Are you a brainstorming ninja?
Do you have your copy?
Do you have your copy of “The Brainstorming Playbook – A creative brainstorming guide that moves team ideation from ‘bor-ing’ to ‘WOW!’ “?
Welcome to a new series of tips for getting the best out of brainstorming with your team! Every two weeks I’ll explore a different aspect of the Playbook in more detail.
Let’s address the question “Why brainstorm?”
You may be hearing from colleagues, at networking events, even from friends and family, that there is a trend towards more brainstorming. Why is this?
Well, new problems and opportunities are coming our way faster than ever. Managers and business owners are realizing that intentionally embracing creative thinking will give them a stronger spot in the race to a better future. Are you one of them?
Unfortunately, facilitating brainstorming isn't something you typically learn in "management school". The good news is that, with the right training, everyone has the potential to solve problems creatively!
If you're a new manager using this Playbook, my hope is that you will quickly discover that guiding staff in solving problems with creativity enables you to be an even more effective leader of a high-performing team.
I’ll let you in on a secret.
Being a manager is just about solving problems and taking advantage of opportunities. That’s all there is to it. So if you know how to do those two things more efficiently and creatively, you and your team will be more productive than you can imagine.
Using creative thinking techniques also leads to fun and laughter. Fun makes employees happy, and happy employees stay.
Let’s look at some specific reasons for brainstorming.
Benefits for you are:
Increased confidence
Fostering creative problem-solving in your team with more ease
Hitting targets and maybe blasting right through them
Greater recognition and higher status
Actively contributing to growing a culture of creativity and innovation in your organization
Being the envy of other departments or organizations in your industry, and everyone wants to know your secret!
Benefits for your team include:
Excitement and satisfaction when they come up with creative and effective solutions
Greater productivity, collaboration, motivation and engagement
Capably handling tasks that you delegate
Seeing problems from different perspectives more easily
Having inspiration on tap
Being more motivated to find solutions because their voice is being heard and their opinion is valued
A word of advice
If you’re new to brainstorming, you may feel awkward thinking in a way you’re not used to. This is because your brain – which likes what is familiar – will be doing things in a way that’s unfamiliar. It’s like when you knit your hands together – the way you always do it feels comfortable; if you do it the other way it doesn’t feel as comfortable. Try it now – that second way is how your brain will feel at times. Feeling out of your comfort zone simply means you’re learning. The more you practice the easier it gets, so trust the process and get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable!
Creative thinking is all about training your brain to look at a problem from different perspectives, and anyone can learn how to do that if they’re open to trying new techniques.
Keep an eye out for the next Brainstorming Playbook tips article, where I’ll start to unpack the meaning of creative thinking.
Do you have your copy of “The Brainstorming Playbook”? If not, you can get it here. Enjoy!
Do you have your copy?
If you want to systematically come up with thinking like the above to move your product and service development forward at a faster rate, make sure you have our FREE ebook “The Brainstorming Playbook”.
I believe that, with the right support anyone can learn creative ways to solve problems. If you’d like to see what tapping into creative potential could look like at your place of work, contact me at Ellia@ThePotentialCenter.com to arrange a call.