You call for meetings in the office for a host of reasons. In some instances, you need to talk about serious topics. There are also instances when you wish to solicit ideas from the people you work with. During a brainstorming session, you have to guide your employees to have a meaningful discussion carefully. The goal of brainstorming is developing as many ideas as possible, and you can take it from there.
Don’t reject ideas right away
When brainstorming, you might hear ridiculous ideas from your employees. If you discuss marketing strategies, some of the plans are out of this world. You immediately conclude that they won’t work. Before you make such conclusions, you have to be more open-minded. Not all ideas are terrible. Give them a chance before you make up your mind. You don’t even have to decide on the spot. Sit on these ideas first. Who knows? You can extract something useful out of them.
Involve many people
If you have to think of marketing strategies, you can invite people outside the marketing team to join the conversation. You might have employees who have been around for a long time, and they have a valuable addition to the discussion. They can also think of ideas you might never think about, especially if you sit with the same people all the time.
Don’t mock ideas
It’s one thing to reject ideas. It’s another story if you mock them. Both are terrible, and you have to avoid them. However, when you mock an idea, you’re also mocking the person who said it. Instead of encouraging a more meaningful conversation, you could stop it from happening. You’re also taking away these people’s motivation. Their goal is to help, and they don’t have bad intentions for saying their thoughts. There’s no need to mock. It also reflects how terrible you are as a leader. You don’t encourage ideas that could lead to the growth of the company.
Allow people to present in detail
Some brainstorming sessions may involve a few ideas getting thrown around. You may also move from one idea to another. However, there are instances when someone wants to provide details. Allow this person to have a longer presentation. You may also invest in a projector ceiling bracket so that it’s more comfortable when making the presentation. Open the floor for discussion so that the other people in the room can also contribute their ideas.
Thank everyone
Once you finish the meeting, you have to express your gratitude to everyone. Let your employees recognise that you appreciate the effort to share their thoughts. Encourage them to do the same in the future. Make this brainstorming session a regular activity. Analyse the information gathered from the session and determine which ideas are worth pursuing. You have to allow meaningful conversations to happen all the time. Don’t limit the ideas to the people at the top. If you want your business to grow, everyone should have a voice.
