In Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn’s book Ideaflow, they suggest new strategies for coming up with great ideas through brainstorming.

First, let’s take a look at the six most common existing group brainstorming rules:

1. Clearly define the issue you’d like to address.
2. Set a time limit.
3. Focus on quantity over quality. Go for as many ideas as possible.
4. No judgment of any idea is allowed until the specified time limit is up.
5. Encourage outrageous ideas.
6. Evaluate and choose the best ideas to discuss and implement.

All six of the basic ideas are still relevant, however, Utley and Kelbaun identified effective new guidelines that make traditional brainstorming more effective.

5 NEW GROUP BRAINSTORMING RULES

New Rule #1: Include Introverts
In a group setting, spitballing favors extroverts. To be sure introverted people’s ideas are heard, the facilitator asks each participant to submit two ideas before the session begins.

New Rule #2: Small is Better
Too many participants can bog down the session by getting all the voices heard. According to Ideaflow, the magic maximum number is six.

New Rule #3: Dramatically Increase Idea Quantity
Utley and Klebaun’s research revealed what they call the “Idea Ratio.” It can take 2,000 ideas including variations, combinations, and refinements to generate one great one! Idea ratio: 2000 to 1.

Myth: The first few ideas are usually the best ones. Utley and Klebaun guys noted that most groups stop generating ideas way too early. Participants tend to latch on to the first few ideas that sound workable.

Focusing on the first few ideas leads to what the authors term anchoring bias which limits quantity. People typically start throwing out similar or supporting suggestions on the first few that seem feasible. To get the best ideas, keep going until the specified time is up.

New Rule #4: Delay Evaluation
Unlike traditional brainstorming where the evaluation process begins immediately after the allotted time, Utley and Klebaun recommend ending the session by asking participants to adjourn and contemplate the ideas that stand out to them. Their point is the best ideas and freshest thinking often occur in reflection after the meeting.

New Rule #5: Reconvene
The follow-up session is designed to evaluate, judge, share insights and make decisions on the best idea(s) moving forward.

Here are two fun actions to improve your brainstorming session:

1. People tend to open up more around food.
2. Make it fun by ringing a bell when someone judges an idea before the brainstorming time is up.

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Actress Darby Stranchfield (Scandal), described some of the preparation that goes into Jimmy Kimmel Live. “There’s something called a pre-interview in which one of the producers for Jimmy Kimmel Live calls you up a few days prior to going on the show to go over stories, anecdotes, current events, etc.”

“Kimmel and his producer decide which stories are best and create an order as to how the conversation is going to go on the air. The producer comes to your dressing room and fills you in on what Kimmel decided to talk about before the show. It all seems so impromptu, but the whole thing is planned out.”

This type of prep work is common to most television talk shows. In addition, Jimmy once told me that all guests are required to come on the show with a story.

Great content comes from great planning. Just as the takeoff and landing are the two most crucial points in a flight, the same is true of all content segments.

The best shows and podcasts plan a premise, specific stories, talking points, and a sequence for each segment. Then they ad lib the execution of those points. This process gives the show both planned structure and spontaneity. These shows are also prepared to ditch the plan and sequence if something more engaging comes up spontaneously during a segment.

Every show has its own planning schedule and system to create content. Here are the most common practices of the most successful shows:

Daily

The Pre-Show Huddle is a brief meeting with all of the players to finalize the plan for the show by checking what’s trending and to bring up anything that happened the night before or even that morning which could be included on the schedule. Many hosts ask all the show players and off-air players to bring any drama, dilemmas, or a celebration going on in their lives that they might want to discuss on the air.

The Post-Show meeting begins with a brief review of that day’s show to zero in on what content connected with the audience, and what content missed the mark.

The show answers these questions in what we call The Post Show Review:

1. What content segments worked best on today’s show?
2. Why? How could you have made it even better?
3. What content didn’t work well?
4. Why? How could you make it better next time?
5. What’s left over that you didn’t get to that can go on tomorrow’s show?

Then planning tomorrow’s show begins. This meeting typically goes from fifteen minutes to an hour. The host or producer leaves the meeting with a general plan for the next show.

We recommend a planning meeting outside of the building once a week at somewhere like a coffee shop or favorite restaurant. When you change your environment, you are generally more creative, and an outing can generate stories for future shows.

Group Networking happens throughout the day and evening with all the players via text, Google Drive, etc. with everyone contributing content for the show. The more activities everyone shares, the more experiences and stories you will have to add to the show.

Weekly Group Planning

The weekly Advance-Planning Meeting is designed to plan for the days and weeks ahead and to brainstorm new ideas for the show.

Everyone is responsible for bringing as many ideas as possible from the following categories:

1. Character stories and storylines
2. Serial content
3. Out-of-studio
4. Listener interactive games/features
5. Guests
6. Phone topics
7. Produced skits, sketches, parodies
8. Holidays and events
9. Something new and buzz-worthy (app, site, TV show, movie, book, funny story, game etc.)
10. Video and viral opportunities

We also recommend, quarterly and annual long-term planning meeting as well as topical ad hoc meetings when big events and news stories happen.

Here are links to a segment planning sheet, a daily planning sheet, and a weekly planning sheet.

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