Brainstorming
Getting brainstorming to work most effectively is not easy.
To get great ideas to provide solutions you need three key elements:
- An effective chairman who focuses on solutions and can pull together a very diverse group of people
- Clear guidelines to allow the best ideas not to be killed or stifled
- Senior management agreement to adopt the best solutions.
Often you have to convince senior management that brainstorming is worth doing, when many have pre-conceived ideas about the right route forward.
The photo above is of a manager who allowed MW to push the boundaries and get the Six Sigma team to test their assumptions. He was the hardest to convince, but as sponsor of the project in question John sanctioned the brainstorming. He was rewarded with an extra $640,000 on his bottom line and a major impact on the development of small and wheeled loaders into the future for Caterpillar.
MW has successful experience in using the following brainstorming techniques:
Six Hats
Random Word
Mind Mapping
Root Cause Analysis/Ishikawa/Fishbone Diagram
Idea Box
Candid Comments
Musical Chairs
Twenty Questions
Why Because