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There are many online tools and apps that can help your team share their views.
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Many managers lead partly or fully virtual teams. Team members may be physically present only a few days each week, or they may be entirely virtual – living in distant cities, other countries, or completely different time zones.
With teams like these, how can you run effective brainstorming sessions?
This is a question that virtual team managers need to answer. And it's why many are turning to the concept of online brainstorming.
In this article, we'll look at how you can use online services to help your team share and discuss their ideas.
Online brainstorming, also known as "electronic brainstorming" or "brain netting", is a term used to describe techniques that use the Internet to share and develop ideas.
There are many tools and services that you can use for online brainstorming. They vary in approach and complexity, but they have one thing in common:
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Antunes, P. (2008) ‘Tackling Information Overload in Electronic Brainstorming,’ Proceedings of the 2008 Conference on Group Decision and Negotiation (GDN), Coimbra, Portugal. (Available here.) [Accessed 26 March 2013].
Gallupe, R.B., Dennis, A.R., Cooper, W.H., Valacich, J.S., Bastianutti, L.M., and Nunamaker Jr, J.F. (1992) ‘Electronic Brainstorming And Group Size,’ Academy of Management Journal, February, Volume 35, No. 2. (Available here.) [Accessed 26 March 2013.]
Michinov, N. (2012) ‘Is Electronic Brainstorming or Brainwriting the Best Way to Improve Creative Performance in Groups? An Overlooked Comparison of Two Idea-Generation Techniques,’ Journal of Applied Social Psychology, December, Volume 42. (Available here.) [Accessed 26 March 2013].
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