What can you learn about brainstorming from an expert who has led more than 1,000 brainstorming sessions?

Ironically, it is that “Brainstorming doesn’t work”.

That comes as advice from a new TEDx talk on creativity by Bryan Mattimore, the co-founder and “Chief Idea Guy” of the Growth Engine Company. [Ed: He’s also a great guy]

Watch his video above to find out more.

But just because brainstorming doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean there aren’t better ways to run an ideation session. By using several easy-to-learn creative thinking techniques, you can generate a wide variety of potentially-breakthrough solutions.

So how is ideation different than brainstorming?

This is a key takeaway you can capture it in one word; and that one word is stimuli

You use stimuli to trigger the brain

Watch the rest of the TEDx talk for some great real-world examples of how you can use stimuli to trigger off new tangents of ideas, even when previous attempts have not worked.

In his innovation consulting career, Bryan has facilitated over a thousand brainstorming sessions, moderated more than five hundred creative focus groups, and managed more than two hundred successful innovation projects, leading to in excess of $3 billion in new sales for a wide variety of Fortune 500 clients, including Kraft, Unilever, Ford, AT&T, BNY Mellon, LVMH, Merck, and Pepsi. He has written three books on ideation and innovation process including Idea Stormers (one of the best books out there on ideation stimuli techniques), How to Lead and Inspire Creative Breakthroughs and 21 Days to a Big Idea.

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Did you know that scientific evidence shows your creativity decreases over time

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Nick Skillicorn

Chief Editor, Founder & CEO at Improvides Innovation Consulting
Chief Editor of Ideatovalue.com and Founder / CEO of Improvides Innovation Consulting. Coach / Speaker / Author / TEDx Speaker / Voted as the world's #5 Innovation blogger in 2016, I help individuals and companies build their creativity and innovation capabilities, so you can develop the next breakthrough idea which customers love.