Brainstorming in Virtual Space: was it possible?

PART ONE

I was thinking of how should I conduct a successful brainstorming, which requires more than a bunch of people sitting in a room. I need a brainstorming technique to get the creative juices flowing so that even the most reticent participants feel free to contribute. Usually we keep an ordinary approach by doing a brainstorming session where the group members are communicating directly in the same room.

One good reference of how should brainstorming goes is from the book of The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from Ideo, America’s Leading Design Firm. Wrote by Tom Kelley, a general manager of Ideo Product Development, one of the world’s premiere product-development firms. Kelley points out that a poorly planned brainstorming session could cause more harm than good. That’s why Ideo follows strict rules for sparking good ideas. At Ideo, idea-generation exercises are “practically a religion,” Kelley says.

Some are simple truths: Morning meetings work best; 3 – 10 participants should take part; and cookies always spur creativity. Some, like those outlined below:

1. Sharpen the focus
2. Write playful rules
3. Number your ideas
4. Build and jump
5. Make the space remember
6. Stretch your mental muscles
7. Get physical

Thus when brainstorming rules apply, that means (1) we are trying to get as many ideas on the table as possible, and (2) we will come back as a collective group later and sort, organize and judge the ideas. But the two stages are kept distinctly separate.

Each person has to be very careful in an in-person meeting to suppress the judging and idea evaluation parts of themselves when brainstorming rules apply, in order to not ruin the creative idea generation spark that is kindled within other people.

I do have an interesting working environment. While I am in Jakarta office, my General Manager is in Hongkong, and some of our clients. Sometime we need to do skype call or phone call to discuss about the project.  But sometime this media is not suffice or adequate enough for any brainstorming session. Then this question will follow, when we can’t be together, but we still need some ideas and we have to keep still the brainstorming rules, how do we translate the guidelines of brainstorming but not in a usual place, such as virtual space?

To be continued…

Bajoy