Braindrawing

Braindrawing as the brainstorming technique

This technique can be used when a group of people prefer non-verbal methods of creativity. Braindrawing works by providing non-verbal stimulus to the creative (and non-verbal) right brain.
Having the doodle done by everyone ensures that it is completely random, with a number of different elements. Participants should not fill the paper, but simply add to what is drawn, so the result is a mixture of everyone’s doodles. Mixed colours add to the stimulation.

Procedure steps

1. Pin or tape up a number (3-7) of flipchart pages around the room. Have enough flipchart pens so everyone can write on these. A mixture of colours is good.
2. Ask people to go to one flipchart at a time and start or extend the doodles there. Do an example yourself to show this.
3. Stop the doodles when all flipcharts are reasonably full (but not overloaded) with doodling.
4. Use the results as stimuli.
5. Ask people what shapes they can see in the pictures, what it reminds them of and then how this can be brought back to create ideas to solve the problem at hand.
6. Capture the ideas on another flipchart and process afterwards in the normal way.