brainstorming process

brainstorming technique for problem-solving, team-building and creative process

Brainstorming with a group of people is a powerful technique. Brainstorming creates new ideas, solves problems, motivates and develops teams. Brainstorming motivates because it involves members of a team in bigger management issues, and it gets a team working together. However, brainstorming is not simply a random activity. Brainstorming needs to be structured and it follows brainstorming rules. The brainstorming process is described below, for which you will need a flip-chart or alternative. This is crucial as Brainstorming needs to involve the team, which means that everyone must be able to see what's happening. Brainstorming places a significant burden on the facilitator to manage the process, people's involvement and sensitivities, and then to manage the follow up actions. Use Brainstorming well and you will see excellent results in improving the organization, performance, and developing the team.

N.B. There has been some discussion in recent years - much of it plainly daft - that the term 'brainstorming' might be 'political incorrect' by virtue of possible perceived reference to brain-related health issues. It was suggested by some that the alternative, but less than catchy 'thought-showers' should be used instead, which presumably was not considered to be offensive to raindrops (this is serious…). Happily recent research among relevant groups has dispelled this non-pc notion, and we can continue to use the brainstorming expression without fear of ending up in the law courts…

brainstorming process

1. Define and agree the objective.
2. Brainstorm ideas and suggestions having agreed a time limit.
3. Categorise/condense/combine/refine.
4. Assess/analyse effects or results.
5. Prioritise options/rank list as appropriate.
6. Agree action and timescale.
7. Control and monitor follow-up.

In other words:

plan and agree the brainstorming aim

Ensure everyone participating in the brainstorm session understands and agrees the aim of the session (eg, to formulate a new job description for a customer services clerk; to formulate a series of new promotional activities for the next trading year; to suggest ways of improving cooperation between the sales and service departments; to identify costs saving opportunities that will not reduce performance or morale, etc). Keep the brainstorming objective simple. Allocate a time limit. This will enable you to keep the random brainstorming activity under control and on track.

manage the actual brainstorming activity

Brainstorming enables people to suggest ideas at random. Your job as facilitator is to encourage everyone to participate, to dismiss nothing, and to prevent others from pouring scorn on the wilder suggestions (some of the best ideas are initially the daftest ones - added to which people won't participate if their suggestions are criticised). During the random collection of ideas the facilitator must record every suggestion on the flip-chart. Use Blu-Tack or sticky tape to hang the sheets around the walls. At the end of the time limit or when ideas have been exhausted, use different coloured pens to categorise, group, connect and link the random ideas. Condense and refine the ideas by making new headings or lists. You can diplomatically combine or include the weaker ideas within other themes to avoid dismissing or rejecting contributions (remember brainstorming is about team building and motivation too - you don't want it to have the reverse effect on some people). With the group, assess, evaluate and analyse the effects and validity of the ideas or the list. Develop and prioritise the ideas into a more finished list or set of actions or options.

implement the actions agreed from the brainstorming

Agree what the next actions will be. Agree a timescale, who's responsible. After the session circulate notes, monitor and give feedback. It's crucial to develop a clear and positive outcome, so that people feel their effort and contribution was worthwhile. When people see that their efforts have resulted in action and change, they will be motivated and keen to help again.

personal brainstorming

for creativity, planning, presentations, decision-making, and organizing your ideas

Personal brainstorming - just by yourself - is very useful for the start of any new project, especially if you can be prone to put things off until tomorrow.

Planning a new venture, a presentation, or any new initiative, is generally much easier if you begin simply by thinking of ideas - in no particular order or structure - and jotting them down on a sheet of paper or in a notebook. Basically this is personal brainstorming, and it can follow the same process as described above for groups, except that it's just you doing it.

Sometimes it's very difficult to begin planning something new - because you don't know where and how to start. Brainstoming is a great way to begin. The method also generates lots of possibilities which you might otherwise miss by getting into detailed structured planning too early.

A really useful tool for personal brainstorming - and note-taking generally - is the wonderful Bic 4-colour ballpen. The pen enables you quickly to switch colours between red, blue, black and green, without having to walk around with a pocket-full of biros. Using different colours in your creative jottings and written records helps you to make your notes and diagrams clearer, and dramatically increases the ways in which you can develop and refine your ideas and notes on paper. To prove the point, review some previous notes in black or blue ink using a red pen - see how you can organize/connect the content, still keeping it all clear and legible. This simple pen is therefore a brilliant tool for organizing your thoughts on paper much more clearly and creatively than by being limited to a single colour - especially if you think in visual terms and find diagrams helpful. For example, using different colours enables you to identify and link common items within a random list, or to show patterns and categories, or to over-write notes without making a confusing mess, and generally to generate far more value from your thoughts and ideas. Keeping connected notes and ideas on a single sheet of paper greatly helps the brain to absorb and develop them. Try it - you'll be surprised how much more useful your notes become. The principle is the same as using different colours of marker pens on a flip-chart. Other manufacturers produce similar pens, but the Bic is reliable, widely available, and very inexpensive.

