A good brainstorming session can generate a wealth of great ideas, but sometimes, despite your best efforts to cajole your team into creativity, the ideas don’t come. Or worse, people argue and dispute every suggestion.

A brainstorming session that ends in crickets or chaos can leave you feeling drained. You may find yourself more confused than when you started, and without a way to tackle the problem you set out to solve. 

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Welcome to Gimbal’s Tip of the Week, where you get practical, actionable advice you can use right away to start building a more productive and profitable legal practice.

The brainstorming we see on TV has fooled us into thinking that it’s as easy as a 30-minute group meeting with someone who captures dozens of amazing ideas on a whiteboard. In reality, it can be quite the opposite.

The good news is that whether you’re alone or in a team, adding structure to your brainstorming sessions can mean a huge improvement.

So this week’s tip is to follow our 4 rules for brainstorming.

•  Provide clear direction

Identify the problem you are attempting to solve and set out clear objectives for your brainstorming session. Give your team the problem ahead of time. They’ll be able to think independently about how THEY would solve the problem, and maybe even do some research. When your team has had time to do some deep thinking, they won’t feel overwhelmed at the start of a session. And when people arrive prepared, they’re more likely to offer relevant and achievable ideas. Not only will you avoid the awful silence that often comes at the start of a brainstorming session, you’ll be able to hold shorter, more productive sessions.

•  Establish that there are no dumb ideas

Create an environment that encourages and enables the free flow of ideas. Let everyone know that while discussion is encouraged, criticism will not be allowed. There are no dumb ideas. Sometimes even the craziest idea can spark a thought that leads to a breakthrough.

We once ran a session where one clerk prefaced all her suggestions with, “this may sound crazy but…” or “I may get fired for saying this…” But many of her ideas ended up being implemented, and others served as catalysts for even more solutions.

Which leads me to Number 3.

•  Build on others’ ideas

As the saying goes, two heads are better than one. Last week, we talked about WHO you want on a brainstorming team [LINK to last week] and suggested you include people who think differently and people who fulfil different roles. Use their varying points of view to your advantage. Encourage people to listen to the ideas of others and look for the hidden gems they can expand on. Very few ideas come out fully polished. Look for the diamonds in the rough, and then work on them.

To do that, you need to encourage the innovator’s mindset: For every new idea, think Yes! We could do that if…rather than No, we can’t do that because…

And finally…

•  Emphasize quantity over quality

Brainstorming is a tool for gathering ALL the possible ideas and solutions, not just the perfect ones. Capture every idea as it comes up. You can always prioritize after the session. If people are reluctant to speak, give everyone a few minutes to do a personal brain dump onto stickies that you can  present to the group anonymously. 

Whether you’re brainstorming in person with a whiteboard or sticky notes, or your working remotely with a virtual whiteboard like Miro or Mural, all of these rules still apply.

Here’s your action item: Use these four rules the next time you’re brainstorming. When you give structure to your sessions, you’ll be able to generate ideas quickly and effectively. And that means solutions that will deliver even more value for their law firm and clients.

And that’s it. Join us next week for more on building a profitable and productive law practice.

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Thanks a lot everybody! See you next week.