Alternative Methods of Brainstorming

The following are some of the alternative methods that many organisations use in their brainstorming sessions. Not every method will be right for every group and it may take some experimenting to see which ones to incorporate and which ones to leave behind.

Mind Maps

Mind maps are often used in conjunction with standard brainstorming activities but not always. A mind map gives you a way of organising thoughts and ideas as a series of bubbles or nodes. Each node is considered an idea and if the node is connected to another node than it is related to that node in some way. Many people feel that using mind maps works because it is the method our brain uses. There are people that are not comfortable with their use and it will not serve them very well if this is the case.