Brainstorming!Brainstorming!

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IntroductionIntroduction

• A quality management system can help your organisation to continually improve its performance in many key areas

• There are a number of tools and techniques that can help you achieve this objective

• In this presentation, we will look at one of them - brainstorming

What is it?What is it?

• The term "Brainstorming" conjures up visions of mad professors foaming at the mouth

• But what we are referring to is a technique to encourage participation, creative thinking and the generation of new ideas

When should it be used?When should it be used?

• Identify objectives• Generate possible solutions• Choose between different options• Develop a plan of action

Brainstorming may be thought of as a problem solving technique. It can be used when you need to:

What does it achieve?What does it achieve?

Brainstorming can achieve the following:• Produce many alternative ideas in a short

space of time

• Enable people to contribute their ideas

• Enable participants to benefit from each other’s ideas

• Encourage the generation of original or "off the wall" ideas

• Enhance team-building• Produce a positive-thinking environment

How does it work?How does it work?

• There are 5 key steps• These are described on the following screens...

Step 1 - Form a teamStep 1 - Form a team

• A group of participants gets together - away from day-to-day distractions

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Step 2 - Allocate rolesStep 2 - Allocate roles

• One person is nominated as group leader• Another is nominated to take notes • This can be done on paper, or on a

whiteboard where everyone can see what's written

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Step 3 - Explain objectivesStep 3 - Explain objectives

The group leader states what you are trying to achieve e.g.

“We need to reduce the amount of waste material”

“We need to improve our response time”

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Step 4 - Generate ideasStep 4 - Generate ideas

• Everyone is encouraged to put forward their suggestions

• Every idea should be noted• You are looking to generate a

quantity of ideas• Their suitability can be discussed

later 4

• At this stage, it is important that the ideas are not debated or criticised - no matter how unlikely they may seem

• Eventually you should have a range of ideas to consider, and the group leader calls a halt

• An ‘Affinity Diagram’ may be a useful tool for grouping ideas together

People Equipment

Methods Materials

Step 5 - Evaluate ideasStep 5 - Evaluate ideas

• Now the group debates the various ideas, and starts a process of elimination

• You should be able to narrow them down to the agreed solution, or 2-3 options which merit further consideration

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• Perhaps using a cost-benefit analysis• The brainstorming session has done its job• Why not give it a try yourself!

• These options can then be investigated further

• Form a team• Allocate roles• Explain objectives• Generate ideas• Evaluate ideas

Summary of stepsSummary of steps