What is the purpose of a brainstorming meeting?

Job stress, a particularly busy schedule and feeling generally burnt out can all combine to leave even the best employees with a temporary mental block.

You may become forgetful, less organised and devoid of ideas, which can be disastrous if you’re part of a creative team tasked with coming up with exciting new projects.

If you’ve been sitting staring at a blank laptop screen for an hour, without any useful ideas, it’s time to come up with a new strategy. A brainstorming meeting is something many employers organise to combat the problem of brain fog and give everyone the chance to think outside the box.

What is brain fog?

Brain fog is a medical term used to describe a mental state that causes people to struggle with their regular duties. It isn’t something that impacts just employees, as people in any walk of life can experience similar symptoms. However, because a major cause is stress and feeling bogged down by juggling too many tasks at once, it’s something that particularly impacts workers in a busy office environment.

Sleep deprivation, not eating a healthy diet, continually feeling tired and decision fatigue are all cited as potential causes. We begin to doubt our ability to make the correct choice, which causes delays in making more decisions, as we start overthinking, so our projects start to fall behind. It becomes a vicious circle, because the more work we have in progress, the more we wonder if we’re up to the job, eventually leading to brain fog.

A poll by wellbeing organisation Unmind of 2,000 UK adults in September 2023 revealed 27% of employees suffered brain fog.

Although some of the causes were external, such as financial or family worries, the result was the same: a deteriorating job performance, including making more mistakes.

Concentrating on their duties was becoming more difficult, as they had little clarity of thought.

What is brainstorming?

The term “brainstorming” was coined in America in 1953 by advertising executive Alex F Osborn in his groundbreaking book about creative thinking, Applied Imagination. He described it as being a group discussion that inspired everyone to relax and come up with new ideas, speaking freely, even if their suggestions were somewhat unusual.

The goal was to introduce innovative ideas that had never been considered in the past, giving everyone around the table the chance to offer their input. All ideas are considered, and no-one is judged negatively.

Today, seven decades later, the technique of brainstorming is commonly used in workplaces all over the world, inspiring creative thinking, encouraging new working methods and solving problems such as brain fog.

How to conduct a brainstorming meeting

Brainstorming is a vital tool in the modern workplace, not only generating new ideas, but also encouraging greater collaboration.

Every business will evolve its own individual brainstorming techniques, but the usual meeting involves between four and seven participants. However, you can have as few as two people, up to an unlimited number, depending on your own requirements and the size of the teams involved.

Although commonly used in the creative industries such as publicity, public relations, marketing and design, it can be used by any organisation to enhance creativity.

Understanding how to run a brainstorming session will achieve the optimum results for participants and your business. While such meetings should always be high priority, they are particularly useful if your team is suffering a lull in creativity, or they need to generate ideas for new projects and marketing campaigns.

If you’re looking for fresh ideas, a change of venue away from the regular workplace can work wonders. A popular choice is meeting room hire, as a different location, with comfortable seating, the latest tech and refreshments can boost energy levels. This in turn can inspire greater creativity and you could come away with a host of new ideas that an afternoon in the boardroom may not have inspired.

Another idea is to begin with role play to help everyone relax, such as asking delegates to view the business from a customer’s point of view, considering what they expect you to deliver. You could also ask delegates for brainstorming meeting ideas. Some may enjoy spontaneity and prefer voicing their thoughts without pre-planning. Others may ask to receive an agenda some time in advance, so they have time to prepare.

Always have a minute-taker to enable attendees to recap later on and develop potential ideas further.

What are the benefits of brainstorming?

Brainstorming not only helps to clear brain fog, but it also enables team members to collaborate, share ideas, spark innovation and bond as a group. The meeting is unlike a regular gathering, because the discussion doesn’t have boundaries and should always be free flowing.

An agenda can inform team members of the date, time and venue, but in terms of topics, it should be more general than regular formal meetings. The debate can produce novel, unusual and innovative suggestions that can be shaped into new projects. It can light the fire of innovation, or create different solutions to solve existing problems, benefitting the company as an entity by devising new ways of working.

The beauty of a team of people with different views is that they can bounce ideas off each other, combining their creative talents to come up with new strategies. They will enjoy closer camaraderie by debating freely in a relaxed and more informal environment, strengthening bonds, increasing motivation and engagement. This improves communication in general, increases their sense of shared goals and ultimately leads to greater productivity.

Brainstorming is an important means of practicing diversity and inclusion, as everyone has their say in an environment of mutual respect. As a team leader, use a brainstorming meeting to encourage the ethos that together, we can achieve greater goals.