Page 20 - LeaderToolkit

RECOGNIZE THE IMPACT OF DIFFERENCES

Encouraging Diverse Ideas

 Silent Brainstorming.

Embracing silence to improve brainstorming has been shown
to be an effective approach to leverage ideas of all team

members.

How to do it:

Highlight the goals of the meeting in the meeting request.

• At the start of the remote meeting, share a working

document (for example, Google Doc) to all attendees.
The document should contain key questions that need

to be answered during the meeting and/or

brainstorming prompts.
• Explain use of silent brainstorming; encourage team

members to contribute to the document for 10 to 20

minutes.

• During this time, members can actively engage inidea
generation, responding to one another using

commenting functions, and collaborate via the

document. Provide direction as needed, asking members

to elaborate on specific ideas they write about.

Once the brainstorm phase is done, there are options:

• If the meeting is relatively small in size (under six

employees), you may debrief with your team by hosting
a verbal discussion of what emerged.

• For larger teams, the meeting can end for now.

Summarize the groups’ ideas, then share general

conclusions and next steps in a follow-up email.