Brainstorming is a group or individual creativity technique by which efforts are made to find a

conclusion for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its
member(s). The term was popularized by Alex Faickney Osborn in the 1953 book Applied
Imagination. Osborn claimed that brainstorming was more effective than individuals working
alone in generating ideas, although more recent research has questioned this conclusion.[1] Today,
the term is used as a catch all for all group ideation sessions.
Directed brainstorming[edit]
Directed brainstorming is a variation of electronic brainstorming (described above). It can be
done manually or with computers. Directed brainstorming works when the solution space (that
is, the set of criteria for evaluating a good idea) is known prior to the session. If known, those
criteria can be used to constrain the Ideationprocess intentionally.
In directed brainstorming, each participant is given one sheet of paper (or electronic form) and
told the brainstorming question. They are asked to produce one response and stop, then all of the
papers (or forms) are randomly swapped among the participants. The participants are asked to
look at the idea they received and to create a new idea that improves on that idea based on the
initial criteria. The forms are then swapped again and respondents are asked to improve upon the
ideas, and the process is repeated for three or more rounds.
In the laboratory, directed brainstorming has been found to almost triple the productivity of
groups over electronic brainstorming.[5]
Guided brainstorming[edit]
A guided brainstorming session is time set aside to brainstorm either individually or as a
collective group about a particular subject under the constraints of perspective and time. This
type of brainstorming removes all cause for conflict and constrains conversations while
stimulating critical and creative thinking in an engaging, balanced environment.
Participants are asked to adopt different mindsets for pre-defined period of time while
contributing their ideas to a central mind map drawn by a pre-appointed scribe. Having examined
a multi-perspective point of view, participants seemingly see the simple solutions that
collectively create greater growth. Action is assigned individually.
Following a guided brainstorming session participants emerge with ideas ranked for further
brainstorming, research and questions remaining unanswered and a prioritized, assigned,
actionable list that leaves everyone with a clear understanding of what needs to happen next and
the ability to visualize the combined future focus and greater goals of the group.
Individual brainstorming[edit]
"Individual brainstorming" is the use of brainstorming in solitary. It typically includes such
techniques as free writing, free speaking, word association, and drawing amind map, which is a

visual note taking technique in which people diagram their thoughts. Individual brainstorming is
a useful method in creative writing and has been shown to be superior to traditional group
brainstorming.[6][1]

Question brainstorming[edit]
This process involves brainstorming the questions, rather than trying to come up with immediate
answers and short term solutions. Theoretically, this technique should not inhibit participation as
there is no need to provide solutions. The answers to the questions form the framework for
constructing future action plans. Once the list of questions is set, it may be necessary to prioritize
them to reach to the best solution in an orderly way.[7]
"Questorming" is another term for this mode of inquiry

What is Brainstorming?
Madison Avenue advertising executive Alex Osborn developed the original approach and
published it in his 1953 book, "Applied Imagination." Since then, researchers have made many
improvements to his original technique.
The approach described here takes this research into account, so it's subtly different from
Osborn's approach.
Brainstorming combines a relaxed, informal approach to problem solving with lateral thinking. It
encourages people to come up with thoughts and ideas that can, at first, seem a bit crazy. Some
of these ideas can be crafted into original, creative solutions to a problem, while others can spark
even more ideas. This helps to get people unstuck by "jolting" them out of their normal ways of
thinking.
Therefore, during brainstorming sessions, people should avoid criticizing or rewarding ideas.
You're trying to open up possibilities and break down incorrect assumptions about the problem's
limits. Judgment and analysis at this stage stunts idea generation and limit creativity.
Evaluate ideas at the end of the session this is the time to explore solutions further, using
conventional approaches.
Why Use Brainstorming?
Conventional group problem solving can often be undermined by unhelpful group behavior .
And while it's important to start with a structured, analytical processwhen solving problems,
this can lead a group to develop limited and unimaginative ideas.
By contrast, brainstorming provides a free and open environment that encourages everyone to
participate. Quirky ideas are welcomed and built upon, and all participants are encouraged to
contribute fully, helping them develop a rich array of creative solutions.

