Brainstorming: Move It Up a Gear!
Mind Tools Newsletter 66 - 23rd January 2007
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Welcome to our
January 23rd Newsletter!
Brainstorming
is a technique no Mind Tools reader should be without. Whether
you’re generating ideas for new products, or finding new ways
to solve problems, brainstorming is a “must-have” for your career
skills tool-kit.
However, whilst brainstorming is a powerful technique, whether
it's successful or not is often down to how well you run the brainstorming
session
So
imagine that you are faced with the challenge of organizing a brainstorming
session, perhaps on several topics, with a much larger group of people
than the usual 6 - 8 brainstormers: Maybe 10 times that number… What
do you do?
Don’t panic!
Today’s article has a solution, the Charette Procedure. This helps you
organize brainstorming with a very large group, and even cover several
brainstorming topics to boot. As such, it's a great technique for bringing
out the full creativity, and winning the support, of a large group of
opinionated and powerful people.
What's New?
But before you run out and organize some major brainstorming sessions,
check out what else is new at Mind Tools! Another article well worth
reading is Appreciative Inquiry - Solving Problems by Looking
at What’s Going Right. Focusing on what’s going right is a great idea,
and can be quite energizing. We often spend far too long thinking about
what’s going wrong!
In the Career
Excellence Club, we’ve got many more resources and discussions
on a wide range of career-enhancing subjects. Recent new articles have
included Kaizen - how to eliminate waste in the way you work,
and Crisis Planning - preparing your best response to the unexpected.
Our popular audio / podcast series has recently included an interview
with distinguished change agent and executive coach Judith E Glaser;
a thought-provoking Book Insight into Stephen M R Covey’s “The Speed
of Trust”; a Bite-Sized Training lesson on Impact Analysis;
wise words in the Coaching Clinic about how to “Let Go a Little”;
and lots of other interesting and pertinent discussions in the forums.
It’s been an excellent and informative couple of weeks in the club!
Enjoy today’s article, and keep tuning in for much more!
James & Rachel
James Manktelow and Rachel Thompson
MindTools.com
Mind Tools – Essential skills for an excellent career!
To find out about new tools on the Mind Tools site the moment they’re uploaded, click here to subscribe to the Mind Tools RSS feed (you'll need an RSS newsreader installed), or here to find out more about RSS. |
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New
Article
The
Charette Procedure
Brainstorming Multiple Ideas With Multiple Stakeholders
Have you ever tried to hold a brainstorming session with more than 10
or 15 people? Or tried to brainstorm ideas for two or more related issues?
It’s rarely pretty! These sessions quickly spin out of control,
becoming chaotic and unproductive. What's more, they tend to be dominated
by only a few people, with the majority remaining silent.
When an idea-generating session has numerous related issues or numerous
stakeholders, simple brainstorming is often inadequate. This means that
sessions are less creative than they might be, buy-in is undermined,
and people disengage from the process. This is a serious problem if
you need to achieve consensus.
However, brainstorming can still be effective if you take a slightly
different approach to organizing the brainstorming sessions.
One such approach has a name: The Charette Procedure (sometimes spelled
‘Charrette’). It involves organizing people into several
small groups, each of which brainstorms ideas one-after-the-other until
everyone involved has had a chance to contribute fully. Derived from
the French word for wagon, it come from the practice of architecture
students in the early 1800s, who used carts to rush their drawings from
one place to another to get final approvals. In much the same way, when
you use the Charette Procedure, you take the ideas generated by a group,
and cart them over to the next group, for them to be built upon, refined,
and finally prioritized.
The Charette Procedure allows for maximum participation in idea generation,
without compromising the quality or effectiveness of the brainstorming.
The benefits of the process include:
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Effective
use of time because many issues can be discussed at the same time;
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Improved
buy-in from stakeholders, who have the opportunity to contribute
their ideas on each issue;
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Encouragement
of high quality options because the most popular ideas are polished
with each round of discussion;
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Elimination
of stalled discussion, because new people can progress an issue
on each round.
How to Use the Tool
The Charette Procedure is quite simple to apply. Depending on your situation
you may complete the various group discussions in one day, or they can
be held over a series of days or weeks. The system you choose will be
based on the logistics involved and the magnitude of your project.
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Agree
on a set of issues that need to be discussed.
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Divide your larger group into
small groups that are conducive to brainstorming. As with many types
of group interaction, a group size of seven participants plus the
recorder is ideal. Here again, the specifics of your situation will
dictate the size of your groups. When planning the groups, consider
the following:
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If you have a set deadline,
make sure the number of groups and iterations can be accommodated.
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Think about the mix of people
within the groups. Groups with a diverse mix of skills, background
and experience are generally more creative than those of similarly
skilled people.
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Make sure the number of groups
is equal to or greater than the number of issues to discuss.
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Assign an issue to each group. If there are more
groups than issues, then assign some issues to more than one group.
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Have each group elect a recorder. You may also
suggest this person facilitates the group discussion as well.
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Each group brainstorms an issue.
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When the group’s time is up, the recorder
moves to the next group.
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The recorder reviews the issues and current
state of the brainstorming list with the new group.
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Brainstorming begins again, with each group
now discussing a new idea or issue. The new group builds on
the existing ideas and generates new one.
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Repeat this step until each group has discussed
each issue once.
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In the final group session, allow time to organize
and draw together the ideas into key ideas, themes or strands. If
several groups have been working at the same time on the same issue,
this is a good time to bring together the different streams of ideas.
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Once the final session has finished, reconvene
the whole group and have the recorders present their lists. This
is a good time to work with the group to prioritize issues or approaches,
if this is appropriate. Techniques that can help you with this are
Nominal
Group Technique, and
Multi-Voting.
Key Points
The Charette Procedure is an efficient and effective process for brainstorming
and capturing ideas, when there are multiple issues and many people
involved. It is a systemic and organized approach that allows everyone
to contribute in a meaningful way. When you are faced with a complex,
multiplayer decision, the Charette Procedure is a great way to harness
ideas and priorities as the foundation of well-considered and widely
accepted plans.
The Mind Tools Store:
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The
Career Excellence Club
(The Mind Tools members area): Make career development and every-day
part of your life with member-only discussion forums, the Mind
Tools Extended Toolkit, downloadable MP3-based Book Insights and
Interviews, regular coaching, training, and much, much more.
More >>
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Make
Time for Success:
If you feel overloaded and out of control, you'll love Make Time
for Success! Learn the 39 essential personal effectiveness techniques
that help you bring your workload under control and maximize your
productivity, so that you can make the most of the opportunities
open to you.
More >>
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How
to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You:
Learn the 48
simple but essential skills you need to create an inspiring vision
of the future, get the very best from your team, and become a
top leader in your industry.
More >>
A Final Note From James
Humility and Team Charters are just 2 of the subjects we’re looking
forward to in the next two weeks. And if you are ready to make career
excellence an even bigger part of your life, do come and join us in
the Career
Excellence Club, where you’ll find liked-minded people,
and many more excellent resources.
Have a truly excellent week!
James
James Manktelow
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Essential Skills for an Excellent Career!
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