Work Smart: Brainstorming Techniques to Boost Creativity

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Coming up with good ideas is a major part of your job, so you want to have the right tools on hand to generate as many ideas as possible during a brainstorming session. Here are some tools and techniques for doing just that.

When you want to do free-form thinking and gather ideas and tasks around a central concept, try a mind map. In the middle of the page, write down your topic. Then, all around the topic, jot down tasks, words, ideas, and connect them by drawing lines between them and branching similar ideas off of them. The most effective offline tool for mind mapping is probably a classic whiteboard, wet marker, and eraser. To mind map online, check out, a free Web app where you can create, share, and publish your maps. The advantage of mind mapping is that it's not linear bullet points, and because it's unstructured it can encourage more free thinking.

Sometimes all you want to do is generate a bulleted list or outline of your ideas as they come to you. The low-tech solution is lined paper and a good pen, but if you want the ability to easily rearrange the items on your list or outline, you'll want some sort of outliner program. Microsoft Word's built in outline view is an easy way to make bulleted lists. In Word, press Ctrl+Alt+O to switch to Outline view.

When you can help it, don't brainstorm alone. The more people involved in your brainstorming session, the more ideas you'll generate, and the better your chances for finding the right idea will be. Pull key people together either in an on-site or virtual brainstorming session, and go to town. Allow for bad ideas to come out and stand to create the possibility of spurring on better alternatives. MindMeister supports collaborative mind maps—you can share maps you make there with collaborators. Google Docs offers excellent collaborative features like live-typing, where several people can be brainstorming in the same document at the same time, and you can watch other people's cursors as they type their ideas.

When you're brainstorming, create the environment your brain needs to get creative. Give yourself plenty of writing space and utensils; get everything out of your head and onto paper to make room for new insights. When you can, get yourself out of your normal workspace—go outside, or to the conference room with the great view, or to the coffee shop—to get the creative juices flowing. When you can, choose an open space with high ceilings. A 2007 study showed that people in rooms with high or vaulted ceilings tended to think more freely and abstractly.

If generating ideas is a regular part of your job, make sure you have tools you love to use on hand all the time. Splurge on a fancy pen or notebook, something that you love to write with, and take it with you on the train or to the dentist, and write whenever you have a chance, capturing any thought that might be useful.


Last week: Work Smart: Defrag Your Calendar by Batching Tasks

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  • Mouli

    That was a great article. We at EurekaOnDemand (dot) com are trying to creating a very innovative platform for the purpose of carrying out brain storming which could be quite useful for organizations

  • Meggin


    Just signed up for blog, so hence delayed comment.

    My favourite way to stir creativity:

    * Plan a morning to take on a hard problem/project that needs some creative thought with the intention of reaching a point of getting nowhere.
    * On that morning, Be dressed in exercise gear (hopefully work is cool about this) when you come to work.
    * Right at the point you hit a wall, open up a text file on your computer, then go for run, walk, cycle, or swim.
    * As ideas come into your head, concentrate to remember the ones you like, up to 4 or 5, and keep reminding yourself of them until you get back to your desk.
    * As soon as you are back at your desk, type these cool ideas into the text file.

  • Douglas Eby

    Another approach or strategy is reported by Sherri Fisher in her article Nurturing Your Creative Mindset. She says "New research has shown that adults can be primed to become more creative simply by being asked to think like children."

  • Michael Valkevich


    Love this article - especially your advice about not being afraid of "bad ideas". A sure-fire way to confine yourself creatively is to have fear of getting three-quarters of a way through illustrating an idea or writing a paragraph and saying: "Nah, forget it; that's not gonna work." A lot of corporate environments are so fraught with fear of not being perceived as a genius that people end up contributing nothing to progress by not being involved at all.

    -Mike Valkevich