Brainstorming is an intese and inspired conversation with yourself or a group of people.  It is about creating a metaphorical storm in your head. By brainstorming you are effectively jumbling-up all your existing thought patterns and allowing new, creative, critical, ingenious, ridiculous and righteous ideas to emerge.  It is about engaging with your brain so that you can think laterally and literally to explore the hidden potential that exists within the realms of your imagination and understanding.

The process was first popularized in 1953 by Alex Faickney Osborn in a book called Applied Imagination. Osborn proposed that groups could double their creative output with brainstorming and indeed some of the results produced are incredibly inspiring.
A brainstorming exercise is a very fluid, engaging, intense and revealing experience.  It is the ideal way to approach solving a problem, reaching a decision or discovering hidden opportunities.

How to brainstorm.

Brainstorming can either be a solo or a group activity.  If you are working as part of a team then it is a highly productive and efficient way to collaborate, communicate and stimulate new ideas or generate possible solutions.  It is imperative that you are able to concentrate, uninterrupted during a brainstorming session.

The principles of brainstorming are based on stimulating both the left and right hand sides of your brain.  During such a thinking session your thoughts will flow naturally as you focus on them.  Your job is to observe these free flowing thoughts so as to later be able to form judgment over them.  For this reason it is essential that all brainstorming activities involve a pen and paper or electronic input device that allows you to record your thoughts as they occur to you.  This allows you to stand back from them and take and objective view to summarize any brainstorming session.

Brainstorming commonly starts with a problem or scenario that needs a solution.  By taking the time to consider all aspects of such a situation the barnstormer opens up the mental opportunity for new ideas to emerge.

To date no firm evidence exists to support the power of brainstorming however we were able, using the Whether? Forecast™ way of working, to generate a patentable solution to a problem which had been consuming a large research and development team for two and a half years in under 15 minutes.

The power of combined, collaborative thinking is tremendous.

Mind Mapping.

Mind mapping is an excellent way of recording your thoughts.  You can mind map using a pen and paper and various types of mind mapping software do exist.
Tony Buzan was the first to conceptualize and name this way of recording thoughts in his book Use Your Head.  His company offer a very effective mind mapping software platform called iMindMap which you can use to draw electronic maps.  A hand drawn map is just as effective.

A mind map is a spider-like diagram that emerges as you record each thought as it occurs.  The non-liner pictorial form of a mind-map encourages the use of your creative brain whilst allowing a critical analysis to be observed. It literally is a map of your mind as your thoughts emerge.

Each mind map will be as unique as the person’s mind and the subject they are brainstorming.  It is up to you to practice and develop your own unique style.

The visual aspect of such a diagram is less important than the process you put your mind through in order to draw one.

If you’re brain is the car and you are the driver then a mind map is simply the tracks you leave on the road.  By being able to look back and see where you’ve been you will gain a much greater understanding of how best to get to where you want to go.

Learn how to brainstorm better by taking action.  Practice is what makes perfect but it is also important to remember that when you are brainstorming you can neither be right or wrong.  The situation simply is.  The more you practice the easier and more efficiently simple solution to your situations will emerge.