Thirteen Commandments for Creative Brainstorming

Creative brainstorming sessions can either be a very frustrating or rewarding time. I recently attended a session at the HOW Design Conference called "Caffeine for the Creative Mind." Here are thirteen commandments to consider during creative brainstorming sessions:

1. Have the right number of people in the room 5-7. Too many people in a meeting will make it ineffective.
   
   
2. Don’t surround yourself with other people just like yourself. Bring in a variety of different people to your creative meetings.
   
   
3. Never have surprise brainstorming. It’s vital to allow people time to think before entering a creative meeting.
   
   
4. Value the time of those in your meeting. An hour and a half is the maximum amount of time you spend in creative brainstorming.
   
   
5. Orchestrate ways to get fresh input into your brainstorming, but always meet in the same familiar place so you get familiar output.
   
   
6. Have something fun up your sleeve to spice up your creative meetings. Your goal is to break down the walls and get the creative juices flowing.
   
   
7. Take a shotgun approach to ideas. Have everyone put everything they think of on the table. It’s about idea germination.
   
   
8. Start the fire with a creative match. Have creative exercises at the beginning of your creative brainstorming sessions.
   
   
9. Bring in the play to work. As creative’s, work and play should be married.
   
   
10. Leave the judge at the door. During creative meetings, people need to not have a fear of saying stupid thoughts or ideas.
    
    
11. Creative meetings are not about problem solving as much as they’re about idea germination.
    
    
12. Capture residual ideas. Ideas are often unusable by themselves and will need to be built upon.
    
    
13. Encourage your team! This is the best way to encourage creativity in your next meeting.