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Submitted by ebn305 on
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Hi,
I've been asked to lead an Ideas Group with no specific mandate other than to come up with ideas.

I'm planning to use Brainstorming to generate ideas around our core business - but can anyone suggest a rigorous method of ranking the ideas and building collaboration for the best ideas.

thanks muchly

tlhausmann's picture
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Ranking comes after the brainstorming.

To me, the relative merits of individual ideas emerges after a careful review of any existing the strategic plan, SWOT analysis, and/or surveying your constituencies about expectations, needs, etc.

Consider having your external constituencies actually generate the ideas THEN go back to them and have THEM rank the ideas. This method may generate buy-in where those you serve have a stake in your future direction.

Just to restate my point--first get as many ideas together as possible then worry about a ranking process.

HMac's picture

And if you can, do the ideation and the ranking in separate meetings, giving people a little bit of time to reflect on the ideas before they rank 'em.

I like my ranking systems to be directional only - and not necessarily "final" determinations. So I use them to sort the most popular from the least popular, but not the first from the second from the third, etc.

And I pause between rounds of ranking for discussions - usually about rankings that people find surprising (because they're unexpectedly low or high).

-Hugh

kklogic's picture

I seem to recall a 'cast on brainstorming. It may have been a part of the SWOT series - maybe not. I blame my old brain.

But what I DO remember is that is was stellar! You might want to check that out.