Brilliant Brainstorming

From years of facilitating, we know that Brainstorming requires skill and experience. Here are some tips.
• Don’t brainstorm if people live in fear. If people believe they will be teased, demoted, fired, or otherwise humiliated, brainstorming won’t work.
• Brainstorming instructions are essential for creative idea output. "Quantity breeds Quality” has proven correct and deferring evaluation of initial ideas, is the key to successful brainstorming.
• Set a specific, difficult target for the number of creative ideas per person. Difficult targets consistently produce more high-quality ideas than unmotivated brainstorming.
• Individuals, not groups, should generate initial ideas. Group interaction may cause people to forget some of their ideas and to rehearse only a few while waiting for others to express theirs.
• Use group interaction to amalgamate and refine the individuals’ initial ideas. Groups of five or seven work best. Going around the room focus on reasons pros and cons for each idea rather than a final evaluation.
• Individuals, voting privately, should make the final selection. Individual voting for final idea selection is better for predicting successful ideas, especially for increasing commitment to them.
• Time should be kept short: Try fifteen minutes for initial idea generation, and totaling two hours with refined idea production and selection. Incubation” over longer periods is not necessary.