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Throughout my career, I have constantly been amazed that people believe brainstorming is a serendipitous process. Get a dozen people in a room, bring some post-it notes, and you’re guaranteed to leave with an industry-shattering idea.

Brainstorming is easy. And so is coming up with really bad ideas.  Brainstorming well is much, much harder.

The technique of brainstorming, first penned by ad executive Alex F. Osborn, is meant to unlock the hidden creativity in individuals to identify new opportunities. In many organizations, however, brainstorming has lost its luster.  Regardless of the socially accepted rules of brainstorming – generate quantity, remove criticism, combine through association, there are no bad ideas – the process has been bastardized  by many organizations who compound the bad behaviors of looking for shortcuts,  and allowing power differentials to influence outcomes, and sucking the fun out of an enjoyable experience.

Looking for Shortcuts

In many of the brainstorming cultures I have seen, the ideation process stops after first ideas. First ideas are those that sit at the surface – the ones that are often an elaboration on what you’ve seen before, the ones that rehash old ideas that have been thought a million times before.

In a past life, I watched a client accuse an agency of not pitching a new idea in five years. That’s the result of lazy brainstorming.  When five people show up to a brainstorm with ten “first” ideas, there is very little time for good ideation. And with the usual “rush-to-make-a-decision” that we all feel, teams usually settle on the best poor idea.

While most of the folks at Idea Couture can draw on their renaissance interests and learning based discovery through future scanning and ethnography, we can’t all be so lucky. The goal of brainstorming is to unlock real creative power through the formation of lateral connections.

In order to accomplish that, you need lateral stimuli.

Power Dynamics

The hippo effect (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion) is unfortunately a major influencer of the brainstorming process. When ideating with senior management, the dynamics can easily swing to a game of “guess what the boss is thinking”. If the book The Wisdom of Crowds has taught us anything, it’s that dedicating a brainstorm to pleasing one person is not the way to great ideas. Divergent thinking generates new ideas – pleasing behavior creates the Zune.

And even when divergent thinking is accepted, the loudest person in the room can often rule a brainstorming session. There’s always one of them – the person who believes their ideas are the best and isn’t interested in the opinions of others. A brainstorm doesn’t suddenly turn introverts into confident contributors, so getting others to contribute while muting that individual’s voice is one of the greatest challenges in facilitation. The goal of brainstorming is to harness the dynamics of a group by allowing everyone to be heard.

In order to accomplish that, you need to break down power differentials and give all voices a chance to be heard.

Brainstorming Isn’t Fun Anymore

When I was first introduced to the process of brainstorming by an expert facilitator, I felt like I was stealing. Getting paid to participate in this type of activity seemed criminal. My Commerce courses at Queen’s University never prepared me to play in an office.

When you brainstorm effectively, the event is magical, seamless, and incredibly productive. But when done poorly, brainstorming is a painful best. It’s like a grade 8 dance – everyone walks away disappointed after experiencing conflict, fighting and judgment. I went to an all boys school by the way.

Brainstorming sessions are supposed to leave criticism and debate at the door, but only a great facilitator can ensure that this happens. But few corporations appreciate the impact of expert facilitation, leaving the role to a brave few that aren’t given the opportunity to practice as much as they would like to. The goal of a brainstorm is to generate great ideas, and a fun process ensures a greater number of those ideas.

In order to bring the fun back to brainstorming, we need to help our facilitators curate the brainstorming experience.

The Answer – Gamestorming

Brainstorming needs some innovation. I believe the answer is gamestorming.

Gamestorming is a competition-based facilitation technique that several of us here at Idea Couture have been playing with for some time. Designed to deal with the issue of shortcuts, power dynamics, and the lack of fun in brainstorming, gamestorming is a structured process of play-based facilitation that uses tools and rules to break brainstorming complacency.

All games have two core elements – tools and rules. Tools are the things required to play, like cards, tokens, or pieces. Rules are the laws that define how a game is played, like order, responsibilities, and desired outcomes.

By introducing tools and rules into brainstorming, I have witnessed lifeless brainstorms come alive. I have seen how introducing a points system into the process has generated hundreds of ideas from a group who used to produce only dozens. I have experienced HIPPO’s support new hires in delivering creative concepts. And I have watched rookie facilitators run a room with the confidence and composure of a seasoned veteran.

Over the next few months, noodleplay.com will be the place to learn about gamestorming. In this series, I hope to show you how you can harness this technique to rediscover the power and benefits of brainstorming in your organization.