Beyond Brainstorming Basics: Tools and Techniques for Boosting Your Brainstorming Sessions

These past 18 months have shown us that we have to think of out-of-the-box ideas in order to pivot. We have had to think of out-of-the-box ideas for program development, fundraising, outreach, publicity, workshops, and events. Coming up with new ideas can be challenging. Maybe you feel the tools that you have for brainstorming ideas are not enough. I would like to share some tools and techniques to help in your next brainstorming session.

Improvisation Tools

Different sectors can help you come up with new tools and techniques for brainstorming. One of those sectors is actually improvisation comedy or acting. In improvisation, the actors or comedians constantly have to come up with new ideas. So they use different techniques or tools to come up with creative ideas. 

One technique is saying  “Yes, and.” Saying “yes, and” continues the idea, builds upon the idea, expands the idea. You can use “Yes, and” in your brainstorming session. 

Here is an example of brainstorming fundraising ideas.

Executive Director: “ We can do a virtual fundraiser.”

Staff: “Yes, and we can have music.”

Staff: “Yes, and we can have a DJ.

Executive Director: “Yes, and we can do a dance-a-thon.”

Staff: “Yes, and we can have themed backgrounds.”

Another activity that is a fun improvisation tool is using a random object to start the brainstorming process. The activity is to find a random object and have each person pass it around. Each person has to come up with a new way to use that object, and they cannot say something that has been said before. The object can be anything from a tissue box to a ruler. A random object that you have on hand. Have fun seeing what people can come up with, and then continue your creative brainstorming process. 

Visuals 

In the design practice field, the brainstorming phase is called ideation. Many techniques and tools are used in the ideation stage. Some of those techniques use visuals. One visual technique is to draw your ideas out instead of writing them out. Simple sketches or doodles will work. Another tool is to use visual cues, such as cards or photographs to jog different ideas. Storyboards are also used to draw out programs and procedures and think through each step.     

Games

Games are another tool to use for brainstorming. There are games that you can create. These are similar to the improvisation tools and are created to generate a lot of ideas. 

One game is the Out of the Hat Game. I learned this game from the book Holy Currencies by Eric Law, but I gave it the title. The game is to think of all the places that people meet in your community and write each of those places on separate pieces of paper. Do the same with all the programs/services you are currently providing or the ones you want to provide. Instead of programs/services, you could also write down resources that you have. Put the place papers in one hat and the programs/services/resource papers in another hat. Each person takes a turn pulling one paper from each hat, and each person thinks of creative ideas to combine the two items.

For example:

Place: Soccer Field    

Program/Service/Resource: Medical Services

Ideas: Provide pop-up health fairs/clinics at the soccer field. 

Hand out water bottles with logos for soccer players. 

These three areas will give you an extensive list of brainstorming tools and techniques, many of which can be adapted to the online setting. See below for a list of further resources that I curated from these areas. 

Today, it is important to enhance our brainstorming tools and techniques as organizations have to keep pivoting with the changing times.  

Resources:

The Image Shoppe.Com: Yes, and… How Improv Techniques Inspire Creativity in the Workplace

IDEO.org provides The Field Guide for Human-Centered Design for downland on their website. This resource covers some of the techniques that I have mentioned here in greater detail.  

Mindtools.com has a great resource on their page called Brainstorming

Generating Many Radical, Creative. Ideas. 

Cacoo.com also has an article called The best brainstorming games you can do remotely for ideas that you can use online.

⭐ Join our weekly newsletter where we share tons of exclusive tips, tools, grant opportunities, and resources to our subscribers. Subscribe on the Spark Group home page.