Introduction
There are many tips for successful brainstorming, and while many work, you need to look into your own organisation, the team you have and their particular needs. A personalised approach is always best when getting the most out of people. So here are some personal tips for successful brainstorming.
Location and Atmosphere
It is crucial to find a conducive location for creativity and productivity when brainstorming. Some tips for finding the right location include finding a quiet place where the team can focus on ensuring there are no distractions, such as TVs or other noise sources. Additionally, providing plenty of refreshments, snacks, and food can be an incentive or even a reward for the team’s hard work.
Many companies want and need to provide creative training for their teams. This is where a brainstorming session comes in handy. The goal of a brainstorming session is to generate as many ideas as possible in a short amount of time, allowing the team to engage in a creative process by exchanging ideas and perspectives on improving company operations.
Encourage Idea Sharing
This brings us to one of the main reasons for brainstorming: the importance of encouraging idea-sharing. This ensures that everyone can share their ideas and consider all opinions. It is also helpful to provide feedback and encouragement to those participating in the brainstorming session.
Some participants may not feel confident enough to share their ideas for fear of rejection. Therefore, creating a welcoming and safe atmosphere will encourage participants who may not usually share their ideas to be more open and willing to contribute what they have to say.
One suggestion that could help with this is an icebreaker! Icebreakers get a lot of hate, but they get the job done a lot of the time.
Think of a question out of the box and present it to the team. Something silly like ”If you had to choose a game show to win, what one would it be and why?”. The more ridiculous the question, the better. The point of the exercise is to get people talking and ease them into a more relaxed state of mind.
Ultimately, you want people to be comfortable enough to share their thoughts during your brainstorming session to get those valuable ideas out in the open, which can potentially benefit the company.
Facilitate Communication Between Participants Section
When facilitating a brainstorming session, it is important to ensure that all participants communicate effectively.
This will help keep the session organised and on track allowing for a productive session. Participants have to share their ideas and contribute their own thoughts to improve or enhance an idea. The purpose of this is to encourage a dialogue between team members in a healthy manner to filter down ideas to the most important and relevant ones that can benefit the company.
Of course, this also encourages participation from all participants regardless of level within the organisation by providing ample opportunity for input and feedback, letting everyone know their ideas and asking them to share more information about them. As a result, everyone can share their thoughts and dive a little deeper into the ideas and thoughts that really stand out.
By following the tips mentioned, a company can create a workspace that encourages ideas and thoughts of everyone for better brainstorming, which will be beneficial to the organisation as a whole. So get brainstorming!
Why Most Brainstorming Sessions Fail (And How to Fix It)
I’ve sat through hundreds of brainstorming sessions. The ones that produce nothing? They all share the same problem: people show up unprepared and expect magic to happen in 90 minutes. That’s not how brains work.
Here’s what I see in practice. Someone books a meeting room, invites 12 people, and spends the first 20 minutes explaining the problem because nobody read the brief. By the time people understand what they’re solving for, the energy has flatlined. The loudest person dominates. The introverts have three ideas they’re not saying out loud. And then someone suggests the obvious thing everyone thought of five minutes in, and everyone nods like it’s genius.
The sessions that work? They’re structured differently. I start by sending the brief 48 hours ahead. Not a paragraph. A proper brief with context, constraints, and what success looks like. I ask people to come with three half-formed ideas already written down. That’s it. Three ideas, rough, messy, doesn’t matter if they’re good. This changes everything because now people are showing up with something to say instead of trying to think on the spot.
Second thing: I separate ideation from evaluation. During the generation phase, I literally don’t allow anyone to say “but that won’t work” or “we tried that once.” You write ideas down without critique. This takes discipline. People hate it. But when you remove the fear of judgment, the weird ideas come out. The suboptimal ideas come out. And sometimes those lead somewhere.
Third, I run silent brainstorming first. Everyone gets 10 minutes with a blank page. Write alone. Then we go around the room and everyone shares one idea. No discussion yet. This guarantees that the quiet person with the best idea gets heard instead of being talked over by the extrovert with three mediocre ones.
The mix of people matters more than people think. You need someone who knows constraints (budget, timeline, technical limits). You need someone who doesn’t know those limits because they ask naive questions that crack open the problem. You need a note-taker who isn’t participating, because the person trying to capture ideas can’t also be generating them. And you need someone who specifically pushes back on assumptions. Not to be difficult. To make sure you’re solving the right problem.
I also time-box ruthlessly. 15 minutes for silent writing. 20 minutes for round-robin sharing. 30 minutes for discussion and clustering. Then stop. Walk away. Let ideas settle. The best insights come later, when someone’s mind wanders back to what was said.
One more thing people miss: you need to document what happened, not what you wish had happened. Write down the ideas exactly as they were expressed, with names attached. Send it out the same day. This does two things. First, people see their thinking was captured, which makes them feel heard. Second, you’ve created artifact that people can build on asynchronously. Some of the best refinements come from the email thread after, not during the session.
More questions
Should we invite senior leadership to brainstorming sessions?
Only if they stay quiet and listen. I’ve seen one executive’s seniority shut down an entire room. People stop thinking and start agreeing instead. If you must include leadership, brief them beforehand: they’re observers, not judges, and they speak last if at all.
How do you handle the person who kills every idea?
Call them on it before the session starts. Tell them: “This phase is about quantity, not quality. We evaluate later.” If they still do it, move them to note-taker role so they have a job that isn’t shooting down ideas. Alternatively, have them come only for the evaluation phase, not generation.
Is virtual brainstorming as effective as in-person?
It’s different, not worse. Remote sessions work better for silent writing because everyone has their own space. The risk is chat chatter that distracts from depth. Use a shared document where people can write simultaneously, not a video where everyone’s waiting for someone else to stop talking. Mute cameras optional, but a shared page of ideas beats a round of unmuted talking.
Bottom line: A successful brainstorming session needs clear rules, a focused prompt, and a facilitator who keeps judgment out of the room until ideas stop flowing. Diverse voices and a mix of quiet writing time with open discussion produce better results than open-ended chat alone. Capture everything, then sort and prioritise once the session ends.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a brainstorming session last?
Most sessions work best between 30 and 60 minutes. Attention and creativity drop off after that, so it’s better to run a second short session later than to stretch one out too long.
How many people should join a brainstorming session?
Five to eight people tends to hit the sweet spot. Small enough that everyone speaks up, large enough to bring a range of perspectives into the room.
What is the biggest mistake teams make when brainstorming?
Judging or debating ideas as soon as they’re said. This shuts people down fast. Separate the idea generation phase from the evaluation phase completely.
Should brainstorming always be a group activity?
No. Giving people a few minutes to write ideas alone first, then sharing them, usually produces more original thinking than jumping straight into open group discussion.
