80% Of Brainstorming Sessions Don’t Work

Seven Idea Generation Fails

Redefine Brainstorming and Get Better Results

I might be getting to old to hold back on saying this about ideation, aka idea generation, aka brainstorming. My inner skeptic and snarky soul wants to scream it. Based on my experience, about 80% of idea generation doesn’t work. It might be worse than that.

In spite of the efforts of many people to train others in how it ought to be done, it’s getting worse, not better.

The Failure Rate is partly because the game’s changed, again. Also partly because the lessons of how it ought to be done have simply never been learned. As the drawing suggests, please, let’s redefine brainstorming. Let’s adopt practices that work. Call it whatever you like!

Digital technology, in all it’s various forms, is what’s different now. Classic innovation teams, and leaders, don’t know how to handle it. Why? Because most of them don’t know technology, or, know it well enough. Getting a few techies onboard is a start, but it means the team is now an entirely new team, and before they can innovate they’ve got to cope with the new dynamics. And the gap, the chasm, as Geoffrey Moore once put it, between technologists and marketers has always been wide, challenging, and difficult to cross. There are tools to address the team dynamics and lack of knowledge, see Digital Technology MoshPit.

It’s not all digital tech’s fault. It’s the worst-practices that have plagued us for many years. For skeptics, understand this has all been studied, there is actual science behind the following seven fails. That’s the academic paper I don’t have time to write, but trust me, it’s all there. Here’s the list of brainstorming fails — and the solutions to avoid them:

Seven Brainstorming Fails, with Solutions

1. Brainstorming is all group work. Nope, it should be a combination of work done alone, AND work done together. Most introverts hate brainstorming sessions because they are loud and unreflective. That’s half the population. Even in group work, some of it should be silent or quiet, that gets to better planning, see #3.
2. Have a generalized question. Please, spend time, lots of time, before a session to focus a question, and be creative about it. If you get this wrong, you pretty much guarantee failure.
3. Use an inexperienced Facilitator. The project leader of an innovation effort might be the worst person to have leading a session. Why? They’re not neutral, they’re not process focused, and you need their head in the idea game. Get a pro, or intensively train someone in this unique, under-valued, and critical skill. An experienced facilitator will always improve the planning, and the results, of a session (or group of sessions).
4. Throw the session together quickly. If people come into a session cold and haven’t had time to think about the challenge question, you’re not going to get to new and different. That just doesn’t happen in one day. Think Homework, incubation, and work alone first (see #1).
5. It’s all in one session. Related to #4, and #1, please, think about ideation happening over time. Two or three shorter sessions, carefully mapped out, are far more likely to get you results than one marathon session. Great ideas occur to people when they’re engaged with questions over time.
6.  Assume people are motivated. There is often work to be done when it comes to getting people truly enrolled in the goal of a session. It helps when it’s supported from the top and that’s clearly communicated. It also helps to connect it to the purpose of the organization. Don’t assume. Social loafing is rampant in ideation session, get ahead of it.
7. Don’t do any research. Again, this is about engagement with the topic. Research, especially experiential research, provides insights that inform and help the brain make new connections.

Happy to chat about how you can do better idea generation. If you want innovation this is an essential step. You know where to find me!