The usefulness of different colours in written notes is further illustrated (please correct me or expand on this if you know more) in a wider organizational sense in the UK health industry. Apparently, black is the standard colour; green is used by pharmacy services, red is used after death and for allergies, and blue tends to be avoided due to poorer reprographic qualities (thanks M Belcher). As I say, correct me if this is wrong, and in any event please let me know any other examples of different coloured inks being used to organize or otherwise clarify written communications within corporations, institutions or industries.

Additionally I am informed (thanks T Kalota, Oct 2008) of a useful brainstorming/organizing technique using coloured pens when reviewing a written specification, or potentially any set of notes for a design or plan.

Underline or circle the words according to the following:

nouns/people/things	black	(entities)
verbs ('doing'/functional words)	red	(relationships)
adjectives/adverbs (describing words)	blue	(attributes)

This technique was apparently used for clarifying written specifications or notes for a database design, and was termed 'extended relational architecture', advocated by a company of the same name, at one time. (I've been unable to find any further details about the company or this application. If you know more please tell me.)

This method of colour-coding notes (using underlines or circles or boxes) to help clarification/prioritization/organization/etc can itself naturally be extended and adapted, for example:

nouns/people/things	black	(entities)
verbs ('doing'/functional words)	red	(relationships)
adjectives (describing a noun/thing/etc)	blue	(attributes)
adverbs (describing a verb/function)	green	(degrees/range/etc)
timings/costs/quantities	yellow	(measures)

The colours and categories are not a fixed industry standard. It's an entirely flexible technique. You can use any colours you want, and devise your own coding structures to suit the situation.

In relation to the group brainstorming process above, see also the guidelines for running workshops. Workshops provide good situations for group brainstorming, and brainstorming helps to make workshops more productive, motivational and successful.

To create more structured brainstorming activities which illustrate or address particular themes, methods, media, etc., there is a helpful set of reference points on the team building games section. Unless you have special reasons for omitting control factors, ensure you retain the the essence of the rules above, especially defining the task, stating clear timings, organising participants and materials, and managing the review and follow-up.

teKNiK braINsTORMiNg

Brainstorming Technique

You need to make a breakthrough in your work, but there are no any new ideas to come into your mind, all them are trivial, old-style, already used…One proven method in the fight against “not knowing where to start” is using the brainstorming session. Brain Storm is all you need to generate infinite, instant ideas: brainstorming is the ultimate in creative technology and it has the power to create and explode dynamic, dynamite ideas, so that you can develop new ways of looking at things.How brain storm can help and what it can do for you? There seems to be a popular belief that creating ideas is a difficult task: that creativity is a mystical art, known only to a select ‘chosen few’ and that it takes years of tortuous study to learn how to do it. Anybody at all can come up with a fantastic, original idea: anybody can brain storm! Creativity is easy, if you use brain storm software. Everybody can learn how to do it.

A quick brainstorming session will boost your creativity in a flash and help to speed you on your way to victory!

Brain Storm Step by Step

1. Define your problem or issue.
2. Write out the problem concisely and make sure that everyone understands the problem and is in agreement with the way it is worded
3. Give yourselves a time limit. For this limit everyone’s ideas must be got out.
4. Once the brainstorming starts, participants shout out solutions to the problem while the facilitator writes them down – usually on a white board, or use brain storm software. There must be absolutely no criticizing of ideas. No matter how daft, how impossible or how silly an idea is, it must be written down.
5. Once your time is up, select the five ideas, which you like best. Make sure everyone involved in the brainstorming session is in agreement.
6. Write down about five criteria for judging which ideas best solve your problem. Criteria should start with the word “should”.
7. Give each idea a score of 0 to 5 points depending on how well it meets each criterion. Once all of the ideas have been scored for each criterion, add up the scores.

The idea with the highest score will best solve your problem. But you should keep a record of all of your best ideas and their scores in case your best idea turns out not to be workable.

Individual Brain Storm

When you brainstorming on your own you will tend to produce a wider range of ideas than with group brainstorming – you do not have to worry about other people’s egos or opinions, and can therefore be more freely creative. You may not, however, develop ideas as effectively as you do not have the experience of a group to help you.

When brainstorming on your own, it can be helpful to use brain storm software. Useful way of doing this is to use computer-based mind mapping software.

