Creativity 101: The secrets of business brainstorming

Last week, Chowles and the One Show hosted a one-hour workshop on the Secrets to Brainstorming at Bright Day in Woodstock.

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The reason? One Show's mission is to help improve creativity. If people are coming up with better ideas, then creativity is improving. That's crucial as creativity's not an easy business.

Everything needs to be produced faster and faster, and getting to great ideas quickly is essential to compete. So if ideas are our business, the better we brainstorm, the better the ideas.

I found out more from Chowles...

1. Firstly, 'The secrets of brainstorming' - does that mean there's an actual formula to getting it right?

Chowles: The point is that a blank page is very scary, so one needs to get the ball rolling. These techniques get the ball rolling in the right direction. Tried and tested over 35 years of my career. Most creatives f*ck around talking sh!t for an hour before things heat up. These days we don't have the time. This way, you get going fast.

2. Explain the value of business brainstorming.

Chowles: We are an ideas business, so the more people we have thinking in the right way about a subject, the better the resulting ideas. And the more ideas, the higher the chance of a good one. The more good ones, the better your agency performs.

3. What's the benefit of 'groupthink' brainstorming together as a team over individual doodles and scribbles?

Chowles: One persons' ideas stimulates another person's ideas. Alone is not the best way to think up ideas. The best creative people have excelled when confronted with another creative person. Just think of Lennon and McCartney or The Cohen brothers. The more the merrier. But the more people, the more you need to control them.

For more on upcoming local One Show events, visit the Bright Day Facebook page.