How to Hold a Successful Virtual Brainstorming Session
A brainstorming session is an effective way for businesses to solve problems, tackle new projects, or start a new venture. You can hold a virtual brainstorming to increase employee productivity and move the company forward. With the technology we have today, it’s certainly possible, especially for those who have remote teams all over the country or even around the world. The real problem is making sure your virtual brainstorming session goes well. To help, here is how to hold a successful virtual brainstorming session:
Send out the agenda
Just like in a regular virtual meeting, make sure to send out an agenda. Write down the topic and the purpose of your brainstorming session. This can help everyone be prepared and have the chance to think of ideas immediately. This can also help you save time, allowing for a smoother session.
Get the right tools for virtual brainstorming
For your brainstorming session, you need the right online tools to succeed. With these tools, you’ll be able to facilitate your brainstorming session with little to no altercation and improve the experience for every participant. Some of the helpful tools for a virtual brainstorming meeting are:
- Large conference call provider – A large conference provider can help you gather the participants and give you a great platform for your virtual meeting.
- Cloud file storage and sharing – This will help you easily share documents and other files with your colleagues.
- Time converter – A time converter will be able to help you compare time zones and keep track of the time differences before scheduling an international conference call.
- Online whiteboard apps – These will help you take notes, draw, even animate ideas and then collaborate in real-time with other participants in the call.
Record the large conference call
You may be taking down notes and sharing files among your colleagues, but you can’t guarantee that you’ll be able to jot down every detail and idea. This will be a hindrance when it comes to a virtual brainstorming session where you want to hear all the fresh ideas and unique perspectives. This is why recording the conference call is a must. Every opinion or suggestion will be documented, which means you and your team can make use of more resources and new concepts.
Assign a moderator
It’s also better if you assign a moderator to help facilitate the virtual brainstorming session. A good moderator should be able to set time limits, keep everyone on track, discourage others from criticizing others’ ideas, and make sure everyone has a chance to speak up and contribute. You will need someone confident and authoritative, yet still neutral and patient for this job.
Find the right technique
You can also incorporate different techniques when holding a virtual brainstorming session for more chances of success. There’s the rapid-fire technique, which implores the participants to write down as many ideas as they can in a given amount of time. There’s also a technique called role-storming where participants imagine how someone else might solve the problem. There are a lot more techniques when it comes to brainstorming and you can try to use these to achieve more in your own session.
Decide what to do next
When your team has finally given enough suggestions and ideas, it’s time to decide your next steps. Which proposal are you going with? What details will you implement? What ideas will you use and develop? Think about all of these as a team and come up with a plan.
Send a follow-up
After the brainstorming session, you need to send everyone a follow-up. Send the meeting minutes or the audio recording of the call. You can also send the necessary documents used in your session. Most important is a checklist or an official memo regarding the next steps or courses of action you decided upon. With these things, you can easily update everyone on your team and prompt them to act.
Keep these things in mind the next time you hold a virtual brainstorming session. The more you know how to properly facilitate one, the more you and your team can accomplish a lot.