An Introvert’s Guide to Brainstorming
Early on in my career I hated brainstorming. A problematic stance for someone in a creative field, but I’m afraid it’s true. I hated being on the spot, fighting to make sure my ideas could be heard among the more confident voices, throwing out a half-baked nugget of something I barely believed was good. But I quickly realized if I wanted to have any semblance of a career in this world, I’d have to figure out how to do it. It’s been a lot of trial and error and error and error over the years, but I’ve worked a few things out that have helped me bring my brilliance to the storms, or, you know, not be completely paralyzed by them.
Know That Preparation is Allowed
The off-the-cuff nature of brainstorms makes preparation feel like cheating. But, it’s not. The root goal of a brainstorm is to come out of the room with the best possible ideas. If that means you need an hour or two to research, noodle and formulate on your own, then so be it. Naturally, you can’t prepare in the dark. Ask your creative director, strategist, whoever is facilitating the brainstorm to provide you a little background on the client and the problem you’re trying to solve (see Bend the Format to Your Will).
Start Small and Familiar
Jumping into a room full of creative brains can be an introvert nightmare. Especially when you’re expected to participate in said room. Especially when they all seem so confident and sure of their ideas. Especially when you don’t know all of the brains involved. That’s a lot of compounding especiallys, but there’s no rule you have to do all your brainstorming in that room.
Sometimes it can help to do a pre-brainstorming session — a brain shower, if you will — with people you’re comfortable with. That can be others on your team, colleagues from a peer cohort, friends from college, or you can make your partner turn off Stranger Things long enough to bounce ideas around with you. Creating a low-key, no-pressure space of your own can help you think freely and prep for the big show.
Bend the Format to Your Will
Creative brainstorms can be run in a variety of ways, but whoever is facilitating should know who they’re inviting and build the format accordingly. If your facilitator doesn’t quite know how to get the most out of the introvert brain, make a few suggestions to help them out. In my experience, there are five things that work beautifully when brainstorming with quieter humans:
Advanced Notice
Depending on who is running the show, this can be difficult. Some like to fly by the seat of their creativity and don’t do advanced prep. But, see if they can’t send you just a few background tidbits you can use to facilitate your prep and pre-brainstorm.
Improv Rules
In most rooms, everyone understands that brainstorming is an open forum where there are no wrong ideas. But for the nervous introvert, it can be helpful to establish improv rules at the top of the brainstorm. There is no room for “no, buts” only “yes, ands.” And if you tell anyone their ideas are bad, byyyyeeeee.
Post-It Notes
For many introverts, the scariest thing about brainstorms is the expectation that we have to shout out the first idea that comes to our head. Post-Its give us a place to pause and think, even if it’s briefly, about what we’re presenting before we say it out loud.
Disclosure: 3M in no way contributed to this article outside creating the best brainstorming tool known to humankind.
Quiet Time
Giving everyone in the room quiet time to write down their ideas allows the internal thinkers to process their thoughts without having to react to the thoughts of others in the process. Typically five to ten minutes of silent storming gives people enough time to generate some ideas and write them down on their Post-Its.
Orderly Submission Followed by Open Discussion
Okay. So orderly submission sounds like the antithesis of brainstorming best practices. But, giving everyone the opportunity to stand up and present their Post-Its ensures that the squeakiest stormer isn’t the only one to be heard. There is room for some “yes, anding” as each person presents and open discussion around what could work and what to build upon once everyone has had a chance to post up some ideas.
Focus on the Seeds Not the Trees
If you’re the type of introvert who likes to spend time mulling, exploring and researching before presenting a bullet-proof idea, the half-baked nature of brainstorming can be soul-crushing. Brainstorming isn’t about solving problems in solitude, though. It’s a team activity and you’ve got to trust that your teammates are going to do their part by getting inspired by the right little seeds you bring to the room, watering them, nurturing them and growing them into the towering tree they were meant to be. Not every acorn is going to turn into an oak, but if you don’t plant anything, you won’t get so much as a corn stalk. Have I sufficiently killed this metaphor? Point is, you don’t have to bring perfection, you’ve got an entire room full of people ready to polish whatever you do bring into something good.
Repeat After Me: There are No Dumb Ideas
In addition to focusing on the little nuggets that could become something amazing, you’ve gotta remember the cliche of brainstorm cliches. There are no dumb ideas. This little platitude may be so overused that it’s lost all meaning and nerve-easing intent, but there is a ton of scientific, or at least monetary evidence that proves this rule to be true. Before you before you dive headlong into the storm, take some introvert time to review the many, many, many, many tales of dumb ideas that turned out to be brilliant… or at least money-making.
But Pay Attention When Extroverts Have Them
This isn’t meant to be a dig at extroverts. Okay maybe a little, in a totally playful, sisterly kind of way. But many extroverts don’t think twice about throwing out ridiculous ideas. They might seem dumb on the surface, but extroverts get the seed-to-tree path — or at least lack the second-guessing gene introverts are born with. Whatever the cause, dumb ideas are gold for the uncertain introvert. They’re typically received with enthusiastic responses and once you see a silly idea get validated, it’s a little easier to throw out one of your own. Yes, we know it’s unhealthy to compare ourselves to others, but we’re doomed to do it, so we should probably just find ways to use it to our advantage.
Remember, Memories Are Short
Okay even though I’ve addressed the fact that no idea is garbage about 17 different ways, it’s probably still scary to think about putting your unfinished creativity out into the world. Which I get. So remember this, literally everyone else in the room is too self-involved to remember anything you said beyond the weekend. They will remember that you participated. They will remember if you came up with The Big One. But they will not remember any minor idea of yours, or even their own, long enough for it to matter.
Don’t believe me? Go back and look at some mundane project you worked on a month ago. Not a major one. Not one that turned into a portfolio piece. Just one that got reviewed, approved and went to print without incident. Now, how much of that project do you even remember doing? Probably very little. I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve looked back at work and thought “did I do that?” (Not in an Urkel way, just in an incredulous way.) Sometimes I can’t believe how good it was and sometimes I can’t believe how terrible it was, but the lesson to be learned is, if I don’t remember it, why would I expect that anyone else does?
Well, that’s it. I’m tapped. That’s all the advice I have. If it wasn’t helpful, at the very least I hope, dear introvert, you now know you aren’t the only person in the room wishing you were anywhere else. Or at least wishing you were half as confident as that creative director with the ironic moustache.