Of Bathtubs and Brainstorming:
Ten tips that will have you running through the streets…..naked.

by gavin, posted January 26th, 2009
categorized under brainstorming, how to, inspiration | Comments

It’s a popular story, partly because of the imagery it conjures up. Greek inventor Archimedes was asked by the king to determine whether a recent gift was made of gold. After taking a bath and observing the water spill over the sides, the answer came to him (the theory of displacement) and he ran naked through the streets shouting “Eureka” (I have found it!). It is a great story that reinforces the role of the epiphany; that there is a magical moment of inspiration (for more on the overstated role of the epiphany check out Scott Berkun’s Myths of Innovation).

Contrast your situation to that of Archimedes, and it goes something like this: You are sitting in a stuffy conference room late on a Thursday afternoon wallowing in a post-lunch coma. You stare at the blank piece of paper before you, blinking and struggling to come up with a cool idea. But it ain’t happening. No “bathtub” moment for you. And judging by the looks on the faces of those around you, it ain’t happening for them either. No one is running down the street naked, that’s for sure.

Sound familiar?

How can you be more like Archimedes and less ….well….creatively constipated?
For brainstorming can’t be that hard, can it? You get a bunch of people in a room, toss in some sharpies and some giant post-it notes and let the creative juices flow. Right?

Wrong.

Too often the very best brainstorming intentions come unglued through poor planning, lousy execution and overall lack of focus. At Artefact, brainstorming is a key part of what we do, and over time we have developed a good sense as to what works and what doesn’t. In this three part series, we’ll go over some basic guidelines to follow when you are charged with conducting a brainstorming session so you can avoid the common downfalls and come up with some killer concepts. 

PART 1 (of 3)

1. If I don’t know where I am going, how will I know when I get there?

Clearly define your goals
What, exactly, are you trying to achieve with your brainstorming efforts? It sounds obvious, but too often this question is not given enough thought. Are you defining product strategy or supporting it? What does success look like? How will you know if you have achieved your objective?  Spend some time to figure out the answers to these questions before you go any further.

Understand the business objectives
When brainstorming is not aligned with the overarching business objectives, you may as well be sitting at the park and playing in a sandbox, for the result will be the same. The business objectives will provide you with the constraints and the evaluative criteria that are an essential part of the process. Have management articulate the business goals and then establish the link between the brainstorming and the business objectives.

2. Tap into the genius of Dwight

Invite the right people
A brainstorm is like a laboratory experiment, and as organizer you get to be the chemist. To ensure that you get the right reactions, you need to mix the right elements together. You will get more diverse ideas from a diverse set of people, so avoid the temptation to fill a room with people just like you. The result is a lot of ideas that are homogenous. Pull people from all parts of the organization, not just the creative side or the management side. Pull in Stanley, Ryan and Pam. Even Dwight. You may be surprised where some of the best ideas come from.

But you need more than a good mix of people. You want your ideas to go forth and prosper. To do that you will want to have your sponsors in the room as well. Your sponsor is the person who is going to believe in your ideas and take them to the next level. And the best way to do that is to foster a sense of ownership of the ideas that are generated, and that is accomplished by have them participate in the process. Fail to do this and at some point your ideas will be met with NIH (Not Invented Here) indifference. So that means inviting Michael Scott, too.

Inviting the right number of people is important too. If you have too few people, say three or four, you won’t get much in the way of volume or diversity. Include too many people (more than ten in a group) and the process becomes unwieldy and the results unfocused. When you have more than ten people, break into groups of five or six with different focus areas.

3. Because beige = bad

Choose the right location
Some time ago I was at the DMI conference and the speaker posed a question to the audience: “Where were you when had your last great idea? And what were you doing?” As the hands shot up there was a wide array of answers, ranging from “riding my bike” to “in the shower”. Not one person said “in a conference room at work”. Corporate conference rooms are where creativity goes to die. Beige walls, ceiling tiles, fluorescent lights, stale air, and boxed lunches. Brainstorm in a conference room, and your ideas will likely be a reflection of your environment; tired and generic.

One way to promote new ideas is to disrupt the routine and get people into a new environment. That may mean moving to the cafeteria. Or heading outdoors and sitting in a park. Or going mobile and brainstorming on a bus or a ferry.

4. In the News: Brainwave most likely to strike at 10.04pm

Choose the right time
“People are at their most creative late at night with 10.04pm the most likely time for a eureka moment, research has shown. The least creative time in the day is 4.33pm, with 92 per cent of people admitting to feeling uninspired in the afternoon.” (from the Telegraph)
While you may not be able to haul folks into a brainstorm session in the middle of the night, you can certainly avoid the dead zone of late afternoon. I prefer to schedule any brainstorming activity early in the morning right after the coffee has kicked in and before people start thinking about lunch.

Next week: Bringing it all together