Brainstorming is an essential tool for collaborative problem-solving. However, they seldom live up to expectations.
I believe most of us have been through some variation of the following brainstorming meeting:
your team has a thorny problem at hand, one that requires a creative solution
you get together for a brainstorming session
in the beginning, the energy in the room is through the roof
ideas fly in all directions, everyone is feeling optimistic
but then, a controversial idea rears its pesky head
the team is split, sides are taken, passionate arguments ensue
tangents, rabbit holes, dead ends
energy saps, no new ideas are generated
the team lead thinks - not much time left, need to move on
"Let's wrap up, I think we have some good stuff here (maybe)"
a handful of ideas are haphazardly selected
meeting ends
The aftermath of failed brainstorms
I am guilty of running these failed brainstorms early in my career. The result is always unsatisfactory:
lack of genuinely bold and creative ideas
poorly conceived actionable outcomes
no innovation in the long run
disengagement from team members
The question is, why does this happen? Why do brainstorming sessions fail?
Dear AI
Before answering the question, I thought I'd visit the AI Gods and hear what they say about it. I asked two AI chatbots: ChatGPT (by Open AI) and Poe (by Quora).
Surprisingly their responses overlapped almost entirely. Here's a merged and normalized version of their response to "why do brainstorming sessions fail?":
Lack of clear objectives/focus
Poor planning / poor facilitation
Groupthink and self-censorship due to fear of criticism
Dominant personalities taking over the room
Lack of follow up
Not a bad response! However, just like a formulaic Hollywood film after its fifth remake, it lacks a punch. Having professionally conducted several brainstorming sessions in my recent career, I would like to add a few of my observations to the question "why do brainstorming sessions fail?".
My response to this question
In addition to the response from ChatGPT + Poe, here are five reasons from my experience as to why brainstorming sessions fail:
1. Poorly defined problem statement
The problem statement is the starting point for the exercise, although we pay the least attention to it. They are either too broad - "how do we grow sales?", or too narrow such that the solution is already baked into it, leaving no room for new ideas - "how do we grow sales through an improved email marketing campaign?"
2. No warm-up to switch to creative mode
Brainstorming requires the participants to imbibe a creative mindset, so they might think freely and imagine a world that doesn't exist yet. This is very difficult to do if right before the meeting you were engaged in a very analytical exercise like working on a spreadsheet, if you just got off the phone with a disgruntled customer, or if you are worried about missing the last train home after the meeting. To get into a creative mode, the participants need to switch from the left brain (rational, linear) to the right brain (emotional, creative).
3. Focus on quality vs. quantity
This might be counter-intuitive, but the emphasis on finding the "right" or "quality" solution is the enemy of creative problem-solving, especially this early in the process. The first few ideas at the start of a brainstorming session are usually surface-level - ideas that come with preconceived notions, hackneyed, uninspiring. It's only once you exhaust bad ideas, do good ideas have a chance to emerge. The impatience to find the "right" solution often leads to deep-dive into the earlier bad ideas, rather than trusting the process and uncovering good ideas that might surface later on.
4. Biased selection of top ideas
Once the ideas are put up on the whiteboard, the process to shortlist is usually unstructured. Either the team's most senior member exercises their authority and selects their favorite ones. Or participants vote without context - while this may seem reasonable, the risk is that the most obvious and safe ideas get chosen, which may or may not be the most interesting ones to explore.
5. No time was allocated for discussing follow-up activities
The goal of brainstorming is not just to generate good ideas, but to serve as the starting point for a creative problem-solving exercise. The identification and selection of good ideas are meaningless if they are not explored in the real world. The right time to discuss experimenting with the top ideas is not at a follow-up meeting a week after the brainstorming is over. It needs to be done as an integral part of the brainstorming session itself - when the mood is optimistic, the energy is high, and there is a strong motivation to bring the ideas to life.
So how do you avoid these mistakes? Is there a recipe to run a successful brainstorming session?
Yes, absolutely - and I will cover it in next week's post. Sign up for the newsletter so you don't miss it.
If you have been through failed brainstorming sessions, please reply to this email or leave a comment with your take - are there reasons that I missed?
If you have been through successful brainstorming sessions, please reply or leave a comment with thoughts on why they worked - it will serve as fodder for the next post.
TOOLSHED
Mural is my online whiteboarding tool of choice. There are several comparable ones like Miro, Stormboard, Freeform, and others. At this point, these tools are all quite effective and which one you choose is a matter of personal taste. If you are looking forward to next week's post, I'd recommend trying out one of these tools beforehand if you haven't already.
AROUND THE WEB
Check out the Gamestorming website. The source for the site is Dave Gray's excellent book "Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers".
Think back to the last time you played a game. What was the game? Why did you choose to play? Was it a simple game like tic-tac-toe, or something more complex, like Monopoly, Scrabble or Chess? Or maybe it was a game of basketball? Did you play with friends? With family? Try to recapture the feeling you had as you played the game. How did it feel? Would you like to have more of that feeling at work?
Games come naturally to human beings. Playing a game is a way of exploring the world, a form of structured play, a natural learning activity that’s deeply tied to growth. Games can be fun and entertaining, but games can have practical benefits too.
This blog is about games designed to help you get more innovative, creative results in your work. We’ll show you not only how to play them but how to design them so they fit your own specific work goals.
🙏 Thanks for reading! - Rakesh