When used during problem solving, brainstorming brings team members' diverse experience into
play. It increases the richness of ideas explored, which means that you can often find better
solutions to the problems that you face.
It can also help you get buy-in from team members for the solution chosen after all, they're
likely to be more committed to an approach if they were involved in developing it. What's more,
because brainstorming is fun, it helps team members bond, as they solve problems in a positive,
rewarding environment.
While brainstorming can be effective, it's important to approach it with an open mind and a spirit
of non-judgment. If you don't do this, people "clam up," the number and quality of ideas
plummets, and morale can suffer.
Individual Brainstorming
While group brainstorming is often more effective at generating ideas than normal group
problem solving, several studies have shown that individual brainstorming produces more and
often better ideas than group brainstorming.
This can occur because groups aren't always strict in following the rules of brainstorming, and
bad behaviors creep in. Mostly, though, this happens because people pay so much attention to
other people that they don't generate ideas of their own or they forget these ideas while they
wait for their turn to speak. This is called "blocking."
When you brainstorm on your own, you don't have to worry about other people's egos or
opinions, and you can be freer and more creative. For example, you might find that an idea you'd
hesitate to bring up in a group develops into something special when you explore it on your own.
However, you may not develop ideas as fully when you're on your own, because you don't have
the wider experience of other group members to draw on.
Tip:
To get the most out of your individual brainstorming session, choose a comfortable place to sit
and think. Minimize distractions so that you can focus on the problem at hand, and consider
using Mind Maps to arrange and develop ideas.
Individual brainstorming is most effective when you need to solve a simple problem, generate a
list of ideas, or focus on a broad issue. Group brainstorming is often more effective for solving
complex problems.
Group Brainstorming
Here, you can take advantage of the full experience and creativity of all team members. When
one member gets stuck with an idea, another member's creativity and experience can take the
idea to the next stage. You can develop ideas in greater depth with group brainstorming than you
can with individual brainstorming.
Another advantage of group brainstorming is that it helps everyone feel that they've contributed
to the solution, and it reminds people that others have creative ideas to offer. It's also fun, so it
can be great for team building!

Group brainstorming can be risky for individuals. Unusual suggestions may appear to lack value
at first sight this is where you need to chair sessions tightly, so that the group doesn't crush
these ideas and stifle creativity.
Where possible, participants should come from a wide range of disciplines. This cross-section of
experience can make the session more creative. However, don't make the group too big: as with
other types of teamwork, groups of five to seven people are usually most effective.
How to Use the Tool
You often get the best results by combining individual and group brainstorming, and by
managing the process according to the "rules" below. By doing this, you can get people to focus
on the issue without interruption, you maximize the number of ideas that you can generate, and
you get that great feeling of team bonding that comes with a well-run brainstorming session!
To run a group brainstorming session effectively, follow these steps.
Step 1: Prepare the Group
First, set up a comfortable meeting environment for the session. Make sure that the room is
well-lit and that you have the tools, resources, and refreshments that you need.
How much information or preparation does your team need in order to brainstorm solutions to
your problem? Remember that prep is important, but too much can limit or even destroy the
freewheeling nature of a brainstorming session.
Consider who will attend the meeting. A room full of like-minded people won't generate as many
creative ideas as a diverse group, so try to include people from a wide range of disciplines, and
include people who have a variety of different thinking styles.
When everyone is gathered, appoint one person to record the ideas that come from the session.
This person shouldn't necessarily be the team manager it's hard to record and contribute at the
same time. Post notes where everyone can see them, such as on flip charts or whiteboards; or use
a computer with a data projector.
If people aren't used to working together, consider using an appropriate warm-up exercise, or
an icebreaker .
Step 2: Present the Problem
Clearly define the problem that you want to solve, and lay out any criteria that you must meet.
Make it clear that that the meeting's objective is to generate as many ideas as possible.
Give people plenty of quiet time at the start of the session to write down as many of their own
ideas as they can. Then, ask them to share their ideas, while giving everyone a fair opportunity to
contribute.
Step 3: Guide the Discussion
Once everyone has shared their ideas, start a group discussion to develop other people's ideas,
and use them to create new ideas. Building on others' ideas is one of the most valuable aspects of
group brainstorming.
Encourage everyone to contribute and to develop ideas, including the quietest people, and
discourage anyone from criticizing ideas.

As the group facilitator, you should share ideas if you have them, but spend your time and energy
supporting your team and guiding the discussion. Stick to one conversation at a time, and refocus
the group if people become sidetracked.
Although you're guiding the discussion, remember to let everyone have fun while brainstorming.
Welcome creativity, and encourage your team to come up with as many ideas as possible,
regardless of whether they're practical or impractical. Use thought experiments such
as Provocation or Random Input to generate some unexpected ideas.
Don't follow one train of thought for too long. Make sure that you generate a good number of
different ideas, and explore individual ideas in detail. If a team member needs to "tune out" to
explore an idea alone, allow them the freedom to do this.
Also, if the brainstorming session is lengthy, take plenty of breaks so that people can continue to
concentrate.
Taking Your Brainstorming Further
If you're not getting enough good quality ideas, try using the approaches below to increase the
number of ideas that you generate:

The Stepladder Technique This improves the contribution of quieter group

members by introducing one person at a time.

Brainwriting This is a written approach that you can use to encourage all
individuals to generate and develop ideas.

Online Brainstorming (also known as Brain-netting) An electronic method of

brainstorming, this uses a document stored on a central server, or on a Cloud-based system.

