Before brainwriting, brainstorming was the ultimate technique that reigned multiple corporations for years. While brainstorming is still hugely popular worldwide, many companies rely on brainwriting to take advantage of its unique and innovative approach to problem-solving. There are many brainwriting advantages that are important to understand, and in this article, we will explain multiple significant brainwriting advantages and how they can change productivity and communication in the workplace. Before getting into that, we must understand what brainwriting is and why it’s important.
Brainwriting Overview
Brainwriting is an elevated version of brainstorming, which involves participants creating ideas and commenting on other solutions in silence. This technique boosts creative ideas among groups and helps organizations or businesses solve complex problems.
What makes brainwriting unique is its flexibility to offer each participant a chance to indulge in creative exercises and present their own designed plans. Furthermore, it provides an opportunity for people to share their opinions and thoughts without any disturbance.
Brainwriting Advantages
A research study conducted at the Kellogg School of Management states that the reason behind the overflowing popularity of brainwriting is its various advantages which generate well-informed ideas with ease.
We have handpicked some of the main benefits of conducting a brainwriting exercise with your team members, which will be discussed here.
1. Effective for Larger Groups to Communicate
Other than brainstorming, brainwriting was initially formulated for larger groups. It allows multiple participants to write down their best ideas and solutions without the interruption of the larger group. This generates communication among team members and assists in improving the presented ideas.
Compared to brainwriting, in other activities, participants are often overlooked, and not everyone has the chance to contribute.
2. Helps the Little Guy
When participants write their ideas during any brainwriting activity, they state their opinions to the entire group. Sharing plans and solutions is one thing that is important to run businesses effectively, but in a collaborative setting, it can be intimidating for people to share their ideas in front of everyone.
People who often stay absent from meetings and have no particular experience in explaining their ideas can easily benefit from brainwriting because they are free to communicate in silence until the exercise is opened up later. This grants everyone equal opportunity to make a difference in the team.
3. No Facilitator Required
Certain brainstorming techniques require a facilitator because of how complex and unstructured they are. But this is not the case for brainwriting. In brainwriting, team members have an organized setup and can easily create positive outcomes without any facilitator.
Every team member can pass down their ideas without being interrupted or questioned by their colleagues.
4. Allow Everyone to Contribute to the Activity
There are people in workplaces that are hardworking and have immense creativity, but they often lack the public speaking skill or skill to convince their surroundings for a particular idea. In brainwriting sessions, such individuals have their own subtle yet impactful spotlight.
They can participate, contribute and discuss specific plans with their colleagues without hesitation or fear of rejection. This ability to contribute freely makes brainwriting powerful and is one of the most crucial brainwriting advantages.
5. Ideal in Breaking Hierarchical Structure for Solutions
In multiple businesses, a strict hierarchical structure controls and dominates its staff. It isn’t easy to present ideas and solutions or even pass them to be implemented in such an environment.
In brainwriting sessions, participants anonymously state their ideas without being highlighted or watched by their seniors. This is an effective approach to pick the best ideas without involving in a colleague rivalry.
6. Eliminate Dominance and Encourage Team Work
In brainwriting, everyone notes down and presents their ideas silently. This approach eliminates external disturbance and intervention of other team members in one’s designed plan. Every participant is given equal time to state their narrative without being dominated by the ideas of others.
7. Brainwriting Evokes Synergy in Participants
Brainwriting evokes synergy among team members. This is due to the exposure to different and creative ideas. Each team member has to develop an innovative way to solve a problem. In this way, everyone tries their best to deliver something unique to the organization. They can also take inspiration from each other to help develop the team for the future.
8. Allow Participants to Structure their Ideas Well
Brainwriting’s thorough documentation eliminates excessive confusion and helps team members to have organized and well-structured ideas. This approach also helps in effectively designing sub-ideas that are created as team members continue to comment on other ideas throughout the session.
9. Let You Explore Different Dimensions of Ideas
As we have mentioned before, because of its organized approach, participants can easily generate successful ideas and even subideas to support their proposed plans further. This encourages the other team members to develop multi-dimensional solutions for problems which can be very helpful for the team. This ability to create informed and multi-dimensional ideas is one of many important brainwriting advantages.
Learn more: What is Brainwriting?
Conclusion
Brainwriting is a strategy that, while inspired heavily by traditional brainstorming, integrates many unique elements that set it apart. If this list of brainwriting advantages was helpful, make sure you check out our other content on building a brainwriting template.
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