Why?
As you might have already experienced, facilitating a brainstorming session is similar to riding a rollercoaster: you are not sure about the route, but it's thrilling!
Since COVID-19, remote meetings and workshops have become the norm. But along with the benefits of working from home also come screen fatigue and difficulties in socializing. This is the perfect environment for our brains to fall into the trap of cognitive biases, which can lead us to make wrong decisions. Letâs take a look and see how you can outsmart them and have a fun brainstorm ride!
What?
According to IDEO:
"Brainstorming is an activity that will help you generate more innovative ideas. Itâs one of many methods of ideation - the process of coming up with new ideas - and itâs core to the design thinking process." â IDEO U, Brainstorming, (n.d)
When leading a brainstorming session, you should guide participants to come up with ideas to solve a defined problem. This, we know, is not an easy task: there are ups and downs, loops and accelerations throughout the whole ride. As noted before, you need to be aware of the cognitive biases that could challenge the generation of ideas and decision-making.
For example, participants may tend to agree with the most common opinion of the group (đ§âđ€âđ§ Groupthink bias) or with what their leader says (đ» Sunflower effect), even if these ideas are unreasonable. Watch out for them, they can get you dizzy on your ride đ„Ž!
How?
You can outsmart the cognitive biases during a remote brainstorm using our Miro board and following these 5 steps:
(Trust us, we are certified Miro experts) đ
đ Prepare for the workshop
đ Specify the topics and the problem that we aim to solve with the brainstorming.
đ Determine who will participate in the brainstorming and who will be the facilitator of the session.
â±ïž Set the timings and breaks (watch out for long discussions)!
To avoid the đ§âđ€âđ§ Groupthink bias, run the workshop in small groups (between 5-10 is the best)!
đââïž Get your participants ready for the ride
đ Introduce the goals of the session to the participants and break the ice with a fun activity.
đ§ Define the problem
đ Identify what is currently working and what is not working regarding the topics previously defined.
đ Reformulate the problem to be solved as a âHow might we...?â question.
đ Brainstorm solutions and select the best ideas
Hold tight, the roller coaster loops are coming!
đ§ Brainstorm possible solutions for the "How Might We..." question.
đ Vote which of the generated ideas are:
đȘ Low effort, big impact
đââïž Meaningful to your users
đ To forget for now
To avoid the đ» Sunflower effect, vote anonymously using Miro's voting tool or ask the main decision-maker to vote last.
đ Define the next actions
We are reaching the end of the ride, enjoy it!
đ ïž Define with your team what actions are needed to activate the winning ideas.
â Assign the tasks to the team members and monitor the progress!
Define the next actions and set specific deadlines to avoid over- or underestimating your plan due to the đ Planning fallacy.
Get ready for the brainstorming ride and start activating your ideas! đ
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