How to do Traditional Brainstorming

First we will explain how to be a participant in a brainstorming session and

then we will give you pointers on how to organize one yourself.
Many people find it easier to be a participant first, before they run a session,
but if you and your colleagues approach learning with a flexible attitude then
you should have no problems in running one straight off (but perhaps you
should practise on a non-vital topic first to gain experience).
Brainstorming is "a conference technique by which a group attempts to find
a solution for a specific problem by amassing all the ideas spontaneously by
its members" - Alex Osborn.

How to brainstorm in a medium-sized group

Gather a group of between four and fifteen people together in one room.
Have a central person to coordinate the proceedings, introduce the purpose
of the brainstorming session and to outline the rules. This person should also
ensure the rules are followed and should actively encourage the participants.
This person is the facilitator (facilitate = to make easier).
Ideally you will then have a brief warm-up on a totally unrelated and fun
topic. This will get your creative juices going and help establish a less
restrictive mood. You should only start the main topic when the right mood is
established.
With the purpose and topic established, everyone in the group shouts out
their ideas and they are all written down so that they can be analyzed later.
The most common method of recording the ideas is on flipcharts (large pads
of paper) but it's fine to use a blackboard, overhead projector transparencies,
a computer or individual pads of paper. A secretary or dedicated writer can
be useful and for larger groups you may need two or three to ensure all ideas
are captured.
You should all follow the standard brainstorming rules:

Postpone and withhold your judgment of ideas

Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas
Quantity counts at this stage, not quality
Build on the ideas put forward by others
Every person and every idea has equal worth

(These rules are explained in more detail later in this training course.)
It is essential that you encourage wild ideas from other people and do not
criticize them. Not only does it reduce inhibitions in others but it also
reduces your inhibitions because you can only put forward your own

alternative ideas in a receptive environment.

You should record your ideas, however "irrelevant" or "silly" they seem to be.
Your initial idea may not work but it may spark off a valid idea in someone
else.
Your role as a participant is twofold:
1. To suggest ideas which will work as solutions
2. To suggest ideas which will stimulate solutions in others
Since you cannot presume what will stimulate solutions in others, it is your
duty to provide them with as many original stimuli as possible, whatever they
may be.
You will find that the brainstorming session will go through phases of very
rapid idea generation, and then through slow awkward times when no ideas
are being created. This slow time is when you should return to the ideas
which have already been generated and build on them. Or you can make use
of the Advanced Brainstorming techniques (explained later).
Your brainstorming session can last anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours
depending on the experience of the participants and the nature of the
problem to be solved. However the time should be split up into approximately
5- to 15-minute sections in order to keep people fresh. There should be short
breaks for refreshments, relaxation, encouragement, congratulations and
gratitude. People often use the breaks to do their own thinking and reflection.
The breaks should not be strictly enforced and should be determined by the
flow of the group. The freedom to stop and start is important as it relaxes any
pressures on the group to perform.
You should now know the basics of what happens in a brainstorming session.
It is a group of people who free themselves from social inhibitions to generate
as many ideas as possible so that original solutions are free to surface. Your
role is to say whatever ideas you think of, whether they seem to be relevant
or not. You won't be criticized because that's what you are supposed to be
doing.
The next stages of this training course will take you through an expansion of
the rules of brainstorming, a set of principles of why the rules work, and a
section on how to run a successful brainstorming session.

Rules of Brainstorming

Rule 1: Postpone and withhold your judgment of ideas

Do not pass judgment on ideas until the completion of the brainstorming
session. Do not suggest that an idea won't work or that it has negative sideeffects. All ideas are potentially good so don't judge them until afterwards. At
this stage, avoid discussing the ideas at all, as this will inevitably involve
either criticizing or complimenting them.
Ideas should be put forward both as solutions and also as a basis to spark off
solutions. Even seemingly foolish ideas can spark off better ones. Therefore
do not judge the ideas until after the brainstorming process. Note down all
ideas. There is no such thing as a bad idea.
The evaluation of ideas takes up valuable brain power which should be
devoted to the creation of ideas. Maximize your brainstorming session by
only spending time generating new ideas.
Rule 2: Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas
It's much easier to tame a wild idea than it is to think of an immediately valid
one in the first place. The 'wilder' the idea the better. Shout out bizarre and
unworkable ideas to see what they spark off. No idea is too ridiculous. State
any outlandish ideas. Exaggerate ideas to the extreme.
Rule 3: Quantity counts at this stage, not quality
Go for quantity of ideas at this point; narrow down the list later. All activities
should be geared towards extracting as many ideas as possible in a given
period.
The more creative ideas a person or a group has to choose from, the better. If
the number of ideas at the end of the session is very large, there is a greater
chance of finding a really good idea.
Keep each idea short, do not describe it in detail - just capture its essence.
Brief clarifications can be requested. Think fast, reflect later.
Rule 4: Build on the ideas put forward by others
Build and expand on the ideas of others. Try and add extra thoughts to each
idea. Use other people's ideas as inspiration for your own. Creative people
are also good listeners. Combine several of the suggested ideas to explore
new possibilities.
It's just as valuable to be able to adapt and improve other people's ideas as it
is to generate the initial idea that sets off new trains of thought.

Rule 5: Every person and every idea has equal worth

Every person has a valid viewpoint and a unique perspective on the situation
and solution. We want to know yours. In a brainstorming session you can
always put forward ideas purely to spark off other people and not just as a
final solution. Please participate, even if you need to write your ideas on a
piece of paper and hand it out. Encourage participation from everyone.
Each idea presented belongs to the group, not to the person who said it. It is
the group's responsibility and an indication of its ability to brainstorm if all
participants feel able to contribute freely and confidently.

Principles behind brainstorming

The fear of making mistakes
The fear of the manager
Principles relating to Rule 1: Withholding judgment
Principles relating to Rule 2: Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas
Principles relating to Rule 3: Quantity counts at this stage, not quality
Principles relating to Rule 4: Build on the ideas put forward by others
Principles relating to Rule 5: Every person and every idea has equal
worth
The fear of making mistakes
In raw nature, mistakes can mean dying, injury or being eaten by predators.
Animals that take unnecessary risks do not live very long.
In the human jungle, mistakes usually lead to mental pain rather than
physical pain. And yet mental anguish can seem much more frightening to
many people than the fear of physical pain. In a modern society with a
welfare state you will always have food and shelter, and yet some people fear
that their whole existence is at risk if they say the wrong words in front of
their manager. The fear of making mistakes at work can be the greatest fear
of all because it can lead to the destruction of an individual's vision of their
future. Never underestimate the fear that many people have about making
mistakes at work.
Some people see the smallest of mistakes at work leading to lack of
promotion, reduced salary, and even unemployment - and all of the social
problems associated with this. They see their family and social life held
together by the fact that they are working and earning money.
And now you put these people in a room and tell them to put forward crazy
ideas which may not work!

Everyone has thousands of good ideas within them just waiting to come out.
Even if you don't know what yours are, you will have them and those ideas
will help improve the world. The problem is creating an environment where
those ideas can come out without feeling the fear of making mistakes. This
environment is the brainstorming environment. This is a situation where
the group has actively decided not to judge anyone by what they put
forward. Here, making "mistakes" and putting forward ideas which don't
work is not only acceptable but is actually encouraged. Your ideas are never
criticized and never judged. Your ideas can never be a mistake because they
can be used EITHER as a solution OR as a stimulus for others.
Brainstorming is designed to remove, or at least reduce, the fear of making
mistakes. The professionalism and attitude of the participants is the key to
how much inhibitions are reduced. This is why sticking strictly to the rules,
coupled with good training and a good facilitator, is so important.
The fear of the manager
Now, imagine you are with your manager and your manager's manager in a
room for a normal business meeting. They ask you for your ideas on how well
your department is run and how they should change their management style.
Now obviously some of us do have managers who we can approach with
confidence and who are actually pleased when we tell them. However, in
most situations this is highly awkward and many of your true ideas will be
kept to yourself, however valid and valuable they are.
This is because of the fear of making suggestions which challenge those
people who can affect your personal future. There are many situations where
valuable ideas are not put forward because of fear of "the manager", such as:

job interviews
sales presentations
press releases
government strategy meetings open to the public

We need to create a special situation where the participants do not feel that
their actions will harm them when they put forward ideas which challenge the
views and feelings of those in authority. Brainstorming sessions are ideal for
this as good managers realize that they can get valuable feedback and
suggestions which they would not normally get. If you really want to improve
yourself as a manager and get good quality feedback, try a brainstorming
session on company improvement, but be very careful not to criticize at any
point and remember to thank anyone for their ideas which were frightening to
say. Your staff will reduce their fear of you if you join in actively and
purposefully help to start the session by putting forward ridiculous ideas,
however challenging this is to you personally!

