How to lead
A Brainstorm Meeting
How to lead a brainstorm l Digiday
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you're probably saying to yourselves
self I wish we had this a few days ago
but like any presentation I know I am
learning a lot and you'll take away and
I have a feeling you'll do quite a bit
more brainstorming in your careers
so I come from an agency called Rumble
Fox and we are very much not
about what a brand says but about what
it does and so what we try to create our
brand building experiences that either
create a service that make you laugh
that make you want to pass something
around and that maybe is a little bit of
fun so show me don't tell me is our
mantra and we create brainstorm sessions
around this how do you create something
that something somebody wants to use
that somebody wants to share so our
agency is built around this we we have
what we call t-shaped folks maybe M
shaped folks that can stretch and flex
across disciplines so we have in our
brain storms people who are strategic
but also creative who understand
technology and who all come up with
these incredible brand building
experiences and you've heard a little
bit about creating something new when it
comes to innovation we also like to
think not just that it's new but that
increases value and is the thing that
the teams are coming up with are they
actually doing something for the brand
but most of all are they doing something
for the end consumer and so that really
is if I would say please take away one
thing is that that really is what
innovation is about so I am quite out of
the younger generation base
and I've been around the block in a nice
way
and I've been to a few of these agencies
and have led brain storms and a few of
these agencies and also companies so I
worked quite a few number of years at
r/ga
at huge and also a company called
MakerBot and is very much a hacking
making kind of culture and so what we do
is at these agencies and at these
companies is try to come up with brain
storms that are more like hackathons how
many of you guys have been to a
hackathon okay very few but it's this
notion of people think that they can't
do this and I'm here to tell you that
you should start to think about brain
storms as if you're doing a hackathon
and also to give you ease and permission
to understand that you guys can do this
it's not about how many Red Bulls do you
chug it's not about are you a
mouth-breather it's about understanding
how to brainstorm and how to make things
so this is the hacker kind of culture
and mantra and again if please take this
away with you when you start to leave
brain storms or even participate it's
not about being perfect I come from a
digital agency so the notion of
Perpetual beta is very much a part of
our ethos move fast and break things I
do not believe that a strategist should
be thinking through what is that guiding
principle for weeks upon weeks you
should really just get down to it stay
focused and keep chipping and what would
you do if you weren't afraid and I think
that is probably the biggest thing is
don't be afraid say something if people
say oh I'm not sure that's okay that's
the worst that can happen
so when it comes to creating a
brainstorming team and if you're leading
this think of it
put everyone in a room or even in
another setting but multidisciplinary I
think is very key you want someone with
different points of view you don't want
everyone to look like yourselves think
like yourselves and brainstorm like
yourselves fast fast fast right you're
trying to come up with a lot of ideas as
quickly as possible and in fact the
first day or the first few hours should
really be about how many things can we
put on a white board so quantity which
then leads to quality so you know
embrace those false starts half ideas
and notions if someone says something
make sure that the team takes that
little nugget and expands on it and
you're thinking again about what it does
not just what it says so about that
service it's about utility fun and
emotion so whoever's using the thing
that you're brainstorming about are they
is it is it fulfilling a need or a want
and then also if you're gonna create
things at the end of the day to showcase
what you're thinking about don't think
you have to understand how to code you
don't have to know how to make things
like the folks that I worked with that
MakerBot it's not about engineers it's
about coming up and expressing your idea
in a way that conveys what you're trying
to do so here are a few steps on how to
lead a brainstorm so the first one is
focus focus focus so it's not like this
it's like this so if if the exercise is
about we have wheels and we want to take
you somewhere and this is the notion
again of Perpetual beta or MVP it's
about creating things and stages that
get to the final result as opposed to
only waiting for the final result
so giving gentle guidance is step two I
no idea was mentioned as as a brands was
an agency that really encourages great
thinking and I think they have a set of
rules and cards that I would really
encourage you all to download and find
but the notion of deferring judgment
encouraging wild ideas which I'll talk
about building on the ideas of others
but before you start you want to make
sure that everyone's clear that it's not
about right or wrong and it's not about
being the best in the room it's about
you're creating something that you want
to have impact in the marketplace so
collaboration collaboration is what I
would call the necessary ingredient but
the problem is that everyone talks about
collaboration but what does it mean it's
what's called a weasel word so I bet
everyone has had different collaborative
experiences and moments in their lives
and when you ask each person from each
table what does collaboration mean to
them they might have a different
definition I'm here to tell you what I
think collaboration is and how you can
facilitate that when you're leading a
brainstorm so using that weasel how many
