Why is Brainstorming important for Entrepreneurial Success?

It is said that being different can make a difference in business. So, as an entrepreneur, if you hit the market with a copied idea, there are more chances of your idea being rejected. 

For being different and innovative, you need to regularly brainstorm within your team. It helps you to be updated with the exciting business scenario, know your competition and come up with fresh ideas. 

“ Capital isn’t that important in business. Experience isn’t that important. You can get both of these things. What is important is ideas.” – Harvey Firestone

Brainstorming is simply a creative process where a group of people sits together to find a solution to a problem using tools like online software or whiteboard or just a paper or pen. Brainstorming originated from an advertising executive named Alex F. Osborne around 1939. Brainstorming helps in developing much-needed skills for Entrepreneurs. The very important skills include:

• Communication skills
• Empathy
• Emotional Intelligence
• Teamwork skills
• Leadership skills and more

Brainstorming can have the most positive results if it is done in the right way. Here, I share few steps that need to be taken to prepare for an effective brainstorming session:

Clear goal and objective: It is very important to have at least one or many (depending on the situation) clear goals and objectives before beginning a brainstorming session. If you have no idea about your brainstorming reason then it is not going to be effective.

Individual idea: Although Brainstorming is a group session, it is still a kind of a personal process. Before working on group ideas, it is important to try working alone first.

Group idea: Brainstorming definitely is a group effort. But, also it is important to ask yourself what kind of group? Make sure the kind of people you invite to brainstorming are the kind of people you can work with.

Expectations: Always be clear with expectations from a brainstorming session. If you know what you want then it becomes easier to bring ideas on the floor. 

Environment: The room where you conduct the brainstorming sessions will also determine how effective the session is going to be. Imagine conducting two sessions, one in the dark and boring room while another in a colorful room with good sunlight and fresh air. Where will you see a creative juicy flow of ideas? Spot the differences and learn the outcome. 

Team Leader: Choosing the right team leader for the session is an important task before beginning a brainstorming session. When a group of people is gathered together to work, it is obvious that most of the time things can get out of hand. You need to assign a team leader who is inspiring and who can stimulate ideas that flow on the floor.

Also, read about 10 ways on How to Build a Strong Team Culture

Now, tell me  How often as an entrepreneur have you used brainstorming to solve a problem? If not yet, or used very little, then let me share with you eight points On Why Brainstorming is Important for Entrepreneurial Success? 

But hold on, please remember that you need to use brainstorming correctly to gain an effective outcome.

Welcome Crazy ideas

Nobody comes into a brainstorming session with the perfect and useful idea in their mind. A brainstorming session, allows all your team member’s ideas to be welcomed organically and all these ideas can be combined to form innovative ideas. Also, some ideas can be crazy, some can be weird, and more. Welcome, all these ideas. Remember that many of the world’s best inventions came from a very strange idea. 

During brainstorming sessions, people should not criticize and reward the idea that is best. By this kind of judgment and analysis, it actually limits creativity. It is always good to evaluate ideas at the end of the session. 

Collects ideas/Viewpoints

If you are an owner of your business and you are the only single person who generates all ideas then, in most cases unintentionally what happens is those ideas become repetitive. So, during a brainstorming session, there is a collection of ideas, viewpoints from all the team members. You may not gather the brilliant idea but if you gather and brainstorm together, your ideas are going to be fresh and effective. Also, when your team members are from diverse backgrounds with differences in interests, this brings out unique ideas. Brainstorming and collecting viewpoints help for a successful entrepreneurial journey.

Also, while collecting Viewpoints, it is important to avoid judging ideas immediately. People are more willing to share their ideas in a comfortable and supportive space so it is important to give respect to each of the ideas by creating an inclusive and non-judgemental space. 

Planning and Organising ideas

Brainstorming actually helps in planning and organizing ideas. Brainstorming helps you to give a solid plan on what to write and what to remove. For example, in the case of teachers, it is really helpful to construct lesson plans for their students beforehand and be prepared earlier. 

After you planned, brainstorming also helps in organizing your thoughts and ideas. Beginning with writing whatever comes to mind. Then organizing it by filtering the good ideas and choosing the best idea among all.

Combine, refine and improve ideas

Brainstorming helps in building ideas, combining ideas of team members, again refining the ideas and further improving the ideas. In this process, there is much feedback, and suggestions taken on ideas. Brainstorming introduces different perspectives and opens the door to innovations. It actually helps people to think more freely and without fear of judgment. Brainstorming helps teams to generate a large number of ideas quickly, which are further merged and filtered to create the ideal solution.

Read about Startup Funding Options for Business

Encourages Critical Thinking

As an owner of your business, if you invite your team members, stakeholders, and other staff into brainstorming, it actually encourages your employees to think critically. Brainstorming initially encourages people to come up with thoughts and ideas. These ideas are later crafted into creative solutions as well as can spark even more ideas. This kind of environment encourages people to think out of their normal way of thinking. Critical thinking helps to solve problems as well as create something new and innovative. 

Builds Team Relationships

Brainstorming allows all the team members to put an effort to put their ideas on the floor instead of pressuring one person to come up with a new and innovative idea. This helps in building Team Relationships and encourages team members to work with respect and be responsible towards it. It also helps in increasing understanding between the team members.

Brainstorming is a collaborative experience where there is a team effort rather than one person taking ownership of it. In this way, there is no pressure on just one person to carry out the workload of the entire company. This way helps in cultivating team ownership. The brainstorming session also helps you to see talents in your coworkers of which you were previously unaware.

Sparks creativity

The brainstorming session helps in enhancing creativity. It helps in pulling the jumbled ideas from your head and getting them out on the floor. Through discussion and mutual talk, you can improve your ideas and make them innovative. 

It is said that the human mind is very powerful. You have to think creatively and then it can take you anywhere you want. With the help of brainstorming, many people can come up with creative ideas for great things to happen. For example, like how fashion designers make wonderful dresses, architects design amazing buildings, scientists innovative creations. This is all creativity. 

But creativity doesn’t mean you need to find and create new things entirely. Creativity is when you make something new from something you already know.

Uniqueness

Through brainstorming, you will be able to come up with many ideas which are entirely your own. All these ideas represent uniqueness. Just like philosophers and inventors discovered things uniquely using brainstorming skills. You don’t have to be worried about thinking of unique ideas, it is all going to be natural and organic. When your idea is different from the others, it represents that you have a great mind with unique thinking skills.

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