Principles relating to Rule 1: Withholding judgment

Ideas which initially seem like they won't work can sometimes have
enormous benefits when modified.
You will reduce the inhibitions in others.
You will encourage others to give you the freedom to share your own
ideas.
Original ideas are more likely to surface.
Ideas which stimulate good solutions are more likely to be shared.
The generation of new ideas is maximized because no brain power is
used on evaluation.
Principles relating to Rule 2: Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas
It's easier to tame wild ideas into a valid solution than it is to boost
normal ideas into an original solution.
Ideas which stimulate good solutions are more likely to be shared.
Wild ideas are better at stimulating new thought patterns.
Original ideas are encouraged by such actions.
A loss of inhibitions is more likely.
Principles relating to Rule 3: Quantity counts at this stage, not
quality
It's easier to pick out good ideas from a large list than a small list. Idea
evaluation is often easier than idea generation, so give yourself lots of
ideas to analyze later.
It's easier to create a good idea from combining lots of little ideas.
A fast output of ideas reduces the likelihood of evaluation and so helps
a loss of inhibitions.
People get more absorbed by the process and think more freely.
Quantity, in this case, brings quality.
The focus on each idea is minimal at this stage and so participants feel
less pressure on each idea.
Principles relating to Rule 4: Build on the ideas put forward by
others
Every idea put forward has a principle or concept that will be useful.
Wild ideas can be turned into valid solutions.
You encourage others to put forward stimulating ideas by using those
ideas.
You build freedom for yourself when you put forward stimulating ideas.
It's often easier to adapt someone else's idea than to generate a
completely original one.
Principles relating to Rule 5: Every person and every idea has equal
worth
You will get solutions from a wider range of people.
The breadth of ideas will cover different personality types.
You will encourage others to listen to your own ideas.
Every idea has equal worth as a stimulus.

You will know that you have created a healthy brainstorming

environment if everyone feels confident to contribute.

Preparing for a successful

brainstorming session
Know why you want to run a brainstorming session
Decide how you will run the session and who will take part
Prepare the room and materials
Prepare the participants and issue invites

Know why you want to run a

brainstorming session
One of the first things you need to determine is whether you need to use a
brainstorming session at all. A brainstorming session should be used for
generating lots of new ideas and solutions. It should not be used for analysis
or for decision making. Of course you will need to analyze and judge the
ideas but this is done afterwards and the analysis process does not involve
brainstorming techniques.
A brainstorming session must be targeted to a specific topic or else you run
the risk of downgrading any future sessions. You must define the problem
area or the opportunity area you want to create ideas for. You must draw up a
specific probortunity (problem/opportunity) statement which describes what
you are trying to achieve. This statement must not even suggest what a
typical solution might be because this will hinder the idea generation.
It is perfectly acceptable to propose a brainstorming session to investigate a
whole area of interest which you wish to explore. You will have no fixed
perceptions about the area and can often discover new ideas and markets
precisely because you didn't follow the normal training path. Creative
thinkers often suggest that before you do research in a specific area, you
should generate your own ideas because if you follow what everyone else has
done, you will follow the normal line of thinking and come up with the same
or similar answers.
Once you have an initial probortunity statement you should decide whether a
brainstorming session is appropriate. The time and costs spent brainstorming
can sometimes be saved by just implementing a currently known solution and
spending your valuable time on more crucial probortunities. Some problems
are best solved by computer simulation or mathematical calculations because

they do not need a change in perception. You should not be planning a

brainstorming session if you already have several solutions and all you want
to do is to decide which one to use (this is done by analysis). If you are only
going to ignore what everyone else suggests then you shouldn't waste their,
or yours.

Decide how you will run the session

and who will take part
Assume you now have a probortunity statement describing what you are
trying to achieve or investigate. You have also decided that brainstorming is
the most valid approach to your investigation.
Now you need to decide how you will run the session and who will take part.
It is important to adjust the style and management of the session depending
on the topic and the participants involved.
First you should decide who will lead the session - the facilitator. This person
needs to introduce the session, to keep an eye on the time and to make sure
the rules are obeyed. This person will facilitate the session to make it run
smoothly and ensure that the participants feel comfortable and join in the
process. They will also be responsible for restarting the creative process if it
slows down.
This central facilitator will normally be you. But you should be careful not to
automatically select yourself in this role. If it is a sensitive issue and includes
an evaluation of your position, maybe you shouldn't be there. Alternatively,
you may be better at being a regular participant than as a facilitator. Or to
remove all biases you could employ a facilitator from another department or
from outside your company.

Next you should decide who will take part. The natural inclination and easiest
option is to gather your own group of colleagues and friends from within your
department, group or company. This is what normally happens, and normally
works well. If you are more confident then you should invite people from
other departments/groups/companies who you don't normally work with. You
may now be mixing much more different personalities into the creative flow
and this can only result in a broader outlook in your ideas.
Group sizes are often number between 4 and 30 people. More people means
more opportunity for diversity but can lead to nervousness or to frustration if
each person is not given enough individual time to suggest ideas.

Prepare the room and materials

The choice of room will obviously depend on what is available and we will
leave this to your creativity if the ideal room is not available. We make the
following suggestions and you should adapt them to your own conditions:
Please try a 30 day trial of our specialist software (Brainstorming Toolbox) to
make brainstorming easy. You can use it to start your search for new ideas
and is the simulus required to spark off an infinite number of new ideas.
What we suggest for a group of approximately 12 people:
Arrange people to be seated in a circle with no "head of the table". Ideally, a
round-shaped table is best, though a set of tables in a circle is the usual
solution. Otherwise a broad U shape layout is fine. This makes everybody feel
equal and when people's ideas start to flow you will find that the person
initiating the session becomes part of the group and can play an equal role
without pushing any authority. You could have flipcharts just behind the
members (approximately one per two people) and with lots of coloured pens.
Each person should also have a notepad and pen so that they can write down
their personal ideas at the same time as ideas shouted out by other people
are being written down elsewhere. Make sure no ideas are lost at any stage.
The cost of extra pads is small compared to the loss of a potential winning
solution.
You may well need an overhead projector if you intend to display the
probortunity description and any background information or pictures.
A room which has space around the table in which to move about, but not
one which makes the group feel small in comparison, is ideal. Comfortable
chairs and tables coupled with refreshments on a nearby table are useful.
Providing an object in the middle of the circle gives people something to fix
on while thinking and removes the need to look into the face of someone else
while suggesting an idea.
A dedicated secretary (or two) whose only job is to grab and write down the
ideas is extremely useful. This releases some pressure on the facilitator who
can spend more time guiding the process.
Alterations for smaller groups
Smaller groups are easier to control but there are less people to keep the
process moving smoothly onward. Advanced techniques are very useful to
kick start the flow of ideas.
A very small group is more like a quick-fire conversation and could be seated
round a small table with a large pad of paper covering the whole table
surface. Everyone can add their ideas at the same time.
Try to move the group close together so they don't feel remote from each
other.

Alterations for larger groups

With large groups it's impossible to arrange people in a circle without them
being too far away to feel part of the group. In this situation you will need to
have a theatre-style seating pattern with the facilitator at the front.
If you need a microphone and speakers then it's likely that the group is too
big for brainstorming because ideas will be lost while people wait for their
turn to speak. If you want to brainstorm with such a large group then you
need to have everyone write their ideas down on a notepad or on a
computer, use some ideas as stimuli to help people with their personal
brainstorming and then gather the pads in afterwards.

