Brainwriting

STATS

Suggested Time

3 min/round, overall 15-20 min.


Level of Difficulty

Moderate


Participants

3-5 participants/group


Materials

Brainwriting template, pens, timer, metaplan wall


Templates/Printouts

Brainwriting template (pdf)

Brainwriting template (.pub)



Description:

Brainwriting is an alternative method of brainstorming to develop new ideas to solve concrete problems/jobs. Within brainwriting the hierarchy level within the teams is turned off. No direct discussion is taking place and team creativity is unlocked. This technique is good to use in order to avoid shy colleagues to be exluded from the idea development process or in organisations where hierarchies still play an important role.

Stages:

  1. The group selects the first relevant jobs (e.g. two) from their customer which needs to be addressed in the brainwriting session to solve the overall challenge;
  2. The group members decide who will address which job for the brainwriting session;
  3. Each participant writes three ideas related to the selected job on the provided template;
  4. After 3 min. the idea sheet will be circulated to the other participants in the round. Each participant is asked to add additional ideas to or to further elaborate the ideas indicated above. It circulates until the last group member has added his/her ideas;
  5. Put the brainwriting templates on a metaplan wall and present the ideas to the group.

Remark: Use a timer for each round. We would propose 3 min./round.