Business Brainstorming

By Cyndi Seidler

I’ve been amazed at how many ideas are born in just a few short hours with management peers in a brainstorming meeting. Not surprisingly, these sessions always sparked a new approach or refreshed view on something.

From small improvements to complete reshaping a strategy, this type of management method has proven extremely beneficial. To implement such an undertaking, there are various ways to organize these brainstorming objectives.

Mentor programs are designed to bring together friends or join with peer organizations for help and guidance. Mentors provide business advice and give suggestions for improvement. They also act as sounding boards, generating answers and solutions for new business ideas.

Get a room of customers or noncustomers together for a Focus group and discover what they like or dislike, what they think about your new product or service idea, how they feel your product or service can be improved. A moderator can help get a room of strangers interacting with one another in creative ways.

I also read about an article about the Japanese management principle of kaizen (pronounced, "k-eye-zin"). It means "continuous improvement" and is the Japanese philosophy of work. Without limiting the kaizen’s influence to brainstorming, creativity for new ideas is likely to hold plenty of weight, although the aim is toward improvement. For instance, each problem or mistake is seen as an opportunity for improvement and the focus is not to blame people for errors, but to improve the system, to find what’s wrong with a process that may be the cause of the problem.

Forming an advisory or personal board consisting of a team of colleagues and friends provides support and guidance. Acting as a sounding board, this group gives you people to bounce ideas off of or share solutions with. This kind of interaction can either be casual get togethers or formal meetings. This group can help keep you motivated and on track, as well as give guidance during a difficult time. Even a single, bright business coach makes a good sounding board for brainstorming.

Joining forces with others in organized brainstorming sessions is a very productive and worthwhile activity. A lot of business strategy has been devised from the "meeting of minds," therefore you might give it some thought.

Copyright © 1997 Cyndi Seidler.  All Rights Reserved.

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