Innovation and creativity are key ingredients in a company’s recipe for success. In this sense, to ensure that all team members have the opportunity to unleash their imaginative potential and contribute to the growth of the business, it is necessary to explore multiple ideation strategies, including good brainwriting techniques.
Similar to brainstorming, brainwriting adds an extra layer to the “brainstorming” process: writing — which, for many, can be the little push they need to let their thoughts flow despite obstacles such as shyness or lack of oral skills.
Finding a democratic and stimulating mechanism for sharing solutions is essential, especially in a market that recognizes the potential of creative skills.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs survey, 73% of organizations believe that these skills are of utmost importance when the future of the organization is on the agenda.
If you are a leader, manager, or innovation professional who wants to maximize the results of collective creation processes in your company, keep reading. We will show you four brainwriting techniques to test and enhance your idea generation methods.
Brainstorming vs. brainwriting: understand the difference
Brainstorming and brainwriting are collaborative ideation methods. In both, the goal is to collectively find inputs to design solutions to problems, which can range from strategic directions to setting short-term goals or guidelines for project kick-offs.
Similarly, in both initiatives, the principle is to “let the brain express itself freely,” without filters or initial constraints, presenting insights to the team. It is at this point, however, that the main difference between brainstorming and brainwriting lies.
While in brainstorming, the sharing of ideas is “stormy,” with several people talking at the same time (many of them in a louder tone of voice, overlapping the others), in brainwriting, the possibilities are all written down on paper.
It is worth noting that this seemingly subtle change can have a significant impact on the process. To give you an idea, the Harvard Business Review shows that in typical meetings of six people, two of them dominate the conversation 60% of the time. Now, imagine the statistics in a large brainstorming session.
To get around this possibility, there are different ways to put a brainwriting session into practice. Below, we show you how to apply four of them.
4 Brainwriting techniques to try
We have compiled some key lessons for putting the best brainwriting techniques into practice and finding out which ones work best in your company.
1- Brainwriting 6-3-5
The most popular method is called 6-3-5, developed by German professor Bernd Rohrbach. The goal is to generate 108 ideas in 30 minutes—so at this point, quantity trumps quality of the shared initiatives (and that’s okay).
The step-by-step process for implementing the method is as follows:
- The exercise begins with six participants and a moderator.
- Based on the moderator’s input (who presents the topic in the form of a question or request), participants have five minutes to write down three ideas on a piece of paper or card that address the request.
- the papers with the ideas are passed on to the next participants for 6 rounds, so that everyone reads and contributes to the insights of others, generating 3 new ideas each time a new paper arrives;
- at the end of the 6 rounds, with 30 minutes of dynamics, the sum of ideas on the papers should be 108 (18 possibilities on each sheet of notes);
- based on the ideas, the group moves on to grouping similar themes and refining those that stood out.
2- Postcard (or pin-card) method
The second brainwriting method is called “pin-card” or postcard. Its logic is as follows:
- The group meets with the mediator, who presents the problem or initial provocation.
- Each person in the group receives a blank post-it note or postcard.
- Everyone must write an idea or note on the card that helps address the issue initially proposed.
- after writing, the participant passes their card to the next person (to their right, if the meeting is in person, or to someone previously designated, if the meeting is virtual);
- the person who received the card has three options for interacting with the idea: use it as a stimulus to propose a new solution, modify the proposed idea in some way, or simply pass the card on;
- after the round, the group should have a period (10 to 15 minutes) to collect the cards, separate them into affinity groups, and then evaluate them.
3- Brainwriting pool
The third method also uses sticky notes or cards to jot down ideas. Here’s how to apply it in practice:
- the mediator shares the central theme or question with the group, defining the scope of the work;
- each member should take a sticky note and write down an idea to solve or address the issue (if there are more ideas, it is possible to take new sticky notes, not limited to just one);
- then, everyone should place their sticky notes in the center of a table (or a board, if the exercise is done virtually);
- brainwriting members or mediators take ideas from the “pool” of possibilities and can work on them, modify them, or refine them according to the mapped need.
4- Slip method
Developed in the 1920s by Professor C.C. Crawford in California, the method consists of:
- determine the central theme or guiding question for brainwriting;
- distribute strips of paper or sticky notes among participants (a minimum of five pieces of paper per person is recommended, with instructions that each one should contain one idea);
- after the time allotted for writing, the papers are collected, grouped into segments of affinity, and the insights suggested are worked on collectively, either verbally or through reported analyses and shared feedback.
How to choose the right technique for your team?
Learning different brainwriting techniques is an excellent start to boosting your team’s collaborative ideas. But how do you choose the right technique?
There are two ways.
The first is to test different methods and assess the team’s receptiveness to each one. The particularities of the options can have different impacts on how members of the group react.
For example, the Slip Method, although essentially based on writing, has a component of idea analysis that can be verbal, which can generate discomfort and imbalance in the dynamic when teams are composed of people with very different profiles.
The second possibility is to assess the profile of the challenge to be solved in advance. How complex is it? To find the best path, is it worth betting on the quantity of insights—choosing a method such as 6-3-5—or on the quality of the inputs worked on—using the postcard method, for example?
Additionally, considering the behavioral characteristics of the team is essential to choose, in advance, a method with a greater chance of success.
Maximize the effectiveness of your brainwriting session
Knowing good brainwriting techniques is a sure way to multiply the chances of stimulating the team’s creativity in an equal and balanced way, without certain characteristics (such as eloquence and public speaking) making some team members stand out at the expense of others.
It is worth remembering that innovative thinking and a culture of creativity should be encouraged daily in the company. This practice is even possible in virtual environments, with the use of an online ideation tool such as Miro, which provides a template to facilitate brainwriting for your remote team.
Turn initial ideas into powerful innovations: the first step is to let creativity flow!