Scary creatures and evil spirits are fine on Halloween night. But they have no place in your brainstorming sessions, where they’re sure to terrorize everyone in the room and thwart any fresh, innovative thinking.
Mitchell Rigie and Keith Harmeyer, idea generation experts and coauthors of SmartStorming: The Game-Changing Process for Generating Bigger, Better Ideas, have some tips for how to exorcize the most disruptive brainstorming demons.
“In an ideal world, the leader of a brainstorming group is inspiring, supportive, fair, and open-minded,” says Rigie. “They encourage participation by creating a safe, supportive environment for sharing new and different types of ideas and perspectives.”
“Unfortunately not every leader is so skillful, or puts the best interests of his or her group first,” adds Harmeyer. “For every well-trained and masterful Yoda-like leader, there is a Darth Vader lurking in the conference room next door.”
Rigie and Harmeyer explain that such “dark overlords of ideation” come in many different guises: Some possess dominating personalities that rule and control their groups instead of inspiring and guiding them; others demonstrate an insatiable appetite for more and more ideas, and relentlessly pressure their group to generate vast quantities without end.
“We once knew a Dungeon Master who would squash creativity in every brainstorming session,” says Rigie. At the start of the meeting, he would assert, You know how they say there’s no such thing as a bad idea? Well, that’s not true. There are bad ideas. Ideas so bad they should never be spoken out loud. …Okay, so what have we got?
Needless to say, few participants have the courage to utter even one risky, unconventional, and potentially innovative idea. Well, unless it’s the dreaded Attention Vampire.
“Attention Vampires always want to stand out and be the center of attention,” says Rigie. “They’ll suck the life out of the entire group experience.”
So “ward off evil influences,” warns Rigie. When considering whom to invite to or lead your brainstorming, “seek out individuals who possess a positive, can-do attitude and collaborative nature.”
This is dead-on–a leader who dominates the discussion or is negative rather than open to any idea can really undermine a brainstorming session. But how do we ward off these “evil influences”? Work around them somehow?