Pursuing the Great Idea

 A primer on how to lead 
a successful brainstorm

by Andy Tyer

So, you want a fruitful brainstorming session, huh? You want to walk into a room, and come out two hours later with big ideas. Award-winning ideas. Oh-my-God-they’re-gonna-give-me-a-raise ideas.

Excellent. 

Those ideas don’t happen by accident. You have to hunt them down like the illusive prey they are. So, allow me to share some guidelines I’ve established over my career to help you successfully run a productive brainstorm to get to those kinds of ideas. 

Every brainstorm must have a leader.
This seems obvious. However, I’ve stopped counting the times I’ve looked in on a brainstorm only to see a room full of people staring at the walls. The brainstorm leader must prevent that from happening. When I assign a leader to brainstorm (or serve as the leader myself), I make it very clear that the success or failure of that brainstorm is squarely on the leader’s shoulders.

Be hunters.
A great idea is an evasive, slippery, cunning, stealthy animal that does not want to be captured and is rarely just stumbled upon. You absolutely have to hunt for it. You have to be smart and devious and determined to bag that great idea. And you need some weapons. Break up your brainstorm into smaller timed-sessions. “You have ten minutes to come up with as many ideas that . . . “ Break up your brainstormers into smaller groups, and have them compete. Use any means, fair or unfair, to hunt that great idea down.

A brainstorm group posing with the Big Idea they just bagged.
He was a tough one.  

No one sits.

I can state this with conviction: every great idea I ever came up with happened when I was standing. And I was probably pacing around, too. Forcing your brainstormers onto their feet gets them into the brainstorming mindset. Seated is passive; standing is active.

Lose the phones.

In the history of brainstorming there has yet to be an instance when a creative got a great idea from his phone. Ban the phones from the room. If one gets smuggled in, don’t think twice about snatching that sucker up and tossing it out the window. You’ll only have to do it once to make your point.

Phones can derail a brainstorm, yet crossbows are quite effective in them.

Have an objective.

If you want to walk out of the room with five great ideas, share that desire with your creatives. Be explicit about it. “We’re not leaving until we nab three ideas that will make the client wet his pants.”  Whatever your objective is, make it the goal for the group. And let them know about it before the first “What if” is spoken. 

I was supposed to be looking for the largest dessert. Damn it!

Prepare the room and the players.

Give your brainstormers some help. Put up prints of the product on the walls. Have copies of the creative brief ready. Throw in some examples of great work to inspire them. Send out an email the day before the session is scheduled, letting your creatives know what they’ll be jamming on. A little prep could make the difference between a great brainstorming session and two hours of wasted time.

Know the project’s business objectives.

Creatives like to know why they’re being asked to flex their hefty creative muscles. Are you trying to drive trial with this project?  Did the client find some extra money? Does he want to spend that money fast before his budget ends? The answers to these questions can greatly affect the direction of your brainstorm session.

Bring in your heavy hitters.

A winning baseball manager doesn’t take the pennant by filling his roster with farm club talent. And at the risk of offending many of my creative brothers and sisters, not all creative are great conceptors. Make sure you’ve got at least a few participants in your brainstorm who are experienced at concepting big ideas.

"Babe, Lou, we need you in the brainstorm. Like now."

Be one-track minded.

Two words: single proposition. Start by posting on a big board the one thing on which your team should focus. If it takes you more than ten words to convey your single proposition, odds are, you don’t have one. Single propositions are simple and sound something like this: 

·    Show consumers that a Crest regimen whitens her teeth better than toothpaste alone.

·    Prove to pet parents the health benefits of an all-natural dog food.

·    Help hospitals see the long-term cost-savings of a RIS/PACS.

Your single proposition should not be clever. Leave that up to your big idea. Finally, the word “and” should never, ever, ever be part of your single proposition. Ever-ever.

Check the creative temperature often.

Sometimes creatives just aren’t in the mood to brainstorm. The room gets cold. The leader’s job is to keep it hot. So pay attention to the creative temperature. If the ideas aren’t coming, readjust. Do something different. Do whatever you have to in order to get the creative temperature hot again and the ideas flowing.

Get all the bad ideas out.

You will come up with way more bad ideas than great ones; Thomas Edison will back me up on this point. One way to get the room hot again is to force your brainstomers to get all the bad ideas out in the open. Start the brainstorm with a mandate, something like, “For the next ten minutes, I want to hear every bad idea you’ve got.” Once your get all those bad ideas out, your group will relax, and the great ideas will begin to emerge.

One of many bad ideas you really need to get out of your head. 

Never settle.

There’s an old creative adage that goes something like this: 

Good is the opposite of great.

Do not settle for good. It’s okay to put good ideas up on the board. It’s okay to put bad ideas on the board. But don’t quit until you’ve got great ideas on the board. Again, this may seem like an obvious tip, but you’d be amazed at how many times a good idea starts to feel right to you and your brainstorming team.

If you settle for good instead of holding out for great, plan on taking a lot of showers; you’ll need them to wash all the hack off you.

The Last Paragraph

So, there you have it. Approach your next brainstorm with a leader, an objective, and some simple ground rules, and you’ll be amazed what your group will come up with.

Happy hunting!