Solution Storming

"Everyone in the group must sacrifice their pride in commitment to the best solution."

~ Jason Saetrum

There are many, many types and reasons for brain-storming sessions.

Note: before beginning any session the facilitator must establish the ground rules of mutual respect and confidentiality. What is said is not to be held against one, so that ideas and opinions can flow freely.

In meetings where the "issue to be resolved" or the "area to improve" has already been defined, the facilitator leads the discussion by establishing a rough sketch of what "success" looks like. "Sketching" out success involves helping the participants to perceive the solution in action. When describing the "solution in action," is not the time to explore or consider the costs or constraints. Setting the stage for discussion does not involve many details, thus the term "sketch." Sketches consist of which ones will bring the greatest Customer Satisfaction, greatest number of Sales, strengthen the company's Core Competency(ies), or expand the company's Offerings.

Before beginning, the facilitator should bring in an individual to act as scribe to record the comments (but not who said things - i.e. confidentiality). The facilitator should be in front the team writing comments on the board, clarifying ideas (not leading to a specific agenda). As discussion progresses, there will come natural "groupings" of ideas - at this point the facilitator needs to begin focusing the team on one grouping at a time (otherwise the ideas will become more immense, unrelated, and the team members will degrade into arguments or withdraw in silence.) Groupings should be limited down to 3-5 categories.

As the facilitator conducts these more focused "storms" it comes time to push, explore, and ask more questions of the speakers. In addition, it is now time to introduce one of the constraints involved with developing and implementing a solution. While reviewing what has been brought up, evaluate them one-by-one using this one constraint. Naturally, the constraint will weed some of the ideas out. (Remind the team members that those ideas are not "dead" but just not available at this time.)

Some of the primary constraints to consider are time, budget, and resources.

- Time includes the amount of time to be started, completed, revised, and etc.

- Budget involves the seed capital, incremental distributions, what and when accounts are payable and receivable, and overall finances.

- Resources (make this the last constraint to discuss) include staff, in-house knowledge, space, equipment / tools, and etc.

Once the groupings have been filtered with one constraint, move onto a second constraint. Continue the process constraint by constraint until the team is down to a few (3-5) final solutions. With the team, select the top 3 items that are perceived to address the original need - e.g. which ones will bring the greatest Customer Satisfaction, greatest number of Sales, strengthen the company's Core Competency(ies), or expand the company's Offerings. Note: as mentioned previously these criteria should have already been established at the beginning of the meeting and referenced throughout.

To develop and "own" the solution(s), keep asking the questions "How, What, When, Where, and Why?" until the idea(s) are completely comprehended by all in the group.

When a facilitator brings the ideas from the team it is time to perform the next-level management evaluations of: Cost / Benefit, Buy vs. Build, and ROI. The brain-storming team should not be the ones that perform these evaluations.

~ Jason Saetrum