HOW TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL BRAINSTORMING SESSION

It’s time to re-examine how brainstorming sessions are currently being run within the context of team meetings in education, and ask ourselves if we are being productive or simply putting words in a mind map for the sake of putting words in a mind map. If you reflect on the number of meetings you’ve either planned or sat in, have any real concrete changes been made afterwards? I am going to go out on a limb and guess no, and the reasons for this are two-fold; the first being the way the information is organized on the mind map, and the second is a failure to provide the necessary tools for implementation after the meeting. The following tips will help you address these issues and ensure that the changes you were hoping for will transpire after your brainstorming session!

Prior to Your Brainstorming Session

The extra time that you put into preparing for your brainstorming session will be well worth it in the end, and so instead of just having an idea for a title for each bubble on your mind map, take the time to list in bullet point the specific kinds of answers you are looking for. For example, if a particular bubble on the mind map will be entitled “Designing Learning in the Digital Age”, you can add phrases or questions underneath it, such as:

• What is digital learning?
• How will each teacher contribute?

 
By including questions like these within the bubble, you clarify what kind of answers you are expecting from teachers, there’s less room to veer off topic and your end result will be actionable goals that one can implement. Never underestimate the power of knowing and clarifying your outcomes prior to a meeting.

During Your Brainstorming Session

Amidst all the ideas being presented during a brainstorming session, it’s important to stay focused, on topic, and be thinking on your feet about ways you could extend ideas in a practical manner. So, let’s say someone throws out the idea of each teacher introducing new apps that relate to their subject area as a means of contributing to digital learning – instead of simply accepting this idea and moving on, pursue it further and ask teachers for a list of apps they can add to the mind map. In this way, when teachers sit down to do the work, they already have a starting point, as you can see in the example below.

After Your Brainstorming Session

No matter how organized or how good a brainstorming session was, it’s never a good idea to assume that teachers know what to do afterwards; it’s easy to forget things that were discussed the day before. In order to avoid this issue, you can provide staff with:
 
a) copies of the mind map to refer to by snapping a picture of it and emailing it to all. Because if you’ve thought long and hard about expected outcomes before the meeting, the information on the mind map will be germane to fulfilling the goals that were set out.
 
b) planning templates that indicate the process to follow for implementing the ideas on the mind map. So, if for example it was decided that each teacher would introduce new and relevant apps to their students relating to subject areas taught, a simple planner like the one below could be given for guidance.

The above planning template is an excellent segue from the mind map because it’s exactly what was discussed – each teacher will introduce new apps to their students, a list of apps was brainstormed during the meeting that teachers can refer to, and now all that’s left for the teacher to do is select apps and indicate when during the unit they will be introduced to students. In providing teachers with a template, you have given them a means for creating a solid plan of action that can be carried out without confusion - the perfect ending to any brainstorming session!

Following Up

After a brainstorming session, it can be hard to follow up and ask teachers which tasks they have completed and when, but by ensuring your mind map has specific outcomes on it (as we have shown) with concrete ideas for implementation and an accompanying planning template for teachers to set actionable goals, following up becomes very easy. If a planner isn’t complete, you know that the teacher may still have been struggling with what to do, and you can use the planning template as a guide in mentoring them. If the planner is complete, you can easily see how and when each of the tasks was done without guesswork.

By following the above tips, you are well on your way to organizing effective brainstorming sessions that will produce the end results you are looking for – happy planning!

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