Sign in to a video call with a Brady bunchThe gallery-style gallery of your colleagues may not feel as creatively stimulating as meeting in a boardroom to solve a problem or discuss your team’s next great idea. But with many companies planning a remote or hybrid model for the foreseeable future, online brainstorming is now the norm.
It may seem a bit awkward at first, but there are ways to transfer the best of in-person collaboration to the virtual realm and tools to improve the way you and your colleagues brainstorm. And it turns out that there are actually some advantages to connecting through computer screens. Here, two experts explain how to take advantage of the best of both worlds for online brainstorming.
Set your goals
As the founder of Creativity at Work, an organizational creativity, innovation and leadership consultancy, Linda Naiman has been facilitating online brainstorming workshops with companies in Asia, the Middle East, Ireland, the United States and more for the past year, all without leave it. desk in Vancouver.
She explains that the most critical step is even before entering the meeting. Naiman says it is important to prepare the team for success by notifying people in advance and sharing the objectives of the meeting. This includes any background information that participants need and what contributions they are expected to offer, such as suggestions for new product features or ideas for solving a key challenge. Doing so gives everyone a chance to get into the right mindset.
At the meeting, Naiman recommends starting with an icebreaker to get the conversation flowing and help everyone feel comfortable in front of the camera. She says improvisation exercises tend to work well in Zoom, as well as the questions to know it.
She notes that working remotely can bring in myriad distractions, from email notifications to children to partners in the background, so it’s particularly important to be clear about what you want to accomplish in the meeting and reiterate if teammates get separated on. smaller rooms. . It’s also good practice for participants to set their Slack status to busy, put their phones away, and close their email app.
Let everyone talk
Michael Halinski, assistant professor of organizational behavior at Ryerson University, says that the virtual environment can, in some ways, be more conducive to brainstorming and creativity than meeting in an office, as it facilitates the integration of a group. more diverse. together at the same time.
Additionally, in-person brainstorming sessions tend to reward the loudest speakers and the most confident employees, and hurt staff who are quieter or who want to write or reflect on their ideas before sharing them. Video calling, on the other hand, can level the playing field.
“Each voice hears itself,” he says, adding that the chat feature can encourage shy or quiet employees to offer their ideas, and anonymous polls can get helpful feedback from all team members.
Brainstorming tends to work best in smaller groups, Naiman adds, which can be easily facilitated by the meeting room feature on video platforms.
Use technology and brainstorming tools
Naiman says she is a big advocate for virtual canvas programs, such as Mural, I look or Google Jamboard, which take the board to virtual space. The programs allow everyone to visualize the problem they are trying to solve and add their own notes or doodles to the board.
Hybrid meetings are tricky, Naiman says, and setup is particularly important. She recommends installing computer monitors so that virtual participants appear real in the room and using high-quality microphones. She says the meeting leader should also emphasize employee participation both in person and virtual.
Some companies have begun introducing what Halinski calls “one zoom all zoom” policies for meetings, in which everyone involved must join the call from a personal computer, even if there are multiple employees in the office. The policy is meant to ensure that remote workers can still contribute and are not drowned out by an in-person conversation in the boardroom.
Create an encouraging atmosphere
Beyond technology, Naiman says the key to success is establishing a culture of openness to ideas and “seeking the brilliance of others.” She suggests that the meeting leader encourage participants to respond to the suggestions with what she calls prompting comments, such as “Tell me more about that” or “Yes, what if …?” and avoid idea seekers like “It will never work” or “That’s not in our budget.”
“People are afraid that their idea is stupid,” he says.
“Many times the boss asks for an idea and when someone offers it to him the first thing he does is attack it. … What we want in the meeting is a ‘yes and’ atmosphere ”.
Reference-www.canadianbusiness.com