? No criticism allowed. All ideas, no matter how

crazy they may seem, should be encouraged and

recorded without comment or criticism from the

group. The general goal of brainstorming is to

collect as many ideas as possible, making

quantity much more important than quality at this

initial stage.

? No evaluation allowed. Brainstorming sessions

are not the time or place to evaluate the merits

of the ideas suggested. So don't suspend the

process to evaluate the projected results of any

single idea.

? Build on others' ideas. At their best,

brainstorming sessions are fast-paced and fun.

Participants should try to build each consecutive

idea on the previous ones. Who knows, it can

sometimes result in surprising twists and turns.

Though all brainstorming sessions should follow

these basic ground rules, there are numerous ways

to approach the idea-generation process. Here are

three proven methods to try:

? Pose a question. Suppose you had created a

product for small businesses and were looking for

a new marketing approach. The facilitator might

open the brainstorming session by posing a

question such as "What do small business owners

want?" Participants would then throw out ideas,

such as "to save time" or "to increase sales." Or

you might select a feature of your new product-

one-button operation, for example--and open with

a question such as "How does one-button operation

help small business owners?"

? Use word association. This method involves

brainstorming lists of words and then finding

linkage between key words on each list. For

example, imagine you want to create a new slogan

for a hair gel product. You could start with the

root word "gel" and use word association to come

up with a list of ideas, such as "flexible hold."

Then you could brainstorm another list beginning

with "flexible." In the end, you might have four

or five lists of ideas based on word association.

To build your slogan, you'd choose a word from

each of the lists and creatively link them

together.

? Identify a challenge. Even the most difficult

questions can be tackled by brainstorming,

provided you have the right group of people. When

I was called in by an auto parts manufacturer to

find ways to use the company's roll-forming

expertise to produce additional products, we

gathered together a large group of experienced

workers from throughout the plant for

brainstorming. As the facilitator, I began by

posing a simple challenge--list anything made

from rolled metal not presently manufactured by

the company. In short order, the group turned out

dozens of viable product ideas. Later, management

evaluated all the ideas to determine which

products offered the greatest potential.