Running Ideation That Works

Replace traditional brainstorming with evidence-based methods:

• Start with individual work — always begin with solo ideation. Give people the problem and 10-15 minutes of silence to generate ideas independently before any sharing
• Use brainwriting — have everyone write ideas on sticky notes or shared documents before any discussion. This captures all ideas, not just the loudest ones
• Separate generation from evaluation — generate ideas in one session, evaluate them in another. Mixing these two phases suppresses creative thinking.