have seen this
it's the weasel with the woodpecker but
what was beautiful is that here's a
photo that was passed along again and
again and then someone made it better
right
they added they added on and it brought
a smile and labs but then they added
even more right so the notion of
collaboration just being about people
working together it's about in my mind
and not but so someone puts an idea out
there then your rule is the leader of a
brainstorm is
how can you this is a very technical
term judge it and make it even better so
how do you that to me is what your role
is as a facilitator or a leader of our
brainstorm is helping people build on
the ideas of others to make it better
step 4
critique not criticism this is something
that I think only time will improve for
people in the room but it's I've seen
this image the sandwich technique about
giving negative feedback have everything
has anyone seen this I call on
this because I think people know that
you're gearing to give them bad feedback
when you try to sandwich oh you look
nice today
by the way that idea sucks oh you look
nice today I mean it's very obvious so I
think what the point is is about giving
good feedback so when you hear an idea
that you think isn't the greatest don't
use the sandwich technique please
instead offering words that get to an
improvement of that idea
not the judgement of the idea right and
as a leader you're setting the tone for
the rest of the team to also add on to
that idea to make it better right be
honest so I think what happens a lot of
times with criticism verse being a
little bit people try to be nice and
they don't get to the point so people
don't know if their idea is bad or good
be honest about what you're thinking and
feeling but with those words of how to
improve it again building on the idea
which I mentioned before being specific
and helping and not squashing so again
this is your facilitating critique in in
that brainstorm session
it's not about criticism step 5 which is
the big one is thinking big and that is
your your role as leader of a brainstorm
so you want people to think as big as
possible and you want to remove the
barriers so this might sound familiar I
know on the briefs that you guys worked
on there was a budget and for some of
the teams for the briefs there would be
some legal issues those are the things
that you want as a leader to say we
understand that they're there but put it
away because it might get in the way of
thinking big so try to take those
obstacles away try to if if the team
itself is starting to say but what about
this but what about this we can't do it
because of this your job is to say don't
enough don't worry because then you can
you can rein it in and make those wild
ideas a little bit better so know your
purpose as I mentioned you have wheels
that's who you are as a brand and you
want to create a vehicle to get someone
from point A to point B if you know that
that's a great place to start don't rein
it in yet encourage that wildness
because sometimes those wild ideas
create amazing things build upon and
listen don't squash real communication
so share a point of view don't hide it
in a sandwich but also give constructive
critique and think big and wild and go
for quantity thank you
that's great and we are a little under
so if we have a couple minutes if anyone
has any questions hi so one of my
questions is I work in a satellite
office and my creative team is in a
different state so do you have any tips
for leading a brainstorm when your
remote yeah I think there's a lot of
great tools out there to you know
obviously face to face and being in a
meeting like we we have been doing for
the past few days is wonderful but I
know my company uses slack and we have a
lot of folks who are from all over the
world
and we collaborate that way but there
are other tools to do that and you know
somebody submits something I don't know
if you guys are familiar with slack but
and this is not because I'm getting any
money from so you know but the notion of
you put something out there and then
people like a chain and I think that's a
really nice way to do it digitally today
runs on slack okay question over here
Megan have you heard the jonah lehrer
book the one that he was subsequently
busted for plagiarizing he has the whole
chat it's it's too bad because there's a
whole chapter on brainstorming where he
sort of bunks a lot of the myths of the
way it works actually
it's worth reading even though he's sort
of yeah I think that their heart used to
talk about with the critique versus
criticism I think that's a huge thing
I've noticed especially I mean I've had
a background in architecture so like
that was the key he was like you had to
be critical but in a constructive way
and like getting into media it's like
you see a lot of young 22 year olds that
aren't used to having to be like they
play nice
too much almost like especially in
certain scenarios so do you have tease
for like really pushing people to get
out of that like you know like you think
you did a great job but you know like
you don't have to do that like how do
you get people to really understand and
if you have tips for how to push people
why you think again as a leader then you
can you can start to pose the questions
around the room for the people who are
brainstorming to get to those nuggets
that you want so it's all in the
question so it might be as simple as do
you think this is something that this
end consumer would use what could we do
to improve it and start to get to those
questions that lead to more of that
critique and I think as a leader you
want to shut down the either the really
general I don't like this or this sucks
or the oh this is nice and which is not
helpful either so I think as the leader
you can start to say well would someone
use this how might they how might it be
a better fit for for what our goals are
I think that's unfortunately all we have
time for that was great go team yellow
we're going to
