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Brainstorming sessions are a great way to solve problems and think up new ideas. If you are preparing for a brainstorming session with your staff, why not implement a few new tactics? Here are a few ways to get the most out of your brainstorming sessions.

Give Your Team Time to Prepare

Great ideas don’t manifest if they are forced. Ideas appear when someone has time to think and when they don’t feel pressured to come up with something on the spot. This is why it’s a good idea to give your team a few days to think before the brainstorming session. It is also helpful to let your team know what you’re NOT looking for. With this information your team can focus on the specifics, instead of being overwhelmed by an open ended question or idea.

Work with a Diverse Group of People

This is strategy is helpful if you ever need to get out of a rut. A great way to come up with new and innovating ideas is by inviting a variety of people with different skill sets and experiences, in on your brainstorming session. Most of the time all you need is a new perspective. It can help you see something in a new light and help generate new ideas. If you always brainstorm with the same people with the same perspective; your ideas will end up being very similar and not original.

Everyone is Equal

No matter if you’re the CEO or the intern, the most important thing during a brainstorming session is to make everyone feel equal. Regardless of who you are, your ideas have the same amount of validity as the person next to you.

During these sessions you should also remember not to judge any “bad” ideas. In fact, if someone is told that their idea is poor or lacking, they will be less likely to speak up the rest of session (and most likely future sessions). The more ideas that are discussed, the more likely it is that you will land on a good one. The object is to let your mind run free and not to judge others. No matter how wild your ideas are, keep them coming. A wild idea can always be simplified or morphed into another idea. It’s crucial to be open to different perspectives.

Compile Your Ideas

During your session, make sure someone is comprising a list of ALL the ideas that are being discussed. Even the worst idea may include an element you can use. Later you can use your list to connect the dots. Once you have your master list, separate your ideas into three categories: lacking, good and awesome. Once you have your final list go through and come up with variations of your ideas, by incorporating random or unrelated factors. Look for alternative ways to think about a subject even if the old ways are working well.

Switch up the Environment

It’s always a good idea to change up your physical environment. It can be fun and actually effect the way the brain works. By having a brainstorming session in a new place, you can help your team come up with new and better ideas. Neurobiologists believe an enriched environment can speed up the rate at which the human brain creates new neurons and neural connections. If you can’t change the location, at least change the room that the meeting will be held in. You can rearrange furniture, hang up pictures, or even have people stand and walk around during the meeting to stimulate the brain.

Create a Mood Board

Combining imagery, color and visual-spatial arrangements can help spark new, fresh ideas. While there are many ways to use visual prompts in brainstorming, creating a mood board is one of the most common — especially in coming up with new branding and design concepts. A mood board is simply a random collection of images, words and textures focused on one topic, theme or idea. Like with mind mapping, the visual components of the mood board can be anything branching off that central topic.

Play Games

Whether it be word games or improv games, both are great ways to get people to start thinking outside the box and produce original ideas. Playing games also helps people relax and get out of their work shell. When people feel more comfortable in an environment, they will start sharing more creative and innovate ideas. So, try to have some fun during your brainstorming sessions.

Make Some Doodles

While many brainstorming sessions are based on talking and reading, doodling helps people break out of the traditional mindset. They will begin to think about familiar things in a different way, perhaps leading to unexpected connections. Doodling can actually help spur creative insight, increase attention span and free up short and long-term memory.

There are a few different approaches to doodling. Have your team take an object and visually break it down into its tiniest parts. For example, if your object was coffee you could draw the mug, the lid, the bean, etc. Thinking about all the elements of an object and the environment it is found in, will allow you to view an object in a new way. Another approach to doodling is by taking two unrelated things, such as ice cream and a basketball and first draw them separate. Then, create sketches of the two objects morphed together. Such as a melting basketball or basketball ice cream. This helps people to come up with unique ideas and have a different view point on the problem.