Prepare the participants and issue invites

When you know who you will be inviting and where it is going to be held, you
need to invite everyone.
First find out when you can get the room you require and if you can have all
of the equipment for those times. Try to find three different times when it is
available (and reserve it for those three times if you can).
Send out invites by post or by email telling people the time and the place and
how long the session will last. Suggest just the most suitable time and
location for you and specify a date by which they must have replied. Tell them
you want a reply whether their answer is yes or no. Let them know the topic
of the brainstorming session and let them know how much you appreciate
their assistance.
You may need to remind people to reply just before the deadline.
If the deadline arrives and you have too few people that can come, send out
an invite for the next two times you have planned and ask them which ones
they can attend. If they cannot attend those either then you should not ask
them again and you should hold a smaller session. Remember to cancel any
bookings you don't need.
Thank everyone for replying and tell them the final meeting place and time
and invite those who say they cannot attend to turn up if they change their
situation.

Running a successful brainstorming

session

This page will outline the processes, materials, management and post-session
activities involved in running a successful brainstorming session.

Running the session itself

Ending the session
Post-session work and idea analysis

Running the session itself

First of all, you should arrive early, prepare the room and feel relaxed within
it. Stick the brainstorming rules up in a prominent place. Mentally prepare
yourself by running through what you will be doing during the session and
remembering that you will be friendly and encouraging at all times.
As the participants arrive, welcome them individually and try to get them
talking to each other socially. You are trying to relax everyone and make them
feel comfortable with each other. It is very useful if you can introduce people
who haven't met each other before. Turn on some peaceful music if you have
some.
At the point when everyone has arrived (or most people have, depending on
the time), gather everyone together and settle them down in their seats.
Welcome them to the brainstorming session and outline the purpose of the
session: to get as many ideas as possible on the subject of your choice. Allow
people clarification of your intentions but be careful not to suggest specific
solutions and try not to place any barriers to solutions at this stage. For now,
they should pretend that anything is possible.
Run through the brainstorming rules:
Postpone and withhold your judgment of ideas
Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas
Quantity counts at this stage, not quality
Build on the ideas put forward by others
Every person and every idea has equal worth
If anyone is new to brainstorming then it is useful if they have a printout of
the rules (eg. from this website).
Highlight the importance of the rules. Also explain that the ideas they shout
out are both to serve as possible solutions AND to stimulate ideas in other
people. You are expecting strange and impossible ideas which will spark off
workable solutions. Let them know how much you value weird and bizarre
ideas.
If people are new to brainstorming or do not brainstorm very often, it is

important to hold a warm-up session to get people "in the mood" and to help
them lose their initial inhibitions. One way to do this is to ask people to
approach a non-related topic which will not influence anyone in the company.
The purpose is to get minds thinking in a flexible and creative way. Typical
examples are: "Generating new features for cars" or "Generating new
features and gadgets for the kitchen" or "Generating new television
programmes". Anything fun, stimulating and, most importantly, not job
related. (NB. This website will eventually include lots of warm-up examples
and topics for you to use. If you have any suggestions for us please click
here and tell us them. )
After warming up for about 5 to 10 minutes, you should reintroduce your
main topic for brainstorming.
Open the session proper by asking for as many ideas and suggestions as
possible. Write every one of them down. Tell people to write them down
on their own pads of paper if they think they will forget before it can be
written down "officially".
Then start asking for radical ideas, ideas which will work in a strange way and
any ideas which just spring to mind for no apparent reason. Write them all
down on the flipcharts. As each piece of paper is filled, remove it from the
pad and fasten it to the wall so that everyone can see it.
Remind people to use other people's ideas as a springboard for their own. Get
them to read the current ideas and expand on them radically. Change, warp
and exaggerate them and see what further ideas come up. What is the
strangest way of solving the problem? Occasionally remind people that you
want the ordinary ideas too. They should shout out all of their ideas, not only
the interesting ones.
Keep telling them how well they are doing when they come up with new
ideas, especially when the idea is very weird. Thank them for saying their
ideas. Be encouraging. Lightly tell the group off if they criticize or sound
shocked at the ideas. Encourage and reward all suggestions, radical or not.
Glance from person to person, catching their eye in a pleasant way and smile.
Try to speed up the ideas so that there is less time for criticism or evaluation.
Do not call people by their names because this reduces the group bonding.
Use "we" when you speak. Let them know that it is a group effort and that
you are all responsible for making a helpful and creative environment.
Inevitably there will be awkward silent periods. Try not to highlight this as
bad. People need time and space to think. Light conversation to the other
participants will help them speak out again and will stop them feeling like
they are breaking the silence. Move back to the ideas listed on the flipcharts,
pick an interesting one and put that to the group asking them to expand,
modify or remodel it. Keep going until the ideas dry up.
After a short period your group will have exhausted their ideas for a while and

will need a break. The time this takes could be as little as ten minutes or as
much as an hour. Depending on the time you have allocated to the session
and depending on the number of ideas generated, you should ask them to
take a break or, indeed, it may be time to end the session. Don't force people
to stay for two hours just because the room is booked for that long. Stop
when you are finished.
If you are taking a mid-session break, get people to move about, chat
outside, meet other people and relax. Thank them for taking part and for
their ideas so far. Allow people to talk about anything they want to.
Encourage them to look through the flipcharts of ideas. When the break is
over ask people to sit in a different place, greet their new neighbours and
then start again. Remind people of the rules and the purpose, then ask for
suggestions.
You should try to change the process if you are having several sessions or if
you find things drying up:
Get people to create small groups around different flipcharts and
brainstorm around the ideas on it. Then they can move on to the next
one.
Get people to write their ideas on a piece of paper and hand it to the
next person to build on those. (Or you can redistribute them randomly
so that people will be less embarrassed and inhibited.)
Use any of our extra ideas and materials for brainstorming.
Of course, you will want to learn and use the Advanced Brainstorming
techniques including the use of our dedicated software. Try a 30 day
trial of our specialist software (Brainstorming Toolbox) to make
brainstorming easy.
By this stage you should have a great brainstorming session running
(especially if you use all of the Advanced techniques, which we will be coming
to shortly) and will have hundreds if not thousands of ideas and potential
solutions. At some point you will need to stop the session, either at a natural
break or end point or, if necessary, due to lack of time.
(You may find it interesting to have a look at our list of ways to kill and ways
to help an idea. Click here to see that page, not forgetting to press the "Back"
button on your browser to return here.)

Ending the session

When you decide to end the session, for whatever reason, catch everyone's
attention and ask them to finish off their writing. Thank them very much for
taking part, tell them how good the process was and how enjoyable you
found it. Let them know that you will be collating the ideas in a large list and
analyzing them to find out which ones you will use. You can offer to send the
list to them if appropriate.
Tell them that if they have any ideas later in the day, on the way home, in the

bath or during the next week, that they should let you know because you are
still interested in all their ideas. Tell them where and how to contact you don't assume that they all know.
At the end of good session your participants will normally be mentally
exhausted so give them a break or some refreshments and tell them to leave
everything where it is. When they have gone, go round and gather every bit
of paper with writing on it - notepads, flip chart paper, even scraps of paper
(accidentally) put in the bin.
If you leave the room now, you can often forget what really happened and so
it can sometimes be productive to just sit in the middle of the empty room
with a pad of paper and think through the session and note down any extra
ideas you now have. You can often think very clearly at this stage and have
hundreds of suggestions swimming round in your head just waiting to join
together and surprise you. You should also note down your ideas on how the
brainstorming session went and how it could be improved next time.
Now take the set of papers to your office, and take a well-earned break.
Congratulate yourself on a job well done.

