3 Creative Methods That Are Even More Effective Than Classic Brainstorming

The following brainstorming problems need to be recognized and avoided:

• The human tendency to support the first or most obvious ideas (“Of course this idea makes sense – why should I come up with more ideas?”)
• Fear of suggesting ideas that may not be widely accepted (“What if everyone thinks I’m an idiot for suggesting such a strange idea?”)
• General agreement with the most dominant personality in the room (“If Peter says it’s true, it’s probably true – and even if it’s not true, everyone always does what Peter says.”)
• Difficulty thinking creatively at the moment
  (“I can’t think of something fast enough, so I won’t even try.”)
• Seeing the black instead of thinking about opportunities
  (“This idea is interesting, but it will never take off – our accounting system cannot handle this complexity.”)

We tested 3 methods for more creativity and output:

1. Creative sessions in open circles

In creative sessions, one or more initial questions are first formulated based on the briefing. We do it according to this “formula”:

How can you show in a campaign / in an advertising material /… /… that … / brand / = … / USP / special feature …?

For example

How can you communicate in social media postings that e-dialog is THE data-driven agency?
How can you communicate in a digital campaign that e-dialog now has another location in Switzerland?

It is important to pay a lot of attention to the questions in advance. The more carefully you work through the briefing and USPs, the more precise and surprising formulations you can find.

We then work on the questions in an open group on the whiteboard or Jamboard. Important: have fun and talk nonsense. Opportunity thinking and finding ways to develop other people’s ideas. DO NOT kill ideas at this point. There will still be enough time for that at the end when they are checked for feasibility ;)

2. Creative session with brainwriting

During brainwriting, participants initially write down their thoughts and suggestions on their personal paper or in an online tool. Each participant can think about the topic without being influenced by other participants. Anonymity helps remotely when teams don’t know each other very well, or when there are inexperienced or introverted personalities in the team.

Basically, each person on the team writes one or more ideas on a piece of paper and then passes them on to another person. The other person reads the ideas silently and then writes their own ideas about them. The focus here is also on exchange and the teams’ ideas are further developed. The process continues until everyone has finished writing their ideas. They are then introduced.

The creativity technique Collective Notebook: is also a great variation of brainwriting

The idea of collective notebook brainwriting is that participants carry a notebook with them over a certain period of a few days or weeks and write down their ideas and thoughts on the original question. The ideas and thoughts are finally exchanged and discussed at an agreed date. For example, a public notebook or an online tool can be used for this.

3. Evaluate and refine ideas using the Walt Disney Method

In the Disney strategy, the participants took on the role of three characters one after the other, like in a role-playing game:

1. The dreamer: He can spin wildly and develop new, crazy ideas.

2. The realist: He thinks about the concrete implementation of the ideas.

3. The critic: He puts the idea through its paces and points out any risks.

You can imagine sitting in different chairs or in different jobs. How does each person think and feel? How does each perspective evaluate the idea?

This method helps evaluate and refine the top ideas that emerged from other brainstorming sessions. Before presentations, pitches and the preparation of ideas, it helps a lot to take all eventualities and objections into account.