“Many managers fail to generate a stream of solid ideas because they employ two common techniques: They encourage their people to go wild and think outside the box or they assign them the task of slicing and dicing the old boxes (in the form of existing market and financial data or specially commissioned market research) in new ways.

In its descriptions of how Nobel laureates and other creative people achieved their breakthroughs, an interesting insight emerged: Once they asked themselves the right question, their ideas flowed rapidly. This revelation prompted us to examine how the most successful companies in recent history had achieved their positions. We found that a number of their innovations sprang from responses to particular questions. But, subsequently, we realized that it didn’t matter whether they had actually asked a question or not. What mattered was whether there was a question that could have uncovered the kind of extraordinary opportunities that CNN, Google, USA Today, eBay, and Amazon identified and exploited.”

And what do you know? The Made to Stick guys wrote a recent article in this month’s Fast Company along the same lines..

Boutique hotelier Chip Conley has used this principle ingeniously in creating his unique properties. He told his team: Let’s bring magazines to life. His company, Joie de Vivre Hospitality, designed the Hotel Vitale in San Francisco to be “Real Simple meets Dwell.” That’s a crystal-clear box. And it makes it easy for his team to brainstorm features of the new hotel. The architects elevated the yoga studio to a prime top-floor location, rather than tossing some token yoga mats next to the elliptical machines in the gym. The front-desk clerks waged war on clutter: Imagine a countertop with no pen cups or frequent-stay rewards-club brochures. The housekeepers don’t just clean the rooms; they organize them. Other Conley hotels feature a Rolling Stone theme and a New Yorker theme. We can all be grateful that he hasn’t yet unveiled the Economist hotel, where staffers continually remind you of your ignorance of foreign affairs.

So what does this all mean?  Most innovation and creativity occurs with a good starting and end point.  Without a good starting point, great ideas can and will not happen.  Here are some tips on how you can run an effective creative brainstorming session.

1) Keep the brainstorming session groups small (no more than 4).  Gather people from diverse backgrounds, experiences and interests.  The best ideas happen when different people with different experiences collaborate.  If you have a big group, break them into smaller groups and keep them separate from each other.

2) Start each session by asking the right questions - “If your city got destroyed, how would you rebuild it?”  

3) Or start each session with the right context and framework as guidelines - “Imagine if Good Magazine meshed with Apple to create a hotel.  What would that look like?"

4) Hold more than ONE brainstorming session with an end goal at each one - "What are we trying to accomplish?  A new product."

5) Leave the meeting with ACTION STEPS.  Hold each person accountable for always moving the ball forward.

That’s all for today. Feel free to leave your thoughts below! Or if you have any tips you would like to add, I would love to hear them!