Post-session work and idea analysis

You should now have a large number of ideas scattered about on lots of bits
of paper (unless you used a computer program to store your ideas). It is
recommended that you put all of the ideas into one list.
If you intend to do any amount of analysis on the ideas or you want to share
the complete set with other people in your organization (which is a very good
way of encouraging people to contribute) then you will want to enter all of
the ideas on to a computer. The simplest way of sorting and analyzing them
is using a spreadsheet package such as Microsoft Excel. With the ideas stored
electronically you can easily restructure them and send them to other people
by email or by disk.
Technically, the brainstorming session is over at this point and the analysis
process has begun. It is important to make this distinction. Brainstorming is
only the generation of the ideas. When you start to analyze the ideas you
are not brainstorming. However, brainstorming without analysis is pointless
so we will point out the basics.
The analysis of the ideas can be done by just you or it can be done in a
group. The group can be the same group who did the brainstorming or it can
be the dedicated group of people who will eventually be implementing the
chosen ideas. Because it is best to have "external" people in the
brainstorming session it is often the case that the group which analyzes the
ideas is a different group to that which produced them.
Even if you are using a group to analyze the ideas it is always helpful to do an

initial sort-out to remove duplicates and remove ideas which are really are
totally impractical. This removal should be based on valid physical criteria
such as cost, time and physical laws. Try not to remove any remotely possible
solutions at too early a stage.
Now that you have a long list of possible ideas, work through them and
arrange them into three lists:
1. Excellent. Definitely will work and can be implemented immediately.
2. Interesting. Will possibly work or may require further analysis to
decide if it will work. Needs more investigating. May work in the future.
3. Useless. Will not work.
When you have the lists you should plan to implement the excellent ideas
and to investigate the interesting ones. This is where your management and
leadership skills are necessary.
Good luck with implementing your great ideas. It is important that you think
about each idea in turn as you analyze it so that you can sell it to your
customers or your manager.
You've now learned how to run a successful brainstorming session. You now
need to practise it and the safest way to do that is to tell the people involved
that you are practising and that you want to get feedback from them. They
will be more forgiving and you will learn more.
The next stages of this training course will summarize traditional
brainstorming before explaining the need for advanced brainstorming which
will really let your sessions fly.

A summary of traditional brainstorming

Traditional brainstorming is a proven process which has been successfully
used for many years in the generation of new ideas.
This training course has introduced the rules and principles of Traditional
Brainstorming and has shown you how to participate and run a brainstorming
session. Armed with this information you should be able to approach a
session confidently and in the way that is practised around the world.
Brainstorming sessions followed using these rules and principles will be
successful and good results will follow.
Summary of standard brainstorming session:
1. Decide what you want to investigate and achieve
2. Plan your sessions and invite participants
3. Introduce and run your session using the following rules:
o Postpone and withhold your judgment of ideas
o Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas
o Quantity counts at this stage, not quality

4.
5.
6.
7.

Build on the ideas put forward by others

Every person and every idea has equal worth
Get everyone to shout out ideas and write them all down
Use Advanced Brainstorming techniques as appropriate
Thank all of the participants at the end
Analyze the ideas and discover your solutions
o
o

While there are risks involved in the early stages of establishing

brainstorming sessions, the overall benefits are enormous and with a little
preparation and thought you can run brainstorming sessions which will
improve your own and your organization's prospects in both the short and
long term.
However, traditional brainstorming can be greatly enhanced by using
modern updated techniques, materials and software. This is what we
call ADVANCED BRAINSTORMING.
There are many aspects of traditional brainstorming which could work better
and there are still problems associated with it that can be overcome by
incorporating advanced techniques. You can still run a successful session
without them but if you know them then you are more likely to run an
enjoyable and productive session.
Now that you know how to perform traditional brainstorming, let's move on to
see why we need Advanced Brainstorming techniques and how we can use
them to our advantage.

Why do we need Advanced Brainstorming?

Traditional brainstorming is a well-established technique for generating new
ideas and solutions. However, the traditional method of brainstorming still
has some faults. Traditional brainstorming is supposed to allow people to
ignore their natural inhibitions; but, in reality, this is often difficult to do. It is
also very hard for people naturally to think in new directions without
assistance. Let's now look at some of these various problems associated with
traditional brainstorming and investigate how they can be improved upon.
The improvements we discover we will refine into the techniques of
"Advanced Brainstorming".
Possible problems with Traditional Brainstorming
You don't have the time or resources for a group session
People don't lose their inhibitions
The same ideas are repeated again and again
The session doesn't flow naturally and people feel uncomfortable
People constantly struggle to think in new ways
You need a group of people to do it and cannot do it by yourself
There are too many awkward periods of silence and discomfort
The sessions are dominated by one or two people
Some people do not contribute
The facilitator needs to give constant encouragement to the
participants
The same ideas are repeated again and again
No successful outcome or solution is reached
Possible causes of the problems
Many people are uncomfortable in the brainstorming environment
People do not believe they can be creative
Authority is accidentally used which makes people feel scared of their
actions
No real objectives are set
Participants do not know how to think creatively
Participants do not use creative thinking techniques
A poor mixture of participants is present
Different personality types need different brainstorming styles
None or not enough training has been given
Not enough guidance and encouragement is given by the facilitator
No warm-up exercise was used
The brainstorming environment is hostile to creativity
People are not using other people's ideas to stimulate their own
The case for Advanced Brainstorming
Smoother and better brainstorming
More comfortable and creative environment
Ability to brainstorm on one's own
Originality of prompts and stimuli

Infinite availability of prompts and stimuli

Long-term brainstorming and creativity
Never be stuck for a new idea

Advanced brainstorming will enable you to make your brainstorming sessions

more successful and enjoyable by providing both a better quality of stimulus
and breadth of solution. You need never be stuck for a new idea and you will
be able to prevent the problems of traditional brainstorming. Brainstorming
will have grown up into a dynamic, stimulating experience leading to personal
and organizational success.
Advanced brainstorming means better brainstorming.
To learn all about advanced brainstorming and how it can work for you,
continue the tour by clicking the green door below.

Advanced Brainstorming
An Introduction
Advanced brainstorming is an improved process which increases the success
rate of brainstorming and involves using creative thinking techniques to
increase the number and diversity of new ideas.
Advanced brainstorming will make your brainstorming sessions run smoother
and more efficiently because you will never be stuck for a new idea. Modern
tools and techniques for idea generation also allow brainstorming to be done
effectively by an individual person.
Brainstorming sessions are followed using the standard rules but are
improved upon by using specialized techniques and tools.
The tools and techniques of advanced brainstorming are:

Creative thinking techniques

Brainstorming software and materials
Improved brainstorming techniques for a more creative environment

These techniques will improve the creative ability of the participants and will
help them work together in a group. None of the participants will be stuck for
a new idea and they will feel happier about putting their ideas forward.
The first thing you need to do is to train future participants in creative
thinking techniques which will explain how the creative process can work for
them, explain the barriers to individual creativity and explain how creativity
techniques will enable them to produce unlimited numbers of ideas. FREE
training in creative thinking techniques is given by this website.

The next stage is to give participants the right tools which will make the
techniques easier and more productive. Brainstorming software and other
stimulating materials will bring the creative thinking techniques to life and
will enable faster and more original thinking.
The final stage is to learn how many of the traditional obstacles associated
with brainstorming can be overcome and how a more creative environment
can be stimulated throughout anorganization.
All of the training needed to do this is FREE on this website. Some of the
information is designed to be freely downloaded and used in your sessions.
We firmly believe in brainstorming and would not want to limit its use
throughout the world. Therefore we provide free computer-based training to
you via our websites. However, while we do provide free training at this site,
if you or your organisation want to use this training information on your own
PC or network or as in-house training then we require you topurchase a
licence for it. This money will be used to fund expansion of this website and
the training you will be receiving.
Everything on the website can be done by you without any additional help
from us but we believe that we can enhance the effectiveness and speed of
the process by installing the website onto your computer which we require
you to purchase a licence for. While it is possible to perform the creative
thinking techniques without any software, we believe that our software will
increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your brainstorming sessions.
Continue the tour to find out the next major advantage of advanced
brainstorming ...

