Relearning Brainstorming
5 minute read
If you believe the hype about AI, most repetitive knowledge-work tasks will soon be automated. That will free up huge amounts of people’s time … but to do what exactly?
I think best use of that time is to do what makes us uniquely human, to create. To shape ideas into innovations and improvements that make businesses and society better. To find new ways to lift up current performance and step up to reach new heights.
The good news?
This is something we can all become great at by relearning how to tap into our creative essence on demand.
In the creative arts, ideas are already at the heart of work and that’s one reason the profession is so rewarding. Award-winning actor Tom Hanks once shared a piece of career advice from a theatre director in his early 20s: “Turn up on time, know the text, and have an idea.”
In the arts, simply showing up and knowing your lines isn’t enough. You need ideas, to improve, to surprise, to make things better. The same will soon be true in every workplace as AI takes over routine tasks.
Generating ideas and turning them into innovations will become a defining skill of the next generation of work.
So how do we actually get better at generating ideas?
Harnessing the Power of Brainstorming
One of the simplest and most powerful ways to generate new ideas is brainstorming or, as creatives call it, rapid ideation.
Done right, brainstorming is a low-cost, high-impact way to produce a flood of ideas, the raw material of innovation. Think of it like creating bags of clay a potter uses to shape a vase or a dinner set. Without it, there’s nothing to mould, shape, or transform into something new.
Having facilitated hundreds of brainstorming sessions as a management consultant, created countless paintings and sculptures as an artist, and written two books, I’ve learned that brainstorming is both powerful and fragile.
It’s powerful because it sparks the innovation that drives performance.
It’s fragile because sharing ideas is one of the most vulnerable acts we can perform, especially in front of others. No idea comes out perfectly.
As Mark Zuckerberg once said, “Ideas don’t come out fully formed; they only become clearer as you work on them.”
Every painting I’ve created has turned out differently from the vision in my head, and always better. That’s the secret of creativity. Ideas only become valuable when blended with reality and perseverance.
From my experience, there are four keys to unlocking the power of brainstorming.
1. Get the Basics Right
Brainstorming, as we know it today, was born in the 1950s thanks to advertising legend Alex Osborn, a founding partner of global agency BBDO.
Osborn noticed that when teams met to create new ideas for a client, their best ideas rarely surfaced. People he observed were too afraid of their ideas being judged.
Osborn’s golden rules for brainstorming are:
No judgement.
Go for quantity.
Encourage wild ideas.
Combine and build on others’ ideas.
Keep the group small and diverse (5–12 people).
He also added two key conditions:
Everyone had to be briefed in advance about the challenge.
Sessions had to be facilitated by someone independent to ensure equal contribution.
And it worked. In 1956, BBDO ran 47 brainstorming sessions across 401 workshops, producing over 34,000 ideas. About 2,000 (roughly 6%) were considered high quality and investment-worthy. Without a structured process, that managed the fear of criticism and judgement, most of those ideas would have stayed locked in people’s heads.
In my experience it takes around 15 minutes for a group to drop analytical thinking and shift into creative thinking. After that, peak idea output occurs between 30 – 45 minutes into a brainstorming session.
Two sessions with a 30-minute to 1 hour break in between I’ve found to be the optimum time to generate the highest quantity and quality of ideas. After that brain fatigue sets in and you get diminishing returns for your time.
You should aim for anywhere between 20 – 40 new ideas per person per session.
2. Use Constraints
Creativity loves constraints, but not too many. Just as an artist shapes their work with canvas size, paints, and style, teams need enough boundaries to focus thought but enough freedom to explore wildly. Too many rules and limitations on thoughts, and idea flow becomes restricted.
Just like stepping on the garden hose and only tiny drips comes out. The right balance inspires a fire hydrant flow of ideas.
There are three types of constraints:
Input: Time, resources, materials, systems.
Process: How teams interact, which functions are involved, or rules for virtual vs in-person sessions.
Output: Quality specifications, financial targets, or compliance requirements.
A typical innovation challenge works best with tight output constraints, moderate input constraints, and complete freedom in the process.
3. Combine Brainwriting with Brainstorming
One of the biggest obstacles to effective brainstorming is fear. Fear of looking stupid, being wrong, or having ideas shot down with criticism.
Even well-intentioned leaders saying “there are no bad ideas” isn’t always enough.
Enter brainwriting, developed by German professor Bernd Rohrbach. Where participants silently jot down ideas either before a brainstorming session or while in one.
It works particularly well in environments with low initial trust, as it removes the pressure of speaking aloud and encourages more reflective thinkers to contribute their ideas.
4. Spark Ideas with Prompts
Ideas can often need something to spark off. One of the most widely used solution idea generators is a method called SCAMPER, developed by Bob Eberle in the late 1990s.
S – Substitute: Swap a component, material, or method.
C – Combine: Merge ideas or features to create something new.
A – Adapt: Adjust something to serve a new purpose.
M – Modify / Minimise: Change size, intensity, or scope.
P – Put to another use: Repurpose for a different application.
E – Eliminate: Delete or remove unnecessary elements.
R – Reverse / Rearrange: Change order, direction, or perspective.
Put these on a flipchart when participants start generating ideas. I’ve found it usually adds at least 20% more ideas.
Bonus: Make Brainstorming Tangible
In a world dominated by digital tools, it helps to make creativity tangible. Usually, ideas from brainstorming sessions are captured on reams of coloured post it notes, ripped off flip charts or white board scratching’s. Afterwards only the “best” ideas are typically captured for further evaluation and testing. Ideas deemed “not worthy” are tossed.
But here’s what I’ve learned about ideas. What initially sounds worthless, can later become gold. It’s rarely one idea alone that becomes a winner, it’s usually a combination of ideas that join up to create something useful.
So, losing one idea could be the difference between finding a breakthrough and not.
Enter the Idea Canvas.
Instead of using disposable flip charts to record ideas, use a large stretched artist canvas people can draw on using Posca pens.
Every idea, no matter how small or rough, then has a visible place in the collective story of innovation. One idea can then join others visibly and the whole canvas becomes a story of the session to be told and retold later.
For clients who want a creative touch, I create a unique piece of art from the canvas after the session, incorporating the day’s insights, reflections, and thought models and the company logo subtly in the background to all the ideas captured.
Displayed in an office or meeting room, it becomes a source of inspiration and discussion and a visible reminder that ideas matter, both big and small.
The Future Needs Human Brainstorming
AI may be able to generate and remix ideas faster than ever. But it can’t replace the uniquely human ability to sense what matters, choose the right ideas, and connect them meaningfully.
Brainstorming is a reminder that creativity isn’t about perfection. Raw ideas are just clay, they only become valuable when shaped, refined, and combined with reality and perseverance.
Next time your team gathers to brainstorm ideas, remember Osborn’s first rule: no judgement. Ask, “What’s interesting about this?” rather than “What’s wrong with it?” Use sensible constraints to guide the team’s focus but leave plenty of room for an abundance of new ideas to flood the room.
Because in a world of rapid change, the teams that can both capture and convert more ideas into innovation to Lift Up performance and Step Up to new heights will be the ones shaping the future and reaping the most rewards.