Pull in many ideas from a group of participants before they are influenced by what others say by using an affinity diagram.

Develop an affinity diagram by assigning each person a minimum of cards or sticky notes to be filled with one idea each.

Then without discussion (meaning in silence), the ideas are arranged in clusters by subject. There may be some frustration at not being able to speak. There may also be some frustration as one person moves another's idea into a different cluster. Any exact matches can be eliminated, but they must be exact.

When the group seems to have settled on clusters they can start talking to come up with titles for each cluster.

Next steps:

1. Start with the topic or question posed for the affinity diagram as the center of a mind-map.

Mind-map the titles of the clusters as the first level of sub-topics. Then go through the individual ideas and decide if and how they fit or how they should be organized under each cluster topic. Mind-maps are a technique on their own.

2. If you have a large enough group, divide them into smaller teams and have each team take one of the clusters to expand including coming up with at least 3 ways each idea could be implemented.

Ideas that many seem crazy or impossible have to be listed. Many times a far-fetched idea breeds many more good and usable ideas.

3. Look for ways to work two seemingly very different ideas into one. Challenge pairs or teams to find a way to use either specific assigned pairs or come up with as many pair ups as possible.

Go to Brainstorming-That-Works from Affinity Diagram for Brainstorming That Works