Group Brain Storm

Group brainstorming can be very effective as it uses the experience and creativity of all members of the group. When individual members reach their limit on an idea, another member’s creativity and experience can take the idea to the next stage. Therefore, group brain storm tends to develop ideas in more depth than individual brainstorming

Brain storm in a group can be risky for individuals. Valuable but strange suggestions may appear stupid at first sight. Because of such, you need to chair sessions tightly so that uncreative people do not crush these ideas and leave group members feeling humiliated. This is the concept of brain storm.

Mind Mapping in Brain storm

One of the best ways to begin the brainstorming process is working with images. When Albert Einstein was once asked how he began his writings, he explained that he constructed pictures in his mind, images that moved around one another. In this way he crystallized his ideas and later wrote them down. One of most important of all brainstorming tools is the Mind Map. Mind Mapping is an important technique that helps you to take notes, and enhances your creative problem solving. Using Mind Maps, you can quickly identify and understand the structure of a subject. This helps you to make associations easily. If you find out more information after you have drawn the main Mind Map, then you can easily integrate it with little disruption.

The brain storm software helps your to build the professional Mind Maps. There are a lot of the brain storm software. So you must have right understanding of what class of brain storm software do you need. ConceptDraw MINDMAP is known to be an effective brain storm software. This software is quite professional and have a good balance between price and features. So you need a good professional Brain Storm Software we recomend you ConceptDraw MINDMAP.

Source: Leading Project

eLaBoRasi....

Elaborasi secara eksklusif membicarakan mengenai makro level yang menggambarkan metode yang berkaitan dengan hubungan beberapa ide, seperti bagaimana merangkaikan ide-ide tersebut. Dibawah ini akan penulis gambarkan teori pembelajaran dengan menggunakan elaborasi yaitu: 1). Urutan elaboratif. 2). Urutan prasyarat belajar. 3). Membuat ringkasan / rangkuman. 4). Membuat sintesa. 5). Membuat analogi. 6). Pengaktif strategi cognitive. dan 7). Kontrol siswa.

1. Urutan Elaboratif

Urutan elaboratif merupakan sesuatu yang khas dari sederhana ke rangkaian kompleks, atau dari umum ke rinci, yang memiliki karakteristik khusus. Dikatakan memiliki karakteristik khusus karena mempreskrepsikan cara yang amat berbeda dengan cara-cara yang umum dipakai untuk menata urutan pembelajaran dari umum ke rinci. Urutan elaboratif memiliki dua hal yang ada didalamnya yaitu : (1) Ide umum yang digambarkan tidak hanya meringkas ide yang ada. (2) Penggambaran (epitomize) dilakukan berdasarkan pada tipe materi tunggal.

a. Epitomizing vs Summarizing

Penggambaran (epitomize) dan meringkas dibedakan dalam dua hal penting ;
(1). Menyajikan bagian kecil ide yang telah dipelajari dalam kelas
(2). Menyajikannya secara konkrit, penuh arti, pada tingkat aplikasi.
Sedangkan meringkas penyajiannya mempertimbangkan hal-hal yang lebih luas, tetapi lebih dangkal, abstrak, pada tingkatan mengingat.

b. Tipe materi tunggal

Dengan memperhatikan tipe materi tunggal, proses epitomizing dilakukan dengan salah satu dari tiga tipe materi : konsep, prosedur, prinsip. Konsep adalah sekumpulan objek, peristiwa, simbol yang mempunyai karakter pasti. Mengetahui konsep berarti dapat mengidentifikasi, mengenal, mengklasifikasikan, menggambarkan sesuatu. Prosedur adalah kumpulan tindakan yang berpengaruh pada sesuaatu yang dicapai.Prinsip adalah mengenal hubungan antara perubahan pada sesuatu dan perubahan pada yang lain. Hal ini juga dinamakan hipotesa, proposisi, aturan, hukum tergantung jumlah bukti kebenarannya. Dari tiga tipe materi ini dipilih yang paling penting u ntuk mencapai tujuan umum dalam kelas. Untuk selanjutnya rangkaian elaborasi mempunyai karakterisasi : konseptual organisasi, prosedur organisasi, teori organisasi.Esensi proses epitomizing memerlukan :

(1). Menyeleksi salah satu tipe materi sebagai materi organisasi ( konsep, prinsip, prosedur )

(2). Membuat daftar pada materi organisasi yang telah dipelajari dalam kelas.

(3). Menyeleksi beberapa materi organisasi yang lebih mendasar, sederhana, dan fundamental.