Brainstorming by yourself without the need for a

group
You will be pleased to learn that advanced brainstorming techniques can
allow you to brainstorm effectively by yourself without the need for a group.
This means that you can hold a brainstorming session absolutely any time and as many times as you want - with no money, time or difficulty spent
organizing a group of people. In fact, many individuals find that they can be
more creative on their own rather than as part of a traditional brainstorming
group! And yet the freedom of being able to brainstorm by yourself is
amazingly simple to achieve.
Times when you may want to brainstorm by yourself

You work by yourself

You work for yourself and are self-employed
There is no one available for a group session
The people around you do not like brainstorming sessions
The people around you will not follow the brainstorming rules

It is too time-consuming or expensive for you to hold a group

brainstorming session
You want to take credit for the ideas all for yourself
The problem is too small to justify gathering a large group of people
You work in an uncreative or very critical organization

Advanced Brainstorming makes it not only possible to brainstorm by yourself

but it also makes it easy!
How to use advanced brainstorming to brainstorm by yourself

Use creative thinking to start off your approach from a different angle
Spark off new ideas by getting stimuli from brainstorming software or
from manual techniques instead of relying on other people
Use the interactive brainstorming techniques to challenge the current
ways of thinking
Be asked direct questions from the interactive techniques which will
help you think of all possibilities
When you get stuck for an idea, instantly move on to the next stimulus
at the press of a button

You will find that by using advanced brainstorming techniques you will be
prompted into new ways of thinking without using other people. If you use a
structured problem-solving approach to generate and analyze new ideas you
will be at a great advantage over people who do not think that they can be
creative by themselves. It is possible to be more creative by yourself using
creative techniques than you might be in a group of people in a badly run
brainstorming session.
Now let's find out about creativity and creative thinking ...

Creativity and Creative Thinking

What is creativity?
Creativity is the bringing into being of something which did not exist before,
either as a product, a process or a thought.
You would be demonstrating creativity if you:
Invent something which has never existed before
Invent something which exists elsewhere but you are not aware of
Invent a new process for doing something
Reapply an existing process or product into a new or different market
Develop a new way of looking at something (bringing a new idea into
existence)
Change the way someone else looks at something
In fact, we are all creative every day because we are constantly changing the
ideas which we hold about the world about us. Creativity does not have to be
about developing something new to the world, it is more to do with
developing something new to ourselves. When we change ourselves, the
world changes with us, both in the way that the world is affected by our
changed actions and in the changed way that we experience the world.
Creativity can be used to make products, processes and services better and it
can be used to create them in the first place. It is expected that increasing
your creativity will help you, your organization and your customers become
happier through improvements in your quality and quantity of output.
What is creative thinking?
Creative thinking is the process which we use when we come up with
a new idea. It is the merging of ideas which have not been merged before.
Brainstorming is one form of creative thinking: it works by merging someone
else's ideas with your own to create a new one. You are using the ideas of
others as a stimulus for your own.
This creative thinking process can be accidental or deliberate.
Without using special techniques creative thinking does still occur, but
usually in the accidental way; like a chance happening making you think
about something in a different way and you then discovering a beneficial
change. Other changes happen slowly through pure use of intelligence and
logical progression. Using this accidental or logical progression process, it
often takes a long time for products to develop and improve. In an
accelerating and competitive world this is obviously disadvantageous.
Using special techniques, deliberate creative thinking can be used to
develop new ideas. These techniques force the mergance of a wide range of
ideas to spark off new thoughts and processes. Brainstorming is one of these
special techniques, but traditionally it starts with unoriginal ideas.
Developments of products occur much more rapidly using these

deliberate techniques than by accident. Many people known for being

creative use these techniques, but are not aware they are doing so because
they have not been formally trained in them. If you use these deliberate
techniques during advanced brainstorming sessions then you too will be more
creative.
With practice, ongoing creative thinking (the continuous investigation,
questioning and analysis that develops through education, training and selfawareness) occurs all the time. Ongoing creativity maximizes both accidental
and deliberate creative thinking. Ongoing creativity takes time and deliberate
practice to become skillful at, but it's surprising how quickly it becomes an
attitude, not a technique.
The first step to take is to learn the creative thinking techniques so that you
can deliberately use them to come up with new ideas. You will then be at an
immediate advantage over those who don't know how to use them. You
should then practise the techniques to increase your skill at ongoing creative
thinking. (After a while you may even find it unnecessary to use specific
techniques because you may be having too many ideas anyway.)

How do Creative Thinking techniques work?

Creative thinking techniques work to stimulate original ideas. New ideas
happen when two or more ideas are accidentally or deliberately merged when
they have never been merged before. Creative thinking techniques provide
the method for deliberately combining ideas in ways which you would not
normally come across or think about. This combination generates a truly
original idea for you.
The creative thinking process looks like this:

So, that's it? Yes, creative thinking is all about merging two previously
uncombined thoughts, products or processes. Well, that's the theory. In
practice, of course, it can be very difficult to find the ideas to merge, and
then to develop that new idea into a workable solution.

Traditional brainstorming lets us believe that other people are enough of a

stimulus to prompt us to think in different ways. But this is not normally
enough and can leave us struggling to think of original thoughts. If we are
brainstorming with people who we normally work with then we are likely to
keep coming up with the same ideas as each other, simply because we are
used to their ideas and our similar situations. In traditional brainstorming
we keep coming up with the same ideas again and again because we
keep providing each other with the same stimuli!
What we need for advanced brainstorming to work (ie. lots of new ideas to
merge into a solution) is easy access to a series of creative thinking tools; a
library of techniques we could always refer to which would provide us with
the different and alternative stimuli we seek to spark off new ideas. (Whether
those new ideas are of immediate value is not a concern at this stage. It is
the generation of new ideas which matters at the brainstorming stage of the
problem-solving process. It is then up to you to decide at a later date if the
idea is of value to you.)

So, what creative thinking techniques are available?

Many! The techniques we specialize in, and will be training you in, are listed
below. All of them will provide you with fresh stimuli and a new way of
thinking. You will be able to incorporate them into your brainstorming
sessions (individual or group) to generate new ideas easily and they will
make sure you'll never be stuck for a new idea.

Random Word
Random Picture
False Rules
Random Website
SCAMPER
Search & Reapply
Challenge Facts
Escape
Analogies
Wishful Thinking
Thesaurus

How do I use them?

Since a computer is not influenced by preconceptions, bias or inhibitions and because you're using one right now! - then it's the perfect partner for
providing ideas which you would not have thought of merging before.

In the pages that follow, this training course shows you how to use each of
the techniques listed above. It is recommended that you use the techniques
for real in your brainstorming sessions so that you can

prove that they work for you

gain experience in using them
find the ones which work best for you.

You can use the generated stimulus by telling it to the group or by posing the
generated question to the group for their response. If you ever get stuck for
an idea, restart the process with a fresh stimulus generated by creative
thinking techniques.
Remember that you do not need to have a computer to get a new stimulus
and all of the techniques are explained for use without a computer.
Brainstorming software just brings all of the techniques together to make
them quicker and easier to access. Other materials and equipment which you
have in your office or home will probably work too.
Now let's see those links to all the free training material ...

Creative Thinking and Lateral Thinking techniques

)

The green Advanced Brainstorming tour will move steadily through the
training material for the following creative techniques. You can press the
button with the green door at the bottom of this screen to start the training
material on the Random Word technique and work through to the end. If you
do not read anything else, the most comprehensive training material is used
on the Random Word technique.
If you do not want to read the material on all of the techniques just yet then
pick them out individually, return to this page and then click here to move
past the technique training section and on to learn how to use these
techniques within your brainstorming sessions. You can always return to this
page later.
All of these techniques will make the generation of original ideas easier so
let's start learning about them now:

How to use the Random Word technique

Welcome to the Random Word technique, the most basic and obviously
creative technique where you use a random word (hence the name!) to
generate new ideas. By getting a random word as a prompt and forcing
yourself to use it to solve your problem you are practically guaranteed to
attack the problem from a different direction to normal. You take a word from
a random word generator, extract its underlying principles and then apply
them to your problem to see how they can help. The skill is stopping your
mind from (a) thinking this is silly and (b) directly using the actual principles
behind the word to your problem without changing them to ones which are
easier to apply.
The first thing you need is the random word itself which is classed as
the initial stimulus. Next, you establish a bridging idea, which is an idea
based on the stimulus. This is used, as the name implies, as a bridge between
the stimulus and an idea which you could actually use on your problem. The
simplest way to get a random word is using our dedicated software
(Brainstorming Toolbox) to give you a random word at the touch of a button.
Quick example 1:
Using the random word "Balloon" in the context of new ideas about cars.
A bridging idea could be that you inflate the balloon under the car. The
advantages of this would be that the car jack would not puncture rusty cars
and that cars could be raised on soft ground.
The resulting final idea could be to have a car jack which spreads its force
more evenly under the car and onto the ground.

