- One of the most important roles in any brainstorm session,
is the role of the documenter.
The person designated to make sure
that all the ideas that are presented,
are captured in some way.
This is usually done on a whiteboard,
in a notebook,
or on a laptop.
But assigning this role to one person,
creates a set of challenges.
The least of which is that there is only so much
that one person can do.
They have to hear the idea or jump over an an idea,
communicate in a natural broken phrases
and attitude by others,
and they have to document that in some formal way,
that will make sense to the person
who has to read the ideas later.
So they apply their own perspective to the idea
to accomplish this
bending the idea before it even had a chance to grow.
Plus the documenter,
will inherently have a hard time participating
as they're far too busy trying to collect random thoughts.
Instead of making the task of documentation
one person's responsibility,
why not make it everyone's?
Get a roll of butcher paper from any office supply store,
roll the butcher paper out on the table
that you're meeting around
and instruct the participants that they are responsible
for documenting their own ideas as they share them.
This does a few things.
The person who generated the ideas
the best source to document what they see in their minds,
so you get the purest form of the idea.
It gives the participants something to do with their hands,
as they notate and doodle on the paper.
Everyone can participate
because no one has the sole responsibility to take notes,
and you have a single document that represents
everyone's ideas at the end of the session.
Just roll up the paper and you're off.
Well, it's not always possible to have a table
and roll of paper.
The practice of shared documentation
can make the session more productive
and enjoyable for everyone.