The Advantages of Brainstorming

If you're struggling to come up with a solution for a project at work or school, the last thing you want to do is waste time willing your brain to explode with ideas -- especially if the problem you're working on could be solved by brainstorming in a group setting. Brainstorming is a creative process that can be undertaken individually but is mainly used in a group setting. It is used to work through ideas to find a solution to a problem or situation. It is a powerful way to generate, share and maximize new ideas. Brainstorming provides many advantages to the process of sorting through problems.

When you throw a group of people together with a problem and say, “Let’s throw some ideas out there,” it gets the creative juices flowing. Ideas give birth to more ideas and you will bounce ideas off one another. The creativity will bubble over. It's much easier to come up with solutions when your thoughts are given free rein. Beware, though, of letting the situation become too free rein because you can end up too far off course.

Ideas offered up in a brainstorming session are never wrong; they are just ideas. Because of this, you can afford to put forth your ideas to the group without the fear of failure or ridicule. This can sometimes result in solutions coming from far out of left field because you think “outside the box.”

Group brainstorming can enable all members of the group to feel like part of the team. It encourages widespread participation and involvement; it can make you feel as though your ideas and input are respected and valued. Finding the solution to a problem is a major sense of accomplishment -- especially when it's a group achievement.

The concept of brainstorming itself is not a hard thing to comprehend. You simply start with a problem or situation, or even a single word, and then you simply map out any ideas that leap to mind as a solution. You do not need to be a genius or have a degree to become involved in a brainstorming session. The very nature of the group structure can often make brainstorming a fun and exciting process. The often speedy collation of ideas seem to race toward your common goal -- the solution. It can make for an intense and exciting environment.