Tips to Prepare a Brainstorming Session

Tips to Prepare Brainstorming Sessions
John Moses, Manager, Nigeria
To prepare an effective strategic brainstorming, the project manager or moderator should select the team members from each of the functional areas such as finance, marketing, production, quality control, risk management, human resources etc so as to allow cross-fertilisation of ideas.
The atmosphere and environment must have bearing on the topical issues and allows for optimum participation from the team members.
You can circulate an outline of the issues to be discussed ahead of time to give room for adequate preparation and consultation. Such a draft could also be produced from the initial session which will be built upon subsequently after critical considerations for implementation.

The Basics of Brainstorming
V SHRIDHAR, Consultant, India
A tip is also to remember the basics of brainstorming. This is based on my learning through long years of experience. Some important and fundamentals of brainstorming have to be understood and followed:
1. It is an open and democratic way of finding out the best solution for a problem and is not a competition!
2. all ideas are good. Nobody in the group is good or bad.
3. The members of the brainstorming session have to work as a team and everyone should try to suggest ideas to solve the problem in the most appropriate way.
I am sure if these are kept in mind brainstorming sessions will be successful and shall become a practice for success in an organization.