How do people feel about live brainstorming sessions? I find them to be a big waste of my time, but nobody asked me.

I don't think we do them enough. However I feel it cannot be just ppl in a room throwing stuff out and seeing what it sticks as that lacks focus. You need someone smart and focused moderating who can steer the conversation.

The best brainstorms need group time and individual time. Once everyone’s informed, a larger team can divide up into smaller groups to get the low hanging fruit ideas cleared out. Smaller groups allow some riffing, cross pollination, bouncing off because there’s “no such thing as a stupid idea ”, and small groups avoid a group think dynamic propping up some ideas or suppressing others too early.

Then everyone goes off on their own to explore, percolate and dig deeper.

Reconvening after a couple days gives each person time to subconsciously simmer, see what surfaces after “ sleeping on it” and each person rejoins the large team with what they offer up as faves and why.

That sharing is where some pressure testing and critique can start to narrow idea options. Riffing can continue, forks in the road are identified and epiphanies surface.

Group + independent time gives different brains the chance to contribute in their own productive zone. Sleeping on it allows for depth in dot-connecting. Sharing at this point can further cross pollinate and gel the promising directions.

Brainstorming stages/sessions take a bit longer but so worth it for more higher quality ideas.

An argument could be made for the opposite… build off each other and get a lot of ideas out fast, then go back and refine the good ones into something good and tangible. And people with less of a voice get to put their ideas out there in a group. We barely do them any more.

Now… the amount of times people go off and do it and refine them and and mold and chop under single viewpoint, then come back and present. A week or two has gone by and there’s some ok or cool ideas, a lot of times too big to use, but rarely viable or hit the mark strategically as they need to. I’d say that’s a bigger waste of time

There needs to be a plan, prompts or exercises, a mix of introverts and extroverts, and a time for independent thinking mixed with group thinking and sharing and building. I used to run sessions and it starts with the tone I would set in the room and any materials I sent out leading up to the session. Encourage weird and wacky ideas and using “yes and” for any builds. Make sure you have ground rules. Set the tone. These can be a fun and fruitful, if they’re set-up and run well.

I know everyone hates them so not sure why we do them unless you have great chemistry and just come up with stuff on the fly like that

I feel like I’m made for this sort of thing, but my job is just staring at numbers all day.

Most people don’t know how to brainstorm. Brainstorming sessions don’t yield anything good when you do them with people who don’t know how to brainstorm. A big problem is that almost everyone thinks they are good at collaborating on ideas. They aren’t.

The biggest thing they do wrong is they don’t know the “yes, and …” rule. The constant shooting down of others’ ideas stops the momentum. It prevents the group to reach the right pace to activate the “creative zone” (I don’t know how else to describe it, it’s the moment where everyone is firing on all cylinders).

The second biggest thing they do wrong is they don’t know how to stop circling around their one favorite idea instead of intentionally diversifying. Circling around one idea is bad because that one idea is usually an early idea, and early ideas are never as good as the ones that come later, after the group hits the creative zone.

But … if you brainstorm in a room with people who actually know how to brainstorm, like truly know stuff like improvisation, comedy writing, story writing, etc., you can get some really great ideas.

You can certainly have too many people in those sessions. My preference would be two or three people and ones that know to how to ideate and build upon the ideas of others. At the end of a great session the lines of ownership should be blurred.

I remember watching the extra features of a Simpsons DVD a long time ago, where they give a glimpse of the writers riffing off each others’ ideas. Looked like fun so I’ve been pro-brainstorm meetings ever since.

The only CDs who do this panic easily and are scared they won’t have something good to show the client. The irony of course is that this kind of group crap-think rarely produces anything good.

Digitas 1, you’re coming from an arrogant place. Great ideas can literally come from the janitor sweeping away in the corner who happens to be interested, listening and thinking as they work. Sometimes the people further away from the immediate work have the freshest take and what they offer can get thinking started in unique and promising directions.

The problem with brainstorms is how they are prepared for and directed.

The whole point is to be intentional. Set aside protected time, focus, and energy to the task.

Even that focus is a rare commodity these days as multitasking and constant interruptions and task switching invade and steal away our productivity.

Anything worth doing well needs intention and focus. It’s only a waste of time without the appropriate mindset.

IMHO, structure is key. Freeform brainstorming has its place, but if the purpose is to generate ideas that meet a brief, directional thinking is necessary. Otherwise you can guarantee that the first hour is a total waste of time, with folks regurgitating and masticating old ideas. Also, you seldom get good ideas by just reading off the brief too. The best brainstorms are ones where the lead has taken time to break the brief down into a few component parts, and then inspires the participants by interpreting each component as a smaller, anonymized task to accomplish. People seldom have big ideas that are good, and can address every moving part of a campaign, in the first hour of a brainstorm.

They’re good if they are an hour or less and you just kicked off the project. Can help you get past the more obvious solves and every once in a while, you may walk away with a nugget or two. Anything beyond that is silly. One needs time to contemplate deeper.

Hate

I thought they were fun until it became that some discarded idea appears in another person’s work later down the line. I guess I’ve been burned too many times.

Great way to get the committee to agree on a bad idea quickly.