Brainstorming sessions in person require a lot of your participants. You want everyone to feel comfortable, be clear and concise, restraint from judging, and freely participate.
The dynamics of video conference add some challenges to this session. I don't have a lot of experience with virtual brainstorming yet, but here are a couple ideas I have for two common problems.
PROBLEM #1: People talking at the same time. Because of lag and lack of visual cues, there seems like two or more people try to talk at the same time more often on calls than IRL meetings. And then there's the polite dance of both saying, "No, you go first" at the same time.
PROBLEM #2: Lack of participation. Also a problem IRL, but it's easier to hide and be silent on a call.
Three practices that could help:
- Determine a sequence for when people will participate. In a virtual improv class I took, we did one exercise where we told a story with each person only sharing one sentence at a time. It was a warm up "Yes, And" exercise where you had to add to the story. The instructor called out an order to us, and had each student simply remember who came before them. This also sets a clear expectation that everyone will participate. Each person shares an idea and then moves on to the next person. If it comes to you, and you don't have an idea to share, you simply say "pass."
- Break into smaller groups. I saw this work perfectly on a Zoom call for a non-profit running organization. The facilitator split us into smaller "rooms." It was much easier to brainstorm with 4 of us in a small group than 20 of us in a larger group. There was also the expectation that we came back to the large group with ideas.
- Write on a virtual white board. The old IRL Post-it note idea collection works pretty well. Use a Google Doc, Slack or Mircosoft Teams Notes to have everyone write their ideas first. Then go through and share them.
I'm looking forward to testing and practicing these techniques and explore others to make virtual brainstorming sessions more productive.
