Useful creative skills to have while brainstorming

Everyone's brain is different. Some people are good at coming up with crazy ideas, and others feel more comfortable with rational thinking. So, what are the best skills for the idea generation?

Like everything in life, a right mix of mindsets and abilities can make the difference when ideating in groups. We list here some of the main ones.

The free-styler
When it comes to ideation, a person with this skill will continuously bomb the session with new ideas. They won't necessarily be all good, but it will feel like a non-stop stream of contributions. It's an excellent asset for starting the session or diverging old ideas.

The combinator
For this person, it's difficult to come up with ideas alone, but when it comes to a group session, s/he is the king. When s/he hears others' concepts, this person can combine them and make them better by taking only the best of both. It's a skill that keeps the conversation going and helps to build up each others' ideas.

The question dropper
We all met someone like this. The group is discussing an idea, and then a teammate asks "what if we made analogue instead of digital?" or "could we simplify to make it more accessible?". And then, everything changes. This creative has the ability of opening doors and suggests ways for the team to explore. Sometimes it's not even an idea itself, but an exciting path to try.

The visualiser
Last, but not least, some people can hear an idea and immediately see it and put it on a piece of paper. Sometimes this means creating a sketch of it, and others summing it up in a sentence. It's a perfect skill to finalise the ideation session or to arrive at conclusions.

Do you relate to any skill from this list? What other creative mindsets do you think exist? Take advantage of your next Friday session with your team and reflect together about this. You might discover powers you didn't know you have.