Suggestions for Better Brainstorming

 
For most firms, a high level of creativity serves as a key asset. The challenge: How to become more creative. With that in mind, we turn to suggestions for better brainstorming.

To read some of our prior posts on creativity, click here.

Suggestions for Better Brainstorming in Marketing Pitches

For these suggestions, we turn to Lindsay Kolowich Cox, writing for HubSpot:

The best way to get the creative juices flowing isn’t by sitting your team around a conference table and asking them to shout out ideas as they come to them. It’s by creating an atmosphere that breaks people out of their traditional mindset.

Here are a few creative ways to help liven up your brainstorming sessions to improve your team’s output of ideas.

1. 1. Come up with bad ideas first. One way to loosen people up and get the ideas flowing? Start out brainstorming sessions by spending 10 minutes coming up with a bunch of bad ideas first.
   2. Break and build ideas. One way to turn a few ideas into many is by breaking them down or building them up.
   3. Play word games. If you’re trying to get out of an idea rut, try adding a few games to your meeting to drum up some out-of-the-box thinking.
   4. Create a mood board. A mood board is simply a random collection of images, words, and textures focused on one topic, theme, or idea.
   5. Play improv games. Nothing gets the creative juices flowing like a little improvisation.
   6. Doodle. Did you know that doodling can help spur creative insight, increase attention span, and free up short- and long-term memory?
   7. Change your physical environment. Where you conduct your brainstorming sessions may have an affect on the ideas your team comes up with.
   8. Don’t invite too many people. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has a rule when it comes to meetings that applies to brainstorms too: Don’t invite more people than could be fed by two pizzas.

To read a lot more from HubSpot, click the image. For a video overview, watch the summary that follows the image.