(4). Menyajikan ide pada tingkatan aplikasi

2. Urutan Prasyarat Belajar

Rangkain learning prerequisit berdasarkan pada learning structure, atau hierarchy pembelajaran. Struktur belajar adalah struktur yang menunjukkan fakta atau ide yang harus dipelajari sebelum mendapatkan ide yang baru. Hal itu menunjukkan adanya prerequisit pada suatu ide. Learning prerequisit dapat dianggap sebagai komponen kritis pada suatu masalah / ide. Komponen kritis pada prinsip tersebut adalah : konsep dan perubahan hubungan .

a. Komponen kritis pada konsep adalah :

1). Mengenal atribut

2). Hubungan diantaranya.

b. Komponen kritis pada prosedur adalah :

1). Langkah yang digunakan dalam deskripsi yang lebih detil pada tindakan .

2). Langkah yang digunakan dalam konsep yang berhubungan dengan tindakan .

3. Membuat Ringkasan / Rangkuman

Didalam pembelajaran sangat penting untuk meninjau secara sistimatik apa yang telah dipelajari. Meringkas adalah komponen strategi yang memberikan :

a. Pernyataan singkat pada tiap masalah/ide dan fakta yang telah dipelajari

b. Contoh referensi untuk setiap masalah / ide

c. Beberapa diagnose, tes praktek untuk diri sendiri untuk tiap masalah / ide

Ada dua macam ringkasan dalam teori elaborasi : 1) Ringkasan dari dalam, yang datang pada setiap akhir pelajaran dan ringkasan hanya dari ide dan fakta yang telah dipelajari .2) Kumpulan ringkasan, ringkasan dari semua fakta dan ide yang telah dipelajari sepanjang dalam kumpulan materi pelajaran yang dipelajari siswa. Sekumpulan pelajaran adalah beberapa pelajaran, ditambah pelajaran yang dielaborasi, ditambah pelajaran lain yang juga dielaborasi.

4. Sintesa.

Dalam pembelajaran sangat penting menggabungkan dan menghubungkan materi/ide yang yang telah dipelajari seperti :

a. Memberikan macam-macam pengetahuan yang bernilai kepada pelajar .

b. Memberikan fasilitas pengertian yang mendalam pada individu melalui perbandingan dan perbedaan.

c. Menambah efek motivasi dan keberartian pada pengetahuan baru .

d. Menambah ingatan dengan menambah kreasi yang berhubungan pengetahuan baru dan diantara pengetahuan baru dengan siswa yang relevan dengan pengetahuan sebelumnya.

Dalam teori elaborasi, sintesa adalah strategi untuk menghubungkan dan menggabungkan kumpulan konsep, kumpulan prosedur, kumpulan prinsip.

5. Analogi

Analogi adalah komponen strategi yang penting dalam pembelajaran karena ini akan membuat lebih mudah untuk mengerti masalah/ide baru dengan menghubungkannya dengan masalah / ide yang sudah dikenal. Analogi menggambarkan kesamaan antara beberapa masalah/ide baru dengan yang sudah dikenal diluar materi yang diajarkan. Analogi menolong ketika ada masalah/ide yang sukar untuk dimengerti, dengan menghubungkan materi yang sukar dan belum kita kenal ke pengetahuan yang sudah dikenal tetapi diluar materi yang diajarkan.

6. Pengaktif strategi kognitif

Pembelajaran akan lebih efektif untuk memperluas kebutuhan siswa yang sadar atau tidak sadar menggunakan strategi kognitif yang relevan, karena bagaimana proses pemberian input pada siswa merupakan rangkaian yang penting dalam proses belajar. Strategi kognitif kadang-kadang dinamakan kecakapan umum yang meliputi kecakapan belajar dan kecakapan berfikir yang dapat digunakan secara menyeluruh pada materi, seperti mengkreasikan mental image dan mengenal analogi. Strategi kognitif dapat dan harus diaktifkan selama pembelajaran. Dua arti pada penyelesaian telah digambarkan Rigney (1978) dalam Yuenda, (1999) sebagai berikut : Pertama, pembelajaran dapat didesain dalam setiap cara untuk mendorong siswa menggunakan strategi kognitif khusus, seringkali tanpa disadari siswa dalam kenyataannya menggunakan strategi ini.Strategi ini meliputi pembelajaran dengan menggunakan gambar, diagram, mnemonic,analogy, dan peralatan yang mendorong siswa untuk berinteraksi dengan materi tertentu. Bentuk kedua pada aktivator adalah strategi dimana secara langsung mempekerjakan strategi kognitif yang telah diperoleh sebelumnya.

7. Kontrol Siswa.

Siswa diberi kebebasan dalam hal seleksi dan mengurutkan :

a. Materi yang telah dipelajari

b. Peringkat yang akan dipelajari

c. Komponen strategi pembelajaran yang diseleksi dan urutan yang digunakan

d. Strategi kognitif khusus siswa yang mengerjakan ketika berhubungan dengan

pembelajaran.