One of the most effective ways to promote and ensure innovation is to encourage employees to collaborate and brainstorm together. In this sense, workplaces should provide spaces for the exchange of creative ideas in which managers and employees can innovate effectively.
Companies must continually make decisions and look for alternatives to certain problems and procedures to improve their processes. This is where brainstorming comes into play: the most effective technique to address such situations and generate innovative and effective solutions to a problem by linking concepts generated by different people in a team.
What is brainstorming?
Brainstorming is the interaction between team members to create new ideas on a specific topic. The interaction between the different members of the group enhances creativity and generates ideas that, working individually, would not be possible.
How to apply effective brainstorming in companies?
However, a poorly organized brainstorming can cause demotivation in your team and prevent the search for solutions; while a well-implemented one can mean, for example, the success of the next campaign or make the best business decision.
Based on their experience of teamwork in workspace management, Gran Via Business & Meeting Center tells you what you need to know in order to carry out a brainstorming session correctly.
Forming the work team
As it is a group technique, it is necessary to form a working group. The recommendation is that it should not exceed 10 people. It is necessary to choose a person to lead the group. His/her role will be that of mediator and note-taker of ideas.
Define the place and time for the session.
Before starting the brainstorming session, it is important to have a suitable space for it. It is best to do it in a relaxed atmosphere. The environment directly affects the mood of people and this is crucial to give way to creativity and inspiration.
It is at this point where Gran Via BC takes advantage of the performance of the environment offered by its workspaces and that are needed for a brainstorming session to be effective. These workspaces, located in the heart of Barcelona, are designed to foster a collaborative atmosphere and allow the creativity of a team to flow.
Breaking the ice
Before starting brainstorming, it is necessary to break the ice between the participants of the session. This is important to foster better creative functioning during brainstorming and to avoid possible tensions among team members.
For this purpose, it may be useful to play games or integration dynamics. Once the team has relaxed, it is time to start generating ideas that can solve the problem that will be posed.
Defining the problem
It is essential to clarify the issue to be addressed in order to avoid deviating from the path and to generate ideas aimed at solving the problem. At this point, the most useful thing to do is to be concrete and stick to what really matters.
Brainstorming is all about getting as many ideas as possible, and yes, it doesn’t matter the quality (at first). It is important to be tolerant with the ideas that come up, they may not convince everyone, but they should be noted down without exception, without limits or restrictions.
Select the best ideas
It is time to vote for the ideas that best solve the problem. It is best to start by rating the ideas independently and then select the best rated ones. You can use a scale from 0 to 5 to rate each idea.
It is advisable to end up with the 2 or 3 ideas that best help to solve the problem; also the one that best suits the needs you expect to cover.
Creativity, innovation and differentiation are elements that every company seeks and needs nowadays. Brainstorming can be very useful to get something really different and that surprises customers and users.