London, UK: Have you ever struggled to solve a problem? Have you spent timeless hours seeking the next piece of content that will rock your stats? Looking for a different advertising campaign that will actually make the difference? Sure you have because we all have in the field of creativity and that’s why we perfectly know how frustrating it could be to meet over and over without any interesting results.
There is no such a thing as a great idea and immediately crafting it into a piece of art. So in order to make this process easier and more effective we created this list of brainstorming techniques combined with other methods that activate your lateral thinking.
You will be able to unite your efforts to find a conclusion to a specific problem by gathering ideas spontaneously contributed by its members with the ability to solve problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately evident and involving thoughts that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic.
Try them out and let’s see where they take you! Brainstorm like a God!
1. Doctor Who Technique:
Also known as Teleportation or Time Traveller. You must imagine you’re somewhere else, in a different place, in a different time period… How would you solve your problem if it were 10 years ago? 100 years ago? In the Stone Age? What if you were facing the problem in China? What about on Mars?
2. Walking a Mile in Someone Else’s Shoes:
Approach the problem through the eyes of someone else. It could be your mum, your teacher, the shopkeeper downstairs, your boss, anyone. Try to replicate what their thought process would be and the solutions they would encounter.
3. Hero Time:
Who wouldn’t love to have superpowers? Stop desiring and start believing in this brainstorming solution. Would you handle your problem differently if you had any superpower? We cannot promise you’ll find the most incredible content, but you’ll have a jolly time and mate, truth be said, this usually leads to better ideas.
4. Illuminati Session:
Also called The Iconic Brainstorming. Similar to walking in someone else’s shoes but this time pretend you’re a VIP, the more iconic the better. How would you deal with the issue if you were The Queen of England? Barack Obama? The Pope? Adolf Hitler? Being the figures they were (or are) you can come up with some extreme solutions.
5. Pull a Steve Jobs
Grab a carrot juice, some psychedelic stuff, and head over to some mountain and just let the crazy ideas fly in. Just Joking. Sometimes it’s better to brainstorm on your own, though. No one will tell you “that’s crazy”.
6. The Outgoing Plan
Did you know that even if your office is super cool it somehow kills a part of your employees’ creativity? Routines are pretty bad when it comes to getting creative. Why don’t you take them out for lunch, have a couple of beers and think about how to solve that pressing issue? Being in a different environment will bring unique ideas to the table.
7. REM Stage and WTF?!
All you need are 5 basic elements: A pen, a notebook, a friend, tiredness, and a comfortable place where you can lay down. Now that you’ve got everything, go to sleep and leave both the notebook and the pen nearby. This will be your friend’s favourite part: As you are falling asleep, have your friend wake you up with a loud noise (clapping his hands, for example). Grab the pen and write down the first thing comes to your mind.
[content_band bg_color=”#E8F6D2″ border=”all”] [container]Need merchandise for an upcoming event? We can help. Printsome’s T-shirts are produced locally ?? and from the best-quality garments. Our delivery services work all over the UK and can adapt to most deadlines. Learn more![/container] [/content_band]8. The Perfect Unknown
Have you ever bought a stranger to a brainstorming session? I’ll tell you it can lead to a very interesting situation, as long as that person interacts with the team. People who aren’t in touch with your business have completely different ideas, sometimes insane, sometimes really great.
9. Brainwriting
Imagine you’re brainstorming to find new ideas for articles, let’s say you already know you want to talk about marketing, events and t-shirt printing. You take 10 papers (for 10 people), each one of them has a different question or topic… (in this case, it could be: articles about marketing, about events and t-shirt printing). You have 3 minutes to write any idea on it, after that, you pass it to the left and have 3 minutes to write something different to what the previous fellow wrote. Repeat the process till the first paper is back to you.
10. SWOT it
It’s quite common to get lost at a certain point even before you brainstorm. Your goals are not clear, the panorama is foggy… doing a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) may help you to get a cleaner scene where you understand what’s going on and what you can do better.
11. Borderline Style
Sometimes, in fact, most of the time, we make things more complicated than they actually are. Get your unworkable problem and write it down like if you were explaining it to a dummy. You’ll see how it gets way simpler.
12. Top Secret Issue
Have you got an idea already? Would you like to brainstorm about it? Instead of meeting with all your crew at once, why don’t you approach them individually? You collect that info and then brainstorm. Things will be different.
13. Alibaba and the 40 solutions
Make a list of 40 solutions to your problem. Doesn’t matter if they’re crazy answers just complete the list and then have a look again. Sure you can find something interesting to face whatever’s making you struggle.
14. Virtual Brainstorming
We accept that in general, we obtain better ideas from group brainstorming sessions, but sometimes it’s just impossible to meet everyone in the same place at the same time… till we remember there’s something called the Internet. Some studies already show that virtual sessions unleash our creativity more than non-virtual. Everyone has Skype, Hangout, Facetime… Don’t hesitate to do it next time, it’s way better than not doing anything at all.
We know it can be complicated for some traditional brands to decide to give one of these techniques a shot. “They sound ridiculous”, “I don’t think they will help at all”, “That’s super freaky, I don’t see my staff pretending to be Gandalf or The Queen during a meeting” are some of the excuses I’ve heard. Well, what do you want me to say? It’s true they are weird but only when you have fun at work and enjoy what you are doing that you get interesting results. Find out what kind of session will help your team the most and what they will respond the best too. Start using it. Doesn’t it work? Try something else.
You cannot expect different results unless you do something different. This is a good chance to start!
Share your techniques with us below! What do you usually do to come up with new ideas and creative results? Which one is your favourite one? Thanks for reading! =)
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