The philosophy “two ideas are better than one” is more than just a saying, it is a practice. When the clouds are dark and the rain is too heavy to see further than two feet in front of you, brainstorm.

Brainstorming serves many purposes; it creates new ideas, solves problems, motivates and develops teams. Have you ever been in an environment where everyone seems to be working against one another? When you engage people from all branches of the company a sense of involvement is generated and a team environment is formed even without knowing it or purposely trying to. Motivation is formed because everyone wants his or her team to be successful and you can’t get there with an “I.”

Whether you are caught with a problem you cannot solve or need new ideas, brainstorming requires you to think outside the box. A brainstorming session gives everyone the opportunity to provide his or her thoughts in an unbiased, non-judgmental environment. This is where the theory “no idea is a bad idea” can be expressed to its fullest. Everyone feeds off of everyone else’s ideas until finally “the one” is found.

So what is the secret to a successful brainstorming session? Well here are seven thoughts to help grow a session into a solution.

1.    Develop ideas first, organize them later.
2.    Think “Why not?”-  that crazy idea might be the chosen one.
3.    Never criticize others’ ideas.
4.    Think quantity, not quality – the more ideas generated, the more ideas there are to build off of.
5.    Imagine no budget constraints, use an infinite possibilities mentality.
6.    Identify the problem, discuss the solution.
7.    Stuck? Move on and come back later.

Brainstorming continues to help people and businesses maximize their potential. By learning to harness the power of brainstorming, it becomes easier and easier to generate great ideas that give your business a competitive edge.