Tips for Brainstorming

Library Voice points to this week’s BusinessWeek and an innovation column on better brainstorming.
Business Week Online offers Eight Tips For Better Brainstorming:
1. Use brainstorming to combine and extend ideas, not just to harvest ideas.
2. Don’t bother if people live in fear.
3. Do individual brainstorming before and after group sessions.
4. Brainstorming sessions are worthless unless they are woven with other work practices.
5. Brainstorming requires skill and experience both to do and, especially, to facilitate.
6. A good brainstorming session is competitive—in the right way.
7. Use brainstorming sessions for more than just generating good ideas.
8. Follow the rules, or don’t call it a brainstorm.
Effective brainstorming is essential to choosing and exploring new ideas for innovation and change in libraries.
Stephen