Quick example 2:
Using a random word of "Spacecraft" in the context of new ideas
about kitchens.
A bridging idea would be to consider what would happen if the kitchen was in
space and what would happen because of gravity.
The resulting idea could lead to the fact that you would need to stop the pans
from floating off the cooker/hob. This could lead to using magnets to hold the
pans on (back on the earth's surface). This would stop small children from
accidentally pulling the hot pans onto themselves. Or how about using a
magnetic field to heat the pan?
Where you get the random word is up to you. The quickest and most random
way to get one is by using computer software. If you don't have that, flip
though a dictionary and stop randomly, or pick a random page, paragraph
and word from a general interest magazine.

You are welcome to use our free web version (which contains one hundred
words) to show you how useful it can be.
One you have got a random word, there are many ways of using it,
including:
1. Replacing the problem object with the random noun and imagining
what would happen. (NB. It is easier, safer and cheaper to do this first
in your mind and than in reality.) Think it over in your mind and see
what you can get out of it. What does it remind you of, regarding your
own problem? What are the benefits from replacing it? If the benefits
are original but not practical, then are there any ways you can get the
same effect from a more practical means? If there are no benefits,
what are the disadvantages and how might you counter them? (See
how powerful this is - whether you think it is good or bad to replace it,
both points of view can lead to new ideas!)
2. Looking at the principles behind the random word and reapplying them
to your own problem. How does the random object behave? Why does
it behave like that? What are its characteristics? Why does it fit its own
environment but has not been reapplied elsewhere? Now think of HOW
you can apply the principles to your own problem. The skill is in
thinking "How can we make this work?" and disregarding any initial
thoughts that it won't work.
3. Looking at its benefits. Are they benefits you want? How can you get
the same benefits for your own situation? How does the selected word
achieve the benefits and how can you use that principle?

Use the following as an example:

You are working for a car manufacturer in the wheel department and are
trying to come up with some new ideas about the wheel (without reinventing
it!) Imagine you are now given this random word: toothbrush! What are your
initial thoughts? Probably something like "How on earth is this relevant?" or
"What a silly idea, they're totally unconnected". But before we go on, spend a
couple of minutes trying to come up with a few ideas.
Ok, here are some examples of ideas you might have come up with (including
some working through of the thinking process behind them, which you would
not normally write down):
Replacing the wheel with a toothbrush:

Bridging ideas:

Imagine the whole tyre of the wheel is made of toothbrush bristles. What are
the advantages?
(PS tyre = tire using US spelling)
1. Much better grip in the snow.
2. Small stones pass straight through with a minor disturbance of the
bristles. Cleans the road as it goes.
Resulting relevant ideas:
1. Create a snow tyre where the snow (or water) is forced though holes in
the bottom of the tyre and shot out through small tubes in the rubber,
thus stopping the tyre tread from clogging up.
2. Retractable spikes in the tyre.
3. Dimples in the tyre so that small stones are not felt by the
passenger(s).
4. What other principles are there about toothbrushes?
Features of a toothbrush:
Bridging ideas:
1. Some toothbrushes change colour when they have been used for too
long.
2. Some toothbrushes squirt out toothpaste while you brush.
3. They have springy handles to make sure you do not press too hard.
4. Some have ridges so that at least some bristles get to the bottom of
the dips in teeth.
5. They come in plastic containers for travelling.
6. You brush your teeth with them twice a day.
Resulting relevant ideas:
1. How about a tyre which has two layers of coloured rubber so that when
the underneath layer shows through, the tyre needed replacing. Also
police could spot bald tyres from a distance.
2. Could a mini-camera spot oil on the road and spray out an oil remover
or could the tyre eject salt in front of the car in the case of ice?
3. Could the suspension be a flexible bit of metal instead of a spring and
damper?
4. If the rubber of the tyre was made of a mixture of hard and soft rubber
then the soft bits would stick into the dimples in the road and stick
better.
5. Could we sell a cover for car wheels so that in snowy countries the
wheels would not get blocked with snow? Could we use the cover to
stop being wheel-clamped?
6. Could we produce a device which measured the deterioration of the car
tyre which each person could check everyday (how might they
remember?)?

What are the benefits of a toothbrush?

Bridging ideas:
1. You don't get rotten teeth.
2. It scrapes nasty stuff from your teeth.
3. It makes your teeth feel clean and smooth.
Resulting relevant ideas:
1. Could we produce an X-ray device to measure the internal condition of
a tyre.
2. People often have to pick out stones from the tyre treads. We could
make a 'tread comb' to make this easier and encourage people to use
it to make their tyres last longer. We could make it so it only fitted the
tyres we sell and so our customers would be pleased by how much
longer our tyres lasted.
3. Can we produce a tyre that sprays the ground water on to the car tyre
and thus washes itself?
Things to watch out for when using the technique
You must be careful not to decide that a specific word is of no use and getting
another instead. If you do this then you are more likely than not just trying to
choose a word which neatly fits into the problem you are trying to solve;
effectively you don't really end up with a random word. Again, the skill is to
work out HOW the word can be made to fit.
Be careful not to create too many steps between the random word as a
stimulus and the creation of a relevant idea, or you may run the risk of
ending up with an idea you already know works. eg. A suggests B, which
suggests C, which suggests D - which is the idea we're already using.
You also have to train yourself not to link the word with an idea you already
know about. You should not take the word at face value. You must guard
against using the technique to come up with an old idea to show that the old
idea is good, eg. I already like the idea of using brushes on the inside of the
wheel arches to clean the tyre so I will link "toothbrushes" to a wheel to come
up with the same idea. Wow, it must be a good idea because this random
technique came up with it.
Other things to bear in mind
Some words will work and others will not, depending on the problem and on
the individual involved. No word is guaranteed better than another, it just
depends on the situation. You could use a large number of words for each
problem or a small number but if you find yourself using a large amount then
you should question yourself as to how you are using the word. You may be
just searching for a word to fit with an idea you have already. Of course,

sometimes using a continuous stream of different words can get a large

number of ideas too, but ... c'est la vie.
You can also use the random word technique for assessing the current
situation. Often by having a word in front of you, you are stimulated to think
about different aspect of the problem. Eg. when I brush my teeth the forces
on the toothbrush are in all different directions; is there a problem with
having suspension which only goes up and down?; or, when I was a child I
hated brushing my teeth, so is the problem with a lot of car journeys that the
people in the back hate being there because they cannot see anything?
Often using a random word can just remind you of something which you knew
all along but you had forgotten to write down in your investigation. If you
have dozens of aspects to a problem, and even if you feel you know them all,
it can still be tricky to recall them all when it comes to actually writing them
down. A random word can often help remind you of them again.
A similar technique, and the next technique to be explained, is the Random
Picture Technique which uses a picture as a stimulus instead of a word. Some
people find it easier to use pictures rather than words, others vice-versa. You
will have to experiment to see which suits you best. Some people, of course,
find both techniques work equally well for them but for different aspects of
different probortunities.
Try the random word technique for yourself and you will certainly improve at
coming up with new ideas.

How to use the Random Picture technique

This method is very similar to the random word technique and many of its
working principles are explained in that section, so please read that first if
you haven't already. You should also read the section on methods of using a
stimulus for new ideas.
The first thing you need for this technique is, fairly obviously, a random
picture. This is then used as a prompt to come up with new ideas and
solutions. You can get such an image from brainstorming software or you can
select it at random yourself from a magazine, encyclopedia or picture book.
You can also use a picture from a website (see theRandom Website
technique).

You should look at the picture, extract a concept or idea from it and use this
idea to stimulate a possible solution to your problem. Try to see anything in
the picture which reminds you of your problem and how it might be solved.
What activities are going on? What situations are being faced? Why are the
people doing what they are doing? What principles are being used?
With a picture in front of you, extract an idea from it, or imagine a similar
theme/person/action happening within your own situation.
Next think of how you can use that new situation/object/attitude in your own
situation. It does not immediately have to be a positive solution but you may
later be able to move from it to a good solution.
Use similar techniques and attitudes to those for the Random Word. The
same "watch outs" and skills are needed as described for the Random Word
technique.

