Energizing your creative meetings: How to activate your team during brainstorming sessions

Description: Today you will learn how to unlock your team's creative potential during brainstorming sessions with strategic preparation and planning. This blog provides practical tips to set clear goals, guide contributions, use activities and time constraints, keep everyone engaged, and focus on generating a high volume of ideas.

Reading time: 7 minutes

Creativity isn't a random occurrence. Contrary to popular belief, it's a proactive process that requires preparation, cultivation, and planning. By taking these steps, you can empower yourself and your team, making you an integral part of the creative process. This sense of control is crucial in the creative process.

It's particularly dangerous (and foolish) to rely on luck if you work in the creative industry or must tackle a work-related problem requiring problem-solving thinking. In those situations, you can't depend on luck. If your project's success is at stake, you need to start that creative energy flowing with your team at the right time.

But how do you do that? How do you activate your creative team so they get inspired just when you need them?

It's not magic, but I have to tell you, it's also not an exact science. Sometimes, creativity won't show up even if you have the right tools, people, resources, and projects. In those moments, it might be better to call it a day and try again later.

To avoid the frustration and uninspiring feeling of a slow and quiet brainstorming session, we have put together a series of tips and tricks that you can use to lead energetic, creative meetings. Using this guide won't guarantee that you will avoid creative blocks, but it will give you a higher chance of succeeding.

Triggers' Essential Guide to Hosting Inspiring Creative Meetings

1. Set a Clear Intention

Without a clear goal or understanding of the project, people will feel lost and insecure. They will most likely try to stay quiet and in the background rather than express their thoughts. Ensure your team understands what they are trying to solve before they ideate.

2. Give Guidelines on How You Want People to Contribute

Express your expectations before you get your team working. Some leaders prefer to hear ideas in a particular way or use a specific structure. If you have any preferences on how your team should contribute, go ahead and share them.

3. Break Big Groups into Smaller Teams

A significant rule for Triggers: any team bigger than six people starts being too big to facilitate. Avoid larger groups. It's easier to hide and get passive if you know others will talk for you. Also, in bigger groups, some people will stay in the spotlight too long. If your team is bigger than six people, divide them into smaller groups. You will see that the results are much better.

4. Bring Activities

Millions of activities and tools are out there to stimulate creative thinking. Avoid the blank-page syndrome by bringing new, exciting tools your team can use. In our case, we always bring our ideation cards. They are handy because their powerful creative prompts work perfectly in multiple situations. Also, you can use them digitally and physically, so they're perfect for when you are on the go.

5. Use Time Constraints

Contrary to what many people think, creative meetings are better when time is limited. When you limit the session to a particular length, your team will get active and try their best as fast as possible.

6. Get People Active

That means no lazy chairs, sofas, or dark rooms. You want your team awake!

7. Aim for Quantity, Not Quality

Lastly, it's important to remember that idea generation should be about quantity, not quality. If you shut down every idea that isn't perfect, your team will end up frustrated and scared. Let participants share as much as possible. You will filter later.

At Triggers, we have years of experience facilitating inspiring idea-generation sessions for all kinds of teams, and we always follow these points.

Everyone has a different style when leading creative teams in an ideation phase. It doesn't matter what yours is; what matters is sticking to these points so you and your team can do a better job.

Good luck!