Crawford's Slip Writing Approach You can use this approach to get plenty of
ideas from all participants, and to get a view of each idea's popularity.
These techniques help you in specific situations:

Reverse Brainstorming This is used to improve a product or service.

Starbursting Starbursting helps you develop questions that you need to ask to
evaluate a proposal.
Charette Procedure This helps you brainstorm with large groups of people.
(Conventional brainstorming becomes increasingly ineffective when more than 10 or 12
people are involved.)
Round-Robin Brainstorming You can use this approach to get people to contribute
ideas without being influenced by others.
Rolestorming This technique encourages group members to take on other people's
identities while brainstorming, thereby reducing their inhibitions.
The Next Step Taking Action
After your individual or group brainstorming session, you'll have a lot of ideas. Although it
might seem hard to sort through these ideas to find the best ones, analyzing these ideas is an
important next step, and you can use several tools to do this.
Use Affinity Diagrams to organize ideas and find common themes.
Decision Matrix Analysis and Paired Comparison Analysis will help you choose between
different options. You can also use the Six Thinking Hats technique to look at ideas from

different perspectives; and Multi-Voting can help you choose between options as a team,
particularly where the differences between options are quite subjective.
Key Points
When managed well, brainstorming can help you generate radical solutions to problems. It can
also encourage people to commit to solutions, because they have provided input and played a
role in developing them.
The best approach combines individual and group brainstorming. During the process, there
should be no criticism of ideas, and creativity should be encouraged.

MIND MAPPING
A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information. A mind map is often created
around a single concept, drawn as an image in the center of a blank landscape page, to which
associated representations of ideas such as images, words and parts of words are added. Major
ideas are connected directly to the central concept, and other ideas branch out from those.
Mind maps can be drawn by hand, either as "rough notes" during a lecture, meeting or planning
session, for example, or as higher quality pictures when more time is available.
Mind maps are considered to be a type of spider diagram.[1] A similar concept in the 1970s was
"idea sun bursting".[2]

Mind map guidelines[edit]

Buzan suggests the following guidelines for creating mind maps:
1. Start in the center with an image of the topic, using at least 3 colors.
2. Use images, symbols, codes, and dimensions throughout your mind map.
3. Select key words and print using upper or lower case letters.
4. Each word/image is best alone and sitting on its own line.
5. The lines should be connected, starting from the central image. The lines become thinner as they
radiate out from the center.
6. Make the lines the same length as the word/image they support.
7. Use multiple colors throughout the mind map, for visual stimulation and also for encoding or
grouping.
8. Develop your own personal style of mind mapping.

9. Use emphasis and show associations in your mind map.

10. Keep the mind map clear by using radial hierarchy or outlines to embrace your branches.

Uses[edit]

Rough mindmap notes taken during a course session

As with other diagramming tools, mind maps can be used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid
to studying[6] and organizing information, solving problems, making decisions, and writing.
Mind maps have many applications in personal, family, educational, and business situations, including notetaking, brainstorming (wherein
ideas are inserted into the map radially around the center node, without the implicit prioritization that comes from hierarchy or sequential
arrangements, and wherein grouping and organizing is reserved for later stages), summarizing, as a mnemonic technique, or to sort out a
complicated idea. Mind maps are also promoted as a way to collaborate in color pen creativity sessions.
In addition to these direct use cases, data retrieved from mind maps can be used to enhance several other applications; for instance expert
search systems, search engines and search and tag query recommender.[7] To do so, mind maps can be analysed with classic methods
of information retrieval to classify a mind map's author or documents that are linked from within the mind map. [7]

Uses[edit]
As with other diagramming tools, mind maps can be used to generate, visualize, structure,
and classify ideas, and as an aid to studying[6] and organizing information, solving problems, making
decisions, and writing.
Mind maps have many applications in personal, family, educational, and business situations,
including notetaking, brainstorming (wherein ideas are inserted into the map radially around the
center node, without the implicit prioritization that comes from hierarchy or sequential arrangements,
and wherein grouping and organizing is reserved for later stages), summarizing, as a mnemonic

technique, or to sort out a complicated idea. Mind maps are also promoted as a way to collaborate in
color pen creativity sessions.
In addition to these direct use cases, data retrieved from mind maps can be used to enhance several
other applications; for instance expert search systems, search engines and search and tag query
recommender.[7] To do so, mind maps can be analysed with classic methods of information
retrieval to classify a mind map's author or documents that are linked from within the mind map. [7]

Tools[edit]
Mind-mapping software can be used to organize large amounts of information, combining spatial
organization, dynamic hierarchical structuring and node folding. Software packages can extend
the concept of mind-mapping by allowing individuals to map more than thoughts and ideas with
information on their computers and the Internet, like spreadsheets, documents, Internet sites and
images.[19] It has been suggested that mind-mapping can improve learning/study efficiency up to
15% over conventional note-taking.[20]