Big ideas from silent thoughts

Traditional brainstorming can be difficult for teams who have members working remotely. This crowdsourcing-like technique helps teams approach brainstorming from a new angle.

In this activity, participants first brainstorm by themselves by writing down ideas on Post-it® Super Sticky Notes prior to the virtual meeting. Team members then capture and share their thoughts through the Post-it® App. Post-it® Super Sticky Notes have 2X the sticking power so they are perfect for capturing each team member’s “Silent Storm” on vertical surfaces. 

1. Send out a request for team members to generate ideas for a project or think of solutions to a problem.
(For example: “Revitalize our Employee Recognition Program”) Let your team know they will be sharing these ideas later in the group meeting.

2. Set a time limit (15 minutes for example) for individual participants to brainstorm independently, writing each idea on its own Post-it® Super Sticky Note, 3 in. x 3 in. When finished, group members can arrange all of their Post-it® Super Sticky Notes on the wall and capture them with the Post-it® App. Just open the app and tap the + on the main screen. Then hold the camera icon on the pop-up menu to capture the notes, up to 200 at a time.

Or work on screen. Coworkers can also create digital notes directly in the Post-it® App. They simply open the app and tap the + on the main screen. Then they tap the note icon on the pop-up menu and type, write or draw on the digital note. Group members can pick from an array of note and pen colors. When done with a note tap “Add” or “Add+” to continue creating additional notes until they are done at which point they should hit “Add”. They will now have a board featuring all the notes they have created.

3. Participants can easily sort ideas and refine thoughts on screen.
Each team member can hold and drag their notes to organize the Post-it® Board. Group ideas or tap and drag notes off by themselves to create new categories. (For example: If the topic is “Employee Recognition Program” you might group ideas related to “Appreciation Gifts.”)

4. Next, group members share their ideas to a moderator or with the whole team.
Simply tap the share button in the upper right corner of the board screen. Export as a Post-it® Board to share to another app user. Or export into another platform like PowerPoint®, Excel®, PDF, Dropbox, Trello®, Miro® and more.

5. To unite everyone’s thoughts, the moderator can open the .postit board files in the free Post-it® App on their phone, iPad® or MacBook®, or open an exported file from another platform on their computer. Then consolidate ideas into one file to share.

6. Working within the Post-it® App makes it easy to organize and combine ideas.
Quickly group related thoughts from different team members. Add or delete notes until the Post-it® Board is ready to share.

7. Now the moderator can share back to the full group for the virtual brainstorm session.
Teams will have lots of momentum for ideas to take off. Encourage them to expand on the shared ideas and collaborate on new ones.

Remember to keep a stack of Post-it® Super Sticky Notes on hand during your virtual meeting to capture and share every thought.

You can conduct a “Silent Storm” at any stage of a project. When you’re ready to assign and track tasks, try a Kanban Board Meeting with Post-it® Super Sticky Notes and the Post-it® App.

There is no substitute to the Post-it® Brand for jumpstarting creativity. For more than 40 years, Post-it® Notes have inspired millions of brilliant minds. Now the Post-it® App can save you hours of transcribing notes and help you seamlessly share thoughts from anywhere to keep project momentum going.

5 tips to inspire fresh ideas when working from home or in the office:
 

1. Write down all the things you already know about a topic.
2. Generate questions before answers. What else do you want to know about a topic?
3. Approach a problem in reverse and consider what you want the end result to be.
4. Think about how another person might approach a topic or problem. Pretend you’re someone else, such as Abraham Lincoln or Sherlock Holmes.
5. Get insights rolling. After you write an idea, think “and,” then jot down the first thing that comes to mind.

If you want more information about how to use the Post-it® App, visit Post-it.com/App.

Download for iOS: http://postit.com/app-ios | Download for Android: http://postit.com/app-android