. Wait. Later, you can analyze the results of a brainstorm with other tools. In particular, Affinity Diagrams are designed to sort a raw list, to begin to categorize these ideas.

A Structured Brainstorming can sometimes help a group get into the idea of brainstorming or can ensure that all members get a chance to provide ideas. It can be done as a round robin, where participants take turns shouting out ideas, passing when an idea does not come to mind quickly. Another way to ease into the technique is dividing the group into small groups of three or four. Brainstorming is done in this smaller unit, with all ideas generated being shared with the whole group later.

Guidelines:

• Make sure that all team members understand the objective of the brainstorming.
• Encourage active participation of all members.
• Develop a high energy, enthusiastic climate.
• Avoid discussing ideas as they are presented. Don’t criticize, compliment, etc.
• Encourage creative thinking, including far-out ideas.
• Build and expand on the ideas of others.
• Record all ideas exactly as presented on a flip chart. Try two ‘recorders’ to keep up with the pace.
• Avoid stopping when the ideas slow down. Rather, try to generate as long a list as possible.