How to brainstorm with a remote team – 2021 Guide

It is no coincidence that during Covid-19, the creativity of teamwork, and companies in general, has declined. It could be expected that leaving the office, working from home, more and more independent work will affect the creativity of each individual. However, certain measures can be used to bring business back into balance when it comes to expressiveness and teamwork. Online work has brought many difficulties, but also many advantages. Mind mapping software is one of them.

By using this software you will learn a lot about organization, brainstorm, troubleshooting and ways of coming up with an idea. So how do you implement important steps like brainstorming with a remote team? We are here to help you and provide a guide for its proper implementation.

For the beginning, what is brainstorming?

Brainstorming is a trend of the modern age that has proven to be very effective when it comes to teamwork. A brainstorm is a technique of solving a certain problem by presenting spontaneous ideas to all members of the group. Here all ideas are appreciated without condemnation and in as large numbers as possible. Criticism is not desirable. So are you ready to start with this creative method of problem-solving?

Set up the goals

Okay, you’re ready to start a meeting with your team, but where to start? At the very beginning, try to present the team with the main topic and goal that you should reach in detail. Whether the meeting is online or not, each team member must be equally familiar with the main topic. If during the presentation you get a lot of questions, it means that you are on the right track. The following items should be described more clearly in this meeting:

1. Objectives

What kind of problem do we have and why is it important to solve it? What are the goals of the brainstorm? Why is the participation of each team member so important? The answers to these questions will give the team the importance and confidence to give a suggestion, proposals and generally to participate in the team. In a remote team, this sense of feelings is very important for productivity.

2. Restrictions

The team should also be made aware of the limitations they may encounter during brainstorming. It is important to remind the team of the company’s ethics, so that everything is done within the standard.

3. Date

You are right, the team must feel flexibility in every step. However, you must also give them an approximate timeline, by which time you expect certain results.

4. Tools

The tools available to the team should be presented in detail. Tools like mind mapping software offer a sense of community even though team members are spatially separated, then numerous graphics, illustrated ways to solve problems, and so on. It is very important that every team member is familiar with the tool and knows how to use it properly.

Solo brainstorming

It is very important that each member of the team has a certain time for thinking and coming up with ideas that they will later present to others (they or you as the project coordinator). If there are groups that work harmoniously together, you can divide your team into small groups that will work jointly on ideas to the goal. It is important to encourage the expression of even the craziest ideas. Here, quantity is often more important to us than quality.

Presentation

Another “advantage” of the remote team is in the presentations. Encourage team creativity in a way that all members should make a presentation of their ideas and thus perhaps awaken creativity in other team members. Of course, it is necessary to emphasize which presentation format should be followed, but with mind mapping software it will be easy to get to the desired creative format.

Feedback

It doesn’t matter if you opt for the anonymity of the author of the ideas or not, feedback is the ultimate and unavoidable segment in brainstorming. After presenting the ideas, their evaluation must be given. Both the team coordinator and the other members. All suggestions and reflections based on the given ideas can only encourage team creativity even more. This feedback should be on the agenda.

Thanks to the internet and modern technology, today it is not difficult for us to communicate with people who are far away from us. Although isolation and work from home seem like an obstacle to teamwork, does it have to be that way? We are sure that after reading this article you will have a different opinion.