How to Facilitate a Brainstorming Session

Brainstorming allows a group to generate countless creative ideas in a very short time.
In order for it to work, you need to be energetic and open.

Steps:
• Present the situation to the group—after all, they need to know what they are
generating ideas for!
• Ask everyone to spend a couple of minutes thinking up their own ideas. Have
them write their ideas down on paper but keep them to themselves.
• Divide people into groups of three or four. Ask them to share their lists with each
other for a few minutes, trying to build on each one. It is important not to
evaluate or criticize the ideas in any way, but to focus on making the lists longer.

Now that you have everyone excited and interested in your topic, you need to get all
these ideas written down for everyone to see.
1. Have a ton of flipchart paper displayed so that everyone can see all the ideas at
once.
2. Have one person as a note taker and another as a cheerleader, with one
inspiring the group to generate ideas while the other is busy writing them down.
If there are lots of people, you can even have two note takers and the
cheerleader can direct comments from one to the other.
3. Explain to the group what the goal is (20 ideas? 50? 100?) and what the ground
rules are. Here are some of the most common:
a. Write down all ideas; evaluation will come later.
b. Have fun and suggest anything—the crazier the better!
c. Not every idea needs to be original. Ideas can work off of other people’s
ideas or comments.
d. Get lots of ideas—the more the better!
e. Don’t spend a lot of time (5–10 minutes max.) If people aren’t coming up
with many ideas in the first couple of minutes, use the steps for creating
group energy.
4. Start the brainstorming session dynamically with “Ready, set, go!” Maintain the
energy by encouraging people (especially the quiet ones) and even jumping
around a little!
5. When the goal is reached (100 ideas!), congratulate everyone.
6. Take a little break and then start the sorting, organizing, ranking and evaluating.