How Do You Facilitate a Remote Brainstorm- Virtual brainstorming is a group activity that allows people from all over the world to reach a solution on a specific problem together. Have you ever wondered why do you have to facilitate a remote brainstorm manager? Or what is virtual brainstorming tools free? You know that if you want to become a good one, then reading an article like how do you facilitate a remote brainstorm will help.
Facilitating a remote brainstorm is more complex than facilitating a brainstorm in person. Brainstorming for success is possible anywhere as long as you have the right tools. We’ll review the right technology that will help you facilitate an amazing virtual brainstorm, and brainstorming tips expert who can help your be better at doing this.
Table of Contents
Why is Brainstorming Important?
In today’s world, where there are so many changing variables regarding everything related to business, we should never be so naïve to think that whatever we plan is going to turn out exactly like that. There are bound to be some complications and obstacles.
This is where brainstorming comes in the mix.
Brainstorming whether it is done with a physical on-site team or with a virtual team using different communication applications, can be very beneficial for a business because you are planning all of the future activities that the business is going to perform.
Many of the managers all over the world even now are not so warm towards the concept of brainstorming because they think that using this method to plan out the activities of the business will make them lose control over the whole thing and give that control to the employees.
This is where they are wrong as this process, not only solidifies their position as a leader but helps the team to be as creative as they can be which ultimately unlocks their true potential and brings immense value to the company.
Nail the Scope
Just as you would for an in-person brainstorm, you’ll need to define your scope clearly. When running a remote session, the stakes are even higher: Every minute really needs to count when you’re on a video call because we can easily become fatigued sitting in front of a screen or succumb to the various Slack messages, GChats, and email pings that come in at the same time.
To do this, make sure you can:
Articulate the Why
Why this brainstorm and why now? What is your goal and what is your intended outcome? A good gut check for this is to ensure this is a topic that merits multiple voices together in the same room. So ask yourself: Is the discussion a nuanced one? Will you need to get stakeholders aligned? Are you striving toward an actionable set of next steps? If the answer to any of these questions is no, you risk wasting others’ time for something that could have been done over email or asynchronously.
Remote brainstorms are particularly effective for thorny topics that could be difficult to articulate in an email thread (such as conversations about inclusion), for challenges that require alignment (such as getting several execs in one room to debate an issue, rather than getting input one by one), or for projects that are blocked and need action to move them forward (such as deciding on a set of features to build next).
If, on the other hand, you are looking for a simple thumbs up or thumbs down or straightforward feedback to move forward, a brainstorm may not be the best fit. Being clear on your intended output (a decision, a set of ideas to try, etc.) will also help you inform how you design the brainstorm later on.
Choose Participants Carefully
Stick to essential participants only—a bloated brainstorm can be a nightmare to manage, especially over video call, when the more people who chime in, the more people are inadvertently interrupted, the more repetition of points is involved, and the more time is lost. (“Sorry, what did you say?” “Oops, no you go first! OK, I’ll go first? Sorry, you go first!”) When you’re coming up with your short list, consider when you’ll need input from certain people like decision-makers, influencers, or subject matter experts.
Keep It Short
Stick to an hour max—anything beyond that and people are likely to get bored or distracted or to drop off to address competing priorities. If you have a topic that is too large for an hour, this is your chance to ruthlessly prioritize and reconsider whether all of it must be discussed as a group, or whether some of it can be punted to asynchronous channels. If a topic is really, truly necessary to cover as a group and an hour won’t cut it, consider hosting several brainstorms over the course of a few days to get through it, but this should be a last resort.
Prep Your Digital Workspace
Just as you should prep a physical room in advance of the group arriving—double checking supplies, writing the agenda on the whiteboard, setting out some snacks—you’ll want to set-up your digital work space with just as much care.
We’re advocates of using the tools that your team is already familiar with (ie: collaborative word processing tools like Google apps or group chat services like Slack) versus something brand new. It’s harder to change your team’s behavior and lead a brainstorm that doesn’t suck at the same time, so pick what you’re used to and stick to it!
Make sure everyone is shared on the tools/docs, you’ve added in the scope and stimulus content, and you’ve pre-populated any examples that will be helpful for the group to see when they load the page. That being said, be careful not to reveal anything that could derail the conversation or cause confusion. For example, keep your sorting or decision-making frameworks at the ready in a separate document and add those into the shared document only when it’s time. This will help you keep the group aligned to the agenda, mindsets and current activity.
Email the Topic and an Overview of the Goal that You want to Achieve via Virtual Brainstorming Before the Session
If you want to have a thorough brainstorming session that is precise impactful and fast-paced so that you don’t waste anyone’s time, then you need to make sure that you send the topic and a basic idea about the goal you want to achieve through this brainstorming session, via email before the actual session starts.
This will make sure that you are making your team aware of the issue at hand so that when they finally come and join the session, they would already have some ideas and queries about what you want to do in the session. This would save up a lot of time which can be used somewhere else.
Another benefit of this is that if they have already written down all of their ideas and insights regarding the issue, you don’t even have to give them a few minutes to write stuff down, you can go straight to the group discussion.
Prep Your Participants
Whether you’re hosting a brainstorm in person or remotely, you always want to be sure your participants have enough information to be productive in the meeting. Tell them what’s expected of them in advance so they know how to prepare and show up to make the most of your time together. That could include things like the flow for the session, the goals of the brainstorm, and what role you’re hoping they’ll play.
Specifically for remote sessions, I also recommend giving participants a heads up on what tools or resources they’ll need. So if you plan to be in Google Slides, make sure everyone has an account up and running. If you’re introducing a new tool, ask them to set it up in advance. In fact, you might even consider assigning pre-work using the same tools you’ll employ during your session to ensure everyone has access and can independently navigate the documents and resources you’ll be using.
Some examples of pre-work that can help include:
- Sending over pre-reads to eliminate context-setting that might work in a live meeting but that can feel like a slog over video calls. Use a tool like Google Docs where you can check who has accessed your doc in advance and who might need extra support or prodding.
- Ask participants to input a simple response into a shared document, such as a spreadsheet or set of slides, where you plan to gather responses during your session. Choose a question that can inform your session and is easy enough for participants to drop in there on their own time.
- Ask participants to drop their questions into a shared doc. You can use this information to inform your session in addition to making sure your team is set up with the tools for remote brainstorming.
Set a Proper Time and Date for the Session
Speaking of not wasting time, one other thing you need to make sure while hosting a virtual brainstorming session is to set a proper time, date and agenda for the meeting that you are about to have.
You need to be respectful of everyone’s time and as it’s a virtual session you need to confirm every member’s availability before you set out a time and date for the event so that you can expect more than 80% of them to show up and participate.
This can often get quite hectic as many of the companies that have remote teams working for them have employees in different continents. Choosing a specific time and date to gather everyone is a long process that involves several collaboration efforts.
In this scenario what you can do is that you can put the brainstorming session into two parts with two different groups.
You can increase the groups if you have many employees that can’t be available at the same time as everyone else. This will help ease the pressure off of you and you can still have a productive virtual brainstorming session.
Conclusion
Now, no matter if you manage a remote brainstorm to support one-on-one office brainstorm sessions, facilitate your teams during a remote brainstorm, or just want to try out virtual brainstorming, there are still some foundational components that everyone needs. That’s where online brainstorming tools come in.