Brainstorming
Creativity and Creative Ideas
Many people talk about creativity and creative ideas, but what is creativity and why? In fact, creativity is the invention of something new and useful at the same time, which can be utilized for a specific thing or purpose, or seeing things from a different perspective that makes us know the value of things or their positive or negative impact. Therefore, when we highlight an idea that did not occur to any of us in a different way, this is called creativity, but on the condition that the highlighting or changing the way of presentation is useful. Here we must distinguish between creativity and distortion. Creativity is always linked to the benefit of reaching a specific purpose or arousing interest in a particular point, or that it benefits the community in one way or another, while distortion is changing the things we are used to just for the sake of change without any added value or benefit, so I wanted to highlight this point to distinguish between creativity and distortion.
What is brainstorming?
Brainstorming is a process where the mind is placed in a state that allows for the extraction of ideas and the maximum capacity of the mind, summoning the largest possible quantity of ideas in a particular direction. This is done to explore and search for all possible ideas that can help us reach a new, useful, innovative and creative idea. Through the process of brainstorming, the extracted ideas can also be combined to arrive at a new idea.
Proper brainstorming is the optimal path to the beginning of impactful creative ideas that can later be developed to achieve amazing and impressive results.
Types of brainstorming:
There are two ways to enter a state of brainstorming: group brainstorming and individual brainstorming.
First, group brainstorming: This is done by gathering a certain number of inspiring people – 2, 3, 5 or 6 people. Through the meeting, specific ideas related to the topic we are trying to find new ideas for are proposed. Each member of the group provides an idea that comes to their mind. Through the proposal of ideas, more than one idea can be combined and new useful ideas can be generated. Alternatively, an idea proposed by one of the group members can be the starting point for a new idea that had not occurred to anyone, and the ideas can then be developed one after the other. Positive and negative aspects of each proposed idea are also discussed, which helps to capture the best ideas in the meeting.
Second, individual brainstorming: This is done through complete isolation from others and visual stimulation, preparing the mind to reach the stage of imagination using the maximum possible tools. This can be done by browsing some websites, studying the competition, and benefiting from the mistakes of others, finally coming up with a new idea that meets the requirements of the desired topic. This individual approach requires a lot of focus and the ability to analyze and imagine.
Difficulties and Challenges:
We can face many difficulties and challenges during the brainstorming process before reaching new and creative ideas, and here are the most important ones:
Mental Distraction: During the brainstorming process, we can be in an environment containing inappropriate elements for brainstorming, such as noise, crying children at home, interruptions from others, or a pet that periodically steals attention, and other things that hinder the brainstorming process.
The Nature of the Mind: Although the mind’s ability to think and generate ideas is tremendous, unfortunately the nature of the mind is that when it focuses on a particular topic or idea, it cannot pay attention to other things. This means that when you force the mind to focus on a particular matter, it fails to think about the simplest other things. Therefore, the mind prefers to rest after intense focus, as it alternates between focusing and resting, and we cannot force it to focus constantly all the time.
Lack of Focus: This topic is a skill and a habit. If you are one of the people who do not practice focusing and limiting ideas and directing focus to specific ideas, it will not be easy to do so from the first time.
Closed Thinking: If your mind thinks in a certain way and then you come up with inappropriate ideas, and whenever you try to rethink, you reach the same results, you should know that you have entered a stage of thinking in a closed circle. You must get out of it and think differently in order to reach different results.
Possible Solutions for Challenges and Difficulties
Mental Distraction… Appropriate Environment
The Nature of the Mind… Recording Ideas
Lack of Focus… Repeated Training
Closed Thinking… Multiple Rounds
Some Effective Techniques to Achieve Excellent Results from the Brainstorming Session
Using Data and Starting from There
Linking Ideas and Finding Relationships
Reverse Hypotheses
Creating Stories and Characters
Remember always: Practice controlling your thoughts
As psychologist Carl Jung says,
You are what you do, not what you say you will do.
Brainstorming can be used in many areas such as:
Brainstorming to find a solution to a specific social problem
Brainstorming to study a particular project before starting it
Brainstorming to surprise a friend or do a certain surprise
Brainstorming to come up with an advertising idea or marketing plan for a particular product or service
