If you’ve ever tried to do any type of brainstorming with a group—something where you come together to share ideas in the hopes that you’ll come away with some exciting new projects or improvements—you’ve likely found that three things always happen in those meetings:
1. The talkers dominate the conversation.
2. The “here’s why this won’t work” debate bogs down the meeting.
3. You end up with a lot fewer—if any—ideas that the group is excited to jump in and actually start working on.
At Collegewise, we use a system that avoids those pitfalls.
I spent yesterday meeting with my business partners and some key Collegewise counselors with one goal: to leave the meeting with a list of offerings for our new training division. It was a big goal for just four hours of meeting time. But we managed to stay focused with minimum counterproductive debate. And most importantly, we finished that meeting with the list of ideas we needed.
Here’s how we do group brainstorming.
1. Set a speaking order.
The best way to ensure that everyone—not just those who like to talk—gets to contribute their ideas is to set a speaking order and stick with it. One person can be the moderator who serves up the questions and discussion points. But you always stick with the order. Anyone who has nothing to say about a particular point can just say “pass,” knowing full well that their turn will come around again once the speaking cycle completes.
2. Brainstorm without judgment.
Start the brainstorming process by going around the circle and allowing each person to contribute one idea. Push people to share only the idea—no context, defense, or details necessary. And here’s the key—every idea goes up on the board. At this stage, nobody can ask questions unless they fundamentally don’t understand what to write on the board. This is not the time to criticize, to push back, or to ask the person to defend their idea. No matter how radical or uncomfortable the idea may be, it goes on the board. It’s brainstorming without judgment. Ideas must be presented succinctly in summary form. Do not allow details or debate to bog down the process. The more ruthless you are about enforcing that point, the more momentum you’ll gain as the group embraces the brainstorming without judgment.
The cycle continues until the group runs out of ideas. Now, you’ll likely have a long list of ideas on the board. Give everyone a few minutes to review the list. If necessary, a member can ask a clarifying question if he or she genuinely does not understand what’s written on the board. But the moderator must enforce that ideas can only be clarified, not defended, at this point.
3. Ask each member to pick their top choices.
Depending on how many ideas are on the board, ask each member to review the list and pick a specific number of ideas that they are most interested in pursuing. A group of 5 people can probably pick 2-3 ideas, and 10 people can probably pick 4-6.
4. Go around the room and have everyone name his or her top choices.
Put a check-mark next to each idea that’s mentioned. The more checks next to a particular idea, the more support that suggestion has from the group.
5. Identify and discuss your top ideas.
Now you’ll have a short list of ideas that the group has agreed to pursue. You can debate the specifics of how exactly to execute it, but the decision of whether or not to pursue it has already been made. You can now spend your time focusing on how to do it rather than arguing about what to do.