Monthly brainstorms are a waste of time

Picture the scene. A group of 5 managers are in a room together. Their monthly one-hour get-together, brainstorming ideas for some new products.

James is Mr. Creativity, the most vociferous person in the group. The post-it note king. He gets the meeting going with an early blitz of random ideas and before you know it, the wall is soon covered with a cacophony of colour. Amanda is the quiet one in the group, intuitive and introverted. Not creative in her own view.  Matthew is the senior member in the team, always has his eye on the clock, always talking about the past, what is possible, not possible.

As quickly as James plants the post-its, Matthew finds holes and peels them off. Lucy, the trainee, looks bemused. Just happy to be there. Tony, the team’s anchor man with the strongest human empathy gene looks increasingly frustrated.

One hour and plenty of debate and discussion later, 4 sad looking post-it notes are left on the wall, pleading to be rescued and the group are worn out, a little fed up and eager return to their ‘proper’ jobs.

It’s time to get back to some real work. Needless to say that nothing gets actioned as nothing was really accomplished. A combined 5 hours of wasted time.

Are we in attack or defend mode? What can we learn from football?
In order to maximise the creative output from any session, somewhat ironically, a degree of structure and cohesion is required. The way that we should apply creativity is the way most good teams play sport.

Take football for example. You have the attackers, the midfielders, the defenders and each of them develop specialist skills in their core areas.

However, every team needs to decide which mode they are in. If they are in attacking mode, then everyone has to be of the same mind set, and even though the attackers still retain the primary responsibility for scoring goals, everybody has a role in helping them do that. If the team are in defensive mode, it is still the defenders who do the bulk of the defending but the midfielders drop deep and the attackers track back. Everyone is now in defensive mode.  Attack as a team, defend as a team. Imagine the chaos that would ensue if all 11 players had no idea whether they should be attacking or defending!

Is everyone operating in the same creative behaviour mode?
How can the core principles of attacking and defending in sport apply to creativity?
Back to the group of 5 managers in a room, and how the session might have gone. In advance of the meeting, Matthew has carefully selected the challenge that they will be working on and informed the group. James had the responsibility of collecting some stimulus. The first part of the meeting is spent in stimulator mode.

Plenty of free flowing thoughts and ideas coming out of everyone’s heads, even though James is in his element here and owns the majority of air time, everybody chips in. Twenty minutes in, Tony, who with his strong supporter style is facilitating the meeting, encourages everyone to switch to spotter mode. This involves surveying the wall of random post-its, picking out nuggets of potential, connecting thoughts and half-thoughts to develop the bones of BIG IDEAS. This is Amanda’s time to shine, and her innate ability to find needles in haystacks becomes evident. Everyone gives her time and space to articulate her initial thoughts. The rest of the team build rather than bury.

Three or four BIGGISH IDEAS later, it’s time for some careful sculpting. Putting flesh on the bones of the ideas, pen to paper, articulating them clearly for internal and external consumption. Somewhat ironically, Lucy, an English graduate and the most junior person there is best placed to do this. She only needs 10 minutes of quiet time to produce 5 clearly articulated concept statements. The final 10 minutes is spent doing some initial screening and selecting. Matthew, playing to his strengths, leads this with everyone’s input, before summing up and agreeing what happens next.

Unlock the creative potential of EVERY person in the room
Stimulating. Spotting. Sculpting. Selecting. Supporting. Each mode has a critical role within the overall creative process, and it is important for everyone to know which mode is required when and understand who is good at doing what.  It might seem like a contradiction in terms but this can make the creative process more effective and efficient. By breaking creativity down into some very tangible building blocks, it also serves to de-mystify that word ‘creativity’ and make it accessible to the majority rather than the minority.

Everyone can now play with more confidence at the creative table!