What do you have to be careful of when using the Random Picture

technique?
You must be careful of deciding that a specific picture is of no use and getting
another instead. If you do this then often you are just trying to choose a
random picture which obviously fits into the problem you are trying to solve
and therefore you end up with a picture which is not random. Again, the skill
is to work out HOW the picture can be made to fit.
You also have to be careful of linking the picture with an idea you already
know about. You have to train your mind not to do this and to take the picture
at face value and not use the technique to come up with an old idea to show
that the old idea is good.
Also, a point which is not so relevant to Random Word, is that you may just
stare at the picture and think how nice the picture is and not get anything out
of it except a sense of wellbeing (which, admittedly, may not be such a bad
thing at times!).
Please try the Random Picture technique for yourself and you will certainly
improve at coming up with new ideas.

How to use the False Rules technique

To generate new ideas using this method you apply rules to your own
probortunity which have already been applied to a different subject but which
have not yet been applied to your own. You are taking a rule, quote, idea or
suggestion from somewhere else and applying it to your own situation. It is
known as a "false" rule because the rule has not been considered as valid
before. By getting a false rule and forcing yourself to use it, you find yourself
thinking about doing things in a different way than you would normally.

The first thing you need is the false rule itself as the initial stimulus. You can
get this from various places, such as rule books for sports or games,
instruction manuals, books, or dedicated brainstorming software. Then you
establish a set of ideas based on this stimulus. You then use this idea as a
bridge between the stimulus and a valid idea which you could actually use to
solve your probortunity. The false rule is a stimulus for your new ideas.
One you have got a false rule, there are many ways of using it,
including:
1. Directly applying the rule to your current probortunity or situation to see
where it leads you and to see if you get some ideas from it.
2. Looking at the reason why the rule exists and seeing if you need
something similar or asking yourself whether a similar principle could be
used.
3. Looking at the benefits of using the rule or the principle of it. Why was the
rule created? What does it mean to follow the suggestion?

What to watch out for when using the technique

You must be careful not to decide too soon that a specific rule is of no use
and getting another instead. If you do this then often you are just trying to
choose a false rule which fits into the probortunity you are trying to solve and
therefore you end up with a rule which is not random. Again, the skill is to
work out HOW the rule can be made to work.

Example of using the False Rules technique:

The probortunity is: Developing new ideas for using the telephone system.
False Rule 1 is: Applicants must be over 18 years old.
Bridging idea: Callers to adult phone lines must prove their age somehow,
eg. by answering some questions only adults are likely to know.
Good idea: There could be a special code and PIN number, which any adult
can get from a post office by proving their age, which they can later use to
access adult phone lines. Any misuse of this number would reveal who had
let the numbers be known, and the codes could be cancelled.
False Rule 2 is: Refrigerate after opening.
Bridging idea: A cooling-off period?

Good idea: To stop people using the phone for too long, you could make the
phone not accept calls for the same time period that it has just been used for,
ie. if you have spent ten minutes on the phone then you cannot make
another call for ten minutes.

How to use the Random Website technique

Using the Random Website technique you look at a random website, gather
the ideas which are used there and use them to come up with new ideas and
solutions for yourself. You are looking for ways in which you can use the
products, solutions, ideas and concepts behind the website to reapply in your
own field and problem area.
The first thing you need to do is to get a random website. You can do this is
many ways on the internet.
Find a site with links to hundreds, thousands or millions of sites. Select one at
random. Follow a series of links until you find something of use. A good place
to start is to use a special link from a search engine, internet directory or
database of sites. The search engine we prefer (due to its quality and
quantity of sites on all topics) is Yahoo!.
Once you have a website in front of you, you should look at the website,
extract ideas from it and use these ideas as a stimulus to a possible solution.
Try to see anything in the website which reminds you of your probortunity
and how it might be solved. What ideas are being expressed? What situations
are being faced and how have they been addressed? Why are the people
doing what they are doing? What products are being used or sold? How and
why and they being sold?
With a website in front of you, extract an idea from it, or imagine a similar
product/person/action happening within your own situation.
Next, think of how you can use that new situation/object/attitude to your
advantage.
Use similar techniques and attitudes to the random word method in
reapplying a concept from another field into your own. The same "watch
outs" and skills are needed as described for the Random Word technique.
Things to watch out for when using the technique
You must be careful of deciding that a specific website is of no use and
getting another instead. If you do this then often you are just trying to choose
a random website which obviously fits into the probortunity you are trying to
investigate, and therefore you end up with a website which is not random.

Again, the skill is to work out HOW the website can be made to fit.
You also have to be careful of linking the website with an idea you already
know about. You have to train your mind not to do this and to take the
website at face value and not use the technique to come up with an old idea
to show that the old idea is good.
Warning: The Internet is not only the biggest source of alternative ideas
available globally, but it also provides the biggest opportunity in the world for
wasting time! Please use it with care.
Please try this technique for yourself and you will certainly improve at coming
up with new ideas.
Get a Random Website now and try this technique out. Click here for the free
interactive technique.

How to use the Role Play technique

One of the great ways of changing the way you see the world is to see it from
someone else's point of view. This technique allows you to change your
perspective by getting you to role play a different person and see how they
would approach the problem. Different people use different bits of
information and knowledge to approach the same problem and it's extremely
helpful to view a task from different angles. Have you ever noticed that an
artist and a mathematician will approach a subject from different angles and
different ways of thinking? Imagine the ideas you will have as you take the
role of both occupations and play around with the displacements of thought!
First you need to select an occupation to role play. The easiest way to get this
is to use a computer to select from a list of occupations (eg.
using Brainstorming Toolbox) but you can always use a paper version or make
one up on the spot. A randomly selected list is best so that you don't select
easy or less challenging ones.
When you have your occupation to role play then try to approach the
probortunity in the way that this person would do it.

How would they think?

What objects and items would they be using?
Where would they be doing it?
How would they see the problem?
What action would they take?
How would they explain the problem?
How would they solve the problem?

See how many different ways you can approach the problems and its
solutions using your new assumed personality.
Additional extensions to this technique

Have a whole group of people assume different occupations and let

them interact in their new ways.
Have a whole group of people assume the same occupation.
Have one person pretending to be the problem and other people
asking them what it's like. Ask that person how they would respond to
the questions and proposed solutions.

How to use the Challenge Facts technique

How many facts are really facts and how many are just the most reasonable,
educated guess based upon the knowledge known at the time? It is very rare
that anything remains an undeniable fact for too long, especially when you
consider people's views and differently acquired knowledge. We are in a
constant state of change. We think differently as we gain knowledge and
skills in thinking. One generation to the next have different aims, ambitions
and morals. What might be seen as a good thing by one generation could be
seen as a bad thing by the next. Political parties change their views, as do
their voters. Due to personal circumstances, individuals can change their
whole philosophy of life within months. Technology and other inventions now
change the world faster than most people can keep up with. What seemed
impossible one week can become plausible the next, reality within months
and an accepted way of life in a year or two. This is not really surprising when
you consider the combined, diverse thought power of billions of people
spread across the globe.
How do you know that what you considered to be a fact in the past
has now become inappropriate due to changes which have happened
since then? Might you now be able to improve your current product
because of a change in human values or lifestyles?
The way to answer these questions is to challenge the facts. You are not
saying that the facts are wrong but you are investigating what might happen
if that fact were not true. It is important not to see this technique as a way of
proving someone wrong or inaccurate. Everyone does what they think to be
right at the time and based upon the knowledge they have at that time. If
you now have more information or the world has changed in some way, this
does not put any blame on the person who had the original idea or on
someone who could not solve the probortunity. Just as you must be
considerate towards the people whose facts you are challenging, you should
acknowledge that the world will probably develop a better way of doing what
you are doing now. This does not reflect on your ability, it merely reflects the
way in which the world develops. At one time all the available evidence gave
rise to the fact that the sun went round the world. If no one had challenged

this fact, then we might still believe it. Even Einstein's theory of relativity has
been modified to take into account effects which were not possible for him to
contemplate because technology at the time could not do what it does now.
The Challenge Facts technique asks you to consider what you think are facts
and investigate what differences and advantages it would make if they were
not facts. You could try to imagine what would be the case if the fact were
totally wrong. Or you could try to modify the fact and see whether that now
fits into the current situation better than the original one. Or is the world
likely to change so that the modified fact will fit in better in the future? If so,
what new ideas does this future world suggest? If you find that your new
consideration blatantly doesn't fit, then consider what advantages this
hypothetical situation might have and how you might be able to incorporate
them into your current solution.
You are using the challenge of a fact as a stimulus for new ideas,
nothing else.

