Creativity is an essential ingredient in problem-solving, innovation, and personal growth. It makes people and teams come up with new ideas to overcome obstacles and look at things from different angles. Brainstorming is probably one of the most effective techniques to unlock creativity in writing, product development, or any other creative pursuit. If you want to boost your brainstorming techniques taking management courses will be useful. The British Academy of Training and Development is offering the perfect courses for everyone. Many techniques can stimulate the creative process. This article sets out to discuss some of the most creative brainstorming techniques that could help boost creativity and improve your thinking outside of the box.
Mind mapping is a method that lets you organize thoughts as well as associations between them visually. It takes off from a central thought in the middle of the page and stretches to the related thoughts, themes, or concepts. Brainstorming and creativity are connected in many ways. This is how it frees creativity from you as it provides a visual map of your thoughts that you can trace for following relationships and patterns among thoughts more easily.
Start with a central concept or problem in the middle of a blank page.
Draw branches out, each one representing a different idea or subtopic
Continue branching out with even more specific ideas related to each main topic
Color, symbols, and images should be used to add attractiveness to the mind map
Promotes free flow of ideas.
It helps you make connections that would not at first be apparent.
It gives you a clear overview of your brainstorming session, so it is easy to spot the best ideas.
SCAMPER is an acronym that has letters of Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse. Applying these questions, this method forces you to look at your ideas and products from other perspectives. SCAMPER makes you think about all those things in terms of being unusual, which could be the cause of innovation and greatness over existing ideas.
Here are some important steps to follow:
What materials, resources, or processes can you substitute in your idea?
What ideas, concepts, or processes can you combine to create something new?
What elements from other contexts can you adapt to your idea?
How can you change your idea in terms of size, shape, or function?
Put to another use: Can you repurpose any aspect of your idea for a different application?
Remove: What do you take away to make your idea easier or better?
Reversal: What if you do the opposite of what would be expected? Can you flip your idea around?
It provides an orderly way of changing or improving an idea.
Very helpful in finding possible changes in a product or procedure that already exists.
Provides creative thinking through the use of unusual questions
The 6-3-5 technique is, of course, known by another term: "brainwriting". Six persons can each jot down three ideas about the subject chosen. Five minutes are stipulated as time to commit these ideas on paper. When this period is passed, sheets bearing the ideas are passed on. He starts to expand on new ideas from previous persons while, occasionally he may suggest some new ideas or even some variations of his own. Thus this process is continued till every person has gone over all the new ideas.
Collect a group of six.
Each individual writes down three ideas within five minutes.
The sheets are then passed to the right-hand person, who adds more ideas to those on the sheet.
Continue until all members have added to all the ideas.
Encourages collaboration while allowing each input.
The pressure to produce the "best" idea is diminished so that people feel free to generate ideas.
Allows quieter participants to contribute equally, as everyone’s ideas are treated with equal importance.
Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is by thinking about how to make it worse. Reverse brainstorming flips traditional brainstorming on its head by encouraging participants to think of ways to cause or exacerbate a problem. After generating a list of "how to make this worse" ideas, you can then reverse these thoughts to find creative solutions to the original problem.
Identify the problem or goal to be addressed.
Ask the participants how they could make things worse or increase obstacles.
Review the list and find solutions by negating the negative ideas presented. For example, where the problem is how one can enhance customer satisfaction and someone gives the idea to "make the product hard to use," you'd negate that by thinking about how to make the product simple to use.
Helps you approach a problem from an unconventional angle.
Forces you to think creatively about solutions by considering the worst-case scenario.
Can highlight overlooked aspects of the problem that need to be addressed.
The "Yes, and…" technique used in improvisational theater is very effective for brainstorming. This method accepts each presented idea and builds upon it rather than dismissing or even criticizing it. It actually encourages positivity and collaboration in bringing about a fertile ground wherein ideas can flow freely.
One person presents his idea.
The next respondent says, "Yes, and…" with a thought or an extension of the initial idea.
It continues as each one of the ideas is expanded and developed, with the goal of increasing the elaborateness.
Reduces creativity block through negativism or criticism
Promotes teamwork with creative output.
Ideas build incrementally, but they often turn out to be more creative and well-defined solutions.
Role-storming is brainstorming in which participants create a variety of personas that can be used to spur ideas. By putting one's self in the other's shoes, whether they are a customer, a competitor, or even another character, you can analyze a problem from different and innovative angles and come up with ideas you might otherwise never have thought of at all.
Choose a few personas or roles that participants will take on. They can be customers, industry experts, celebrities, or any other person who can bring in a different perspective.
Have each person brainstorm ideas thinking from the perspective of the role assigned.
After the session, review the ideas generated and see if any can be applied to the original problem.
It encourages empathy and diverse thinking.
It provides fresh, alternative viewpoints that challenge conventional thinking.
Can help you understand your audience better by considering their viewpoints.
Picture association is a technique where images or pictures are used as stimuli to elicit new ideas. Looking at a picture shows the brain's different thoughts, feelings, and ideas. This may help break free from usual thought patterns and introduce creative ideas one has not considered otherwise.
Select an image or picture (this could be from a magazine, Internet, or photograph).
Allow the participants to spend a few minutes looking at the picture and writing down thoughts, ideas, or concepts that spring up.
Use these ideas to form the basis for more brainstorming.
Helps stimulate creativity because it encourages abstract thinking
Gives you a new look at problems.
Provides an easy means to shake up mental routines and trigger new ideas.
The Fishbone Diagram, also known as the Ishikawa diagram or cause-and-effect diagram, is a tool used in identifying the root causes of a problem. It's very helpful if you have to brainstorm what could cause a specific problem. If you break the problem down into categories, such as people, processes, materials, and environment, then you can determine areas where further exploration may be required.
Draw a big arrow pointing to the problem or effect at the head of the fishbone.
Draw branches representing different categories (people, methods, materials, machinery, etc.).
Brainstorm potential causes and add them to the appropriate category.
Analyze the results to see where the most significant causes lie.
Provides a structured approach to identifying problems.
Helps you see all possible factors contributing to an issue.
Facilitates collaborative problem-solving and root-cause analysis.
Group storytelling is one of the creative brainstorming techniques. Each participant brings a sentence or an idea for a story. The target is to build upon other people's ideas in such a way that there might be a more meaningful story or a more practical solution to a problem. And this makes people work collectively to come up with new and innovative, unexpected results.
Select a group of people.
One person starts with a story or idea that is one sentence or one concept.
Each member builds on the story using his ideas based on what was said by the other.
Continue until the group develops a fully formed idea or solution.
This activity encourages collaboration and team-building.
It leads to very unexpected, creative solutions.
It breaks down barriers between individuals and fosters an open and creative environment.
Creativity is not only an art but also a problem-solving skill, innovation, and personal development. These creative brainstorming techniques are very powerful tools that unlock your creativity and will help you look at problems from different angles. Whether you work alone or with others, these methods will stimulate new ideas, fresh perspectives, and more innovative solutions. You can learn from various management courses in London that are offered by the British Academy for Training and Development. By implementing these methods into your creativity, you can enhance creativity and face challenges with assurance and originality.