Start to Brainstorm Better
The classic brainstorming meeting begins with the boss calling everybody into an office, announcing the theme of the meeting, then challenging everybody to come up with a brilliant idea on the spot. Is it at all surprising that this is probably the worst way to hold a brainstorming meeting? “Our survey and the scientific evidence suggest that brainstorm sessions and other creative meetings may well be a waste of time,” said Rob Alderson of WeTransfer’s Ideas Report. “Send people off with the time and space to think properly and the quality of their ideas will probably improve.” In fact, we’ll up the ante here — if you’ve got a really important project and want the best ideas your creative team can muster, give them a brief of the problem you’re looking to solve, tell them you want 10 possible solutions, then pay for each of them to spend a three-day weekend alone someplace quiet and beautiful.