10 Tips for Effective Creative Brainstorming

Brainstorming can either be a creative gold mine or a time wasting disaster. Brainstorming is often discussed in relation to a business environment. In college, nearly every one of my business school textbooks had an entire chapter dedicated to the concept. Though creative brainstorming is in many ways a different beast due to its visual nature, many of the same concepts apply. Today we’ll take a look at ten tips to consider before you pull your creative team into a brainstorming session. When applied properly, they can drastically increase productivity and quality of results. #1 Assign a Moderator Assigning someone to guide the brainstorming session into a productive direction is an absolute must. Who Should Be the Moderator? Choose someone who knows the project scope intricately and is seen as an authoritative figure. How Should the Meeting Be Managed? #2 Identify Goals It’s best to begin a brainstorming session by briefly stating an overview of the project. Good Goals vs. SMART Goals

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SWOT analysis A SWOT analysis, with its four elements in a 2×2 matrix. A SWOT analysis (alternatively SWOT matrix) is a structured planning method used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in a project or in a business venture. A SWOT analysis can be carried out for a product, place, industry or person. Strengths: characteristics of the business or project that give it an advantage over others.Weaknesses: characteristics that place the business or project at a disadvantage relative to others.Opportunities: elements that the project could exploit to its advantage.Threats: elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business or project. Identification of SWOTs is important because they can inform later steps in planning to achieve the objective. First, the decision makers should consider whether the objective is attainable, given the SWOTs. Matching and converting[edit] One way of utilizing SWOT is matching and converting. Use[edit] Criticism[edit]

DO IT - A Simple Creativity Process - Creativity Techniques from MindTools A Simple Process for Creativity Follow this 4-step process. © iStockphoto/3dbrained DO IT is a process for creativity. Techniques outlined earlier in this chapter focus on specific aspects of creative thinking. These help you to get the best out of the creativity techniques. DO IT is an acronym that stands for: D – Define problem.O – Open mind and apply creative techniques.I – Identify best solution.T – Transform. These stages are explained in more detail below: 1. This section concentrates on analyzing the problem to ensure that the correct question is being asked. Check that you are tackling the problem, not the symptoms of the problem. 2. Once you know the problem that you want to solve, you are ready to start generating possible solutions. At this stage of DO IT we are not interested in evaluating ideas. You can use the whole battery of creativity techniques covered earlier in this section to search for possible solutions. 3. 4. Many very creative people fail at this stage. Key Points

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