First list the facts, then write a statement which challenges that fact, then use
that challenge to develop new ideas.
Example 1:
Fact:
Computer users position the mouse pointer over one of many buttons they
want to use and press a single mouse button.
Challenge of the fact:
Computer users position the mouse pointer over a single button and press
one or more mouse buttons.
New idea based on challenging the fact:
Have an area of the screen where if the mouse is over it, the user can press
one or more mouse buttons to perform different functions.
Example 2:
Fact:
Companies pay its employees for their time.
Challenge of the fact:
Employees pay their company for the use of its facilities.

New idea based on challenging the fact:

Each employee receives a percentage of the profits based on their position
within the company and the amount of time and contributions spent on its
products or services. Out of this amount is taken the amount of money
related to that employee's use of the facilities. In this way the employee is
directly affected by the quality of the product or service and is more
motivated to improve it. Also, the employee is directly affected by the
amount of money they use in the course of their work. It could also mean that
employees are free to live their own life and work the way they want to work.

Examples for you to practise on:

Fact: Unemployment benefit is kept to a low level to encourage the
unemployed to work.
Fact: Trains set off from the station at set times.

How to use the Escapism technique

With Escapism you can propose the wildest, most outrageous and
preposterous things you can imagine. You use true escapism where there are
no morals, rules, etiquette, laws or standards. You escape the physical
limitations of the world to see what your ultimate solution would be. You
should not limit yourself by anything except your own imagination, and even
this you should push.
Your mission in this technique is to write down the wildest, most ridiculous,
stupid, wacky ideas you can come up with to solve the probortunity. They do
not have to be practical, possible or even sensible.
Once you have done this, and only when you have finished, should you look
back at the ideas you have generated. Then you should look for ways in
which all or part of these ideas could be made practical. Think of the benefits
you could gain by using the idea and work out how you can achieve the same
thing in reality. How could you modify the suggested solution to make it
work? How could you get the same effect? What changes in the world would
you need to make the idea possible and how can you make those changes
happen?
Example of using Escapism:
The probortunity is : Preventing burglary
Stimulus: Use bananas

Bridging Idea: Banana skins are very slippery and hard to hold (in theory).
Potential solution: Make a door lock that rotates freely except with a
special holding device unique to each door. Only by using a special device
can you unlock the door.
Bridging Idea: Bananas shoot out of their skins when you squeeze them too
hard.
Potential solution: Make a burglar alarm which shoots a sign up and down
on top of the roof to attract attention. You could even make it say which side
of the house is being burgled so that people walking in front of the house
know that the house has been broken into from the back where they cannot
see it.
Stimulus: Have a crossbow which shoots intruders in the head when they
come through the front door.
Bridging idea: Have something at the front door which stops them when
they enter.
Potential solution: Have an electronic camera which takes photos of
everyone that enters the house and either stores it on a disk in the loft or
sends all photos directly to the police (who only look at them as necessary).

Stimulus: Windows and doors which lock themselves as burglars approach.

Potential solution: Have windows which sense people approaching and
close and lock themselves. They could be unaffected by people moving inside
the house.

How to use the Analogy technique

The greatest thing by far, is to be a master of the metaphor - Aristotle
In this section of brainstorming training you use an analogy or metaphor of
your own situation to find out how similar probortunities are solved in other
fields.
Analogies are very good for discovering things you had not realized about
your own probortunity situation and thus enable you to develop solutions
based upon them.
The first step is to make up an analogy:

What does your situation or your probortunity remind you of?

What other areas of life/work experience similar situations?
Who does similar things but not in your area of expertise?

Often an analogy will include the words "... is like ..."

Examples could be:

Running a business is like managing a theatre production

Changing a tyre on a car is like putting your shoes on (PS tyre = tire
using US spelling)
Selling to our customers is like being a second-hand car salesman

Another way is to force an analogy and create something which you will make
the analogy to.
Examples could be:

The packaging is like an egg

Manufacturing a toy doll is like driving a tank
Advertising to customers is like cooking a meal

Now use the analogy as a stimulus and gather bridging ideas from it. These
ideas could be an aspect of the analogy, or a solution or process which it uses
either to work well or to solve a similar probortunity. You then see how you
can apply this new idea in your own situation.
Completed examples might be:
Running a business is like managing a theatre production.
A theatre production is split into two halves. Do we need to split our sales
team into two sections: pre-sales and after-sales?
Changing a tyre on a car is like putting your shoes on.
You re-tie your shoelaces when you feel they are loose. Can we incorporate a
sensor in the car wheel which will alert the driver if a wheel is loose?
Selling to our customers is like being a second-hand car salesman.
Second-hand car salesmen offer trade-in prices for old cars. Should we offer a
trade-in for old goods or maybe give a discount if they change from another
brand?
The packaging is like an egg.

The chick in the egg slowly drains the white of the egg as it grows. Can we
have a device on the packaging that visually shows how long before its sellby-date by changing colour with time?
Manufacturing a toy doll is like driving a tank.
Tanks fire shells out of their cannons. Can we design a robot to shoot the
head on so hard that it cannot come off again in the child's hands?
Advertising to customers is like cooking a meal.
People anticipate food more if they can smell something nice. Can we put a
smell (or other distinctive feeling) on our product which serves no purpose
except to recognize the upcoming excitement?

How to use the Search and Reapply technique

This technique is one which many people will have heard of. It involves
finding a stimulus by looking into another area of expertise to find a process
which has solved a similar probortunity. You then see how you can reapply
that solution to your own specific question.
Typical questions you might ask yourself for this technique are:

Who else has solved this probortunity?

What similar area of expertise might have solved this probortunity?
Is there anyone else in the company who knows how to solve this?
What else could we use to solve the probortunity?
Where else might this probortunity have been solved?
What other companies might know how to solve this?
What similar problems have been solved, and how?
What other industries face the same probortunity and what do they do
about it?

By answering these questions you can often come across trains of thought
which help to solve your probortunity.
An example of Search and Reapply:
The probortunity is that you are the manufacturer of grand pianos and you
need to work out how to get the pianos into people's dining rooms through
small doors. What can you search for and reapply? - spend a few minutes
yourself to do this before moving on.
The following could be examples of Search and Reapply:

DIY furniture
Kit cars

Dieting
Magic tricks
Children's toys where you put different shaped bricks through holes
Giving birth
Furniture removers
Doctor Who's Tardis

The next stage would be to think about the various ways which the ideas
generated by these situations could be used to solve the probortunity. The
technique described above is the after-the-event version of this technique for
solving probortunities.
The alternative way is to be constantly on the look out for new ideas and
objects and asking yourself how you can use them within your field of
expertise. This way is more involved in searching for opportunities. By using
this anticipatory method you are likely to come up with new ideas before they
are urgently needed and you can always keep one step ahead of your
competition.

How to use the Wishful Thinking technique

Here's a technique we're all familiar with! And it is indeed a very useful tool
for coming up with new ideas. By dreaming of your ideal situation or solution,
you can often come up with something which can have a similar effect but in
more practical, realistic way. It can also be useful because you have
something to aim for and you can then consider how far you want your
solution to meet your ideal.
You use your ideal solution to come up with ideas of how it can be obtained,
or how part of it can be obtained.
Some wishful questions you might ask yourself might be:

What
What
What
What
What

would my perfect solution be?

effect would my ideal solution have?
if money/morals/laws did not matter at all?
would I do if I had unlimited power and resources?
would my ideal solution look like?

Once you have dreamed of your perfect solution, you must then look at how
much of it can be put into practice and how you can achieve it. See what
practical benefits you can get from the perfect solutions.