•The following rules are important to brainstorming
successfully:
•A leader should take
control of the session, initially defining the problem to be solved with any criteria that must be met, and then keeping the
session on course. He or she should encourage an
enthusiastic, uncritical attitude among brainstormers and encourage participation by all members of the team. The session
should be announced as lasting a fixed length of
time, and the leader should ensure that no train of thought is followed for too
long. The leader should try to keep the brainstorming on
subject, and should try to steer it towards the
development of some practical solutions. •Participants in the
brainstorming process should come from as wide a range of disciplines with as broad a range of experience as possible. This
brings many more creative ideas to the session.
•Brainstormers
should be encouraged to have fun brainstorming, coming up with as many ideas as possible, from solidly practical ones to wildly
impractical ones in an environment where
creativity is welcomed. •Ideas must not be criticised or evaluated during the
brainstorming session. Criticism introduces an
element of risk for a group member in putting forward an idea. This stifles creativity and cripples the free running nature of a good
brainstorming session. •Brainstormers should not only come up with new ideas in a
brainstorming session, but should also
'spark off' from associations with other people's ideas and develop other
peoples ideas. •A record should be kept
of the session either as notes or a tape recording. This should be studied subsequently for evaluation. It can also be
helpful to jot down ideas on a board which can be
seen by all brainstormers.