5 Rules For Successful Ideation

Whether it’s a simple brainstorming session or a sophisticated stimuli-based lateral thinking exercise, if you’re trying to generate a lot of good ideas from a group, it’s important to set some guidelines before you get started. Here are five rules to share with your participants before the first idea is voiced.

1. Believe you ARE creative.

Everyone has good ideas and yours just may be the next great breakthrough. Try to avoid these self-limiting thoughts:

1. That’s not the right answer.

2. This is silly.

3. I’m not creative.

4. This is wasting my time.

5. What if this idea sounds stupid?

6. What will others think of me?

2. Come prepared to the ideation session by researching the topic matter.

The facilitator should tell you in advance what the subject matter will be and how to plan for the session. Whether this is collecting competitive information, studying a trend, or just being well rested, do your best to prepare.

3. Don’t judge or “prematurely evaluate” other participant’s ideas.

Actively listen to other ideas and remove the inclination to immediately judge the idea. You’ll have plenty of time to shoot down ideas later. Here is a list of idea killers to think about to avoid “premature evaluation”:

1. That’s stupid!

2. We tried that.

3. It costs too much.

4. We can’t do that.

5. It’s not our responsibility.

6. That’s not practical!

7. That’s not our problem.

8. We don’t have the resources.

9. Let’s not change.

10. That’s a lot of work.

11. The “boss” won’t go for it.

12. There’s no budget.

13. Customers won’t like it.

14. Let’s wait.

15. We don’t have time.

16. We’ve never done that.

17. No one else is doing that.

4. Don’t stop looking for ideas until the time is up, even if you’ve run out of ideas.

Some of the best ideas come after it seems the "idea well" is already dry. Keep looking and connecting with other thoughts until you find that “Eureka!”

5. Be prepared to have fun and help create a positive environment.

It has been proven that a stress-free setting is far more conducive to generating more great ideas than a tense environment. Keep it light and fun to get the best results. If you have to leave the office to go somewhere stress-free, do it!

Done