We all know that brainstorming is a great way to generate ideas.

But, in practice, brainstorming is easily dominated by outspoken people or by supervisors. Some people are just introverts and would never speak up. Some would never express an idea that their boss did not endorse. Thus, we lose potentially valuable ideas.

Here is how you can get around that issue. You give each person a piece of paper. You announce the topic and the form of the responses. Then you announce that each person should write 5 ideas in 3 minutes, each person working alone. Then pick up the papers and redistribute them. Tell them to produce 3 ideas in 3 minutes. Then reshuffle them and give them 3 more minutes fo produce 1 idea.

Each person will be able to see what someone else wrote in the earlier rounds, but they will not know who did the writing. You get the benefit of the cross-fertilization, while forcing participation and avoiding the supervisor bias.

Then do an affinity exercise to narrow the results.

You can use the approach where you write each idea on a sticky note and stick the notes to the wall. Then everyone goes to the wall and rearranges the notes in a logical order.

BUT, no instructions are given on what makes up a logical order and no talking is allowed. No hitting is allowed either.

Once things settle down, you will have a narrowly grouped list for discussion.

Participation is ensured.