Brainstorming sessions can be on anything. Want to figure out what to write about for your blog? Brainstorm it! I'm going to give you a few rules to having an effective brainstorming session.

1. Define the problem in broad terms - Do not build in assumptions or artificial constraints into the question(s) you are asking. Make the question broad enough to allow the generation of many ideas. Instead of "How do I pick up an egg to move it to X?" ask - "How can an egg move to location X?". The former inserts the assumption of picking up - the latter allows for the ideas: allow it hatch and allow the chick to walk to the final position. The question will determine the creativity and uniqueness of the ideas produced during the brainstorming session.

2. There are no limitations on ideas - Throw the laws of physics out the window, open up your business to your personal life. This is not the stage for evaluation. Do not let the phrase - "Come On, Let's Be Serious" be said during a brainstorming session. Serious is for later. Crazy and idea generation is for now. Crazy ideas will spark tangents that may produce the ideal answer for you and your team, if you nip those ideas in the bud at the beginning you may never reach the ideal solution.

3. Use time instead of count for ideas. Set your self 20-30 minutes for a brainstorming session instead of 100 ideas. The interesting ideas only come when there's little pressure and you've gone through the ordinary ones. Time instead of a count will give you time to break through to those ideas without creating the stress of producing x number of ideas. The time will eventually run out, but you could be stuck for hours trying to get 100 or 500 ideas down. Come back to the problem in another session later if you need to generate more ideas.

4. Write everything down - everything needs to be recorded so it can be returned to and recorded during a later evaluation phase. As above, nothing should be evaluated at this stage. If you find yourself not recording ideas, it's because you're evaluating them. Stop evaluating and start writing! This also helps if you need to return or restart a brainstorming session. You'll know where you left off and can pick up threads started earlier. Find a tool where you can record all the ideas, fast. Speed is essential, once you're on a roll, you won't want to stop.

If you follow these 4 simple guidelines for brainstorming, you should have no problem coming up with a wealth of ideas for whatever problems you are facing in your business.