How to Conduct a Successful Creative Brainstorming SessionBrainstorming is an integral part of the business process at all organizations. It can lead to a dynamic and valuable exchange of ideas and exciting new initiatives, said Edward T. Reilly, AMAs president and CEO. Poorly executed, however, it can foster resentment, internal tension and be counterproductive. All participants in a brainstorming session need to remember, its not personal-its business. Reilly offers the following best practices on how to conduct a successful creative brainstorming session: Establish the role of the leader. The leader acts as facilitator, monitoring the flow of ideas to ensure that everyone has a chance to speak and no one interrupts another, and that discussion stays on track and doesnt veer off on too many tangents. The leader should encourage challenge and debate-theyre productive. Hostility is not. Define the task at hand. All group members must clearly understand what the ultimate business objective is. Before solutions are suggested, all available facts, trends and challenges should be reviewed and discussed. State the goal of the brainstorming session. The role of the brainstorming session needs to be clear. The purpose is to generate ideas, initially without consideration for their merit. Create a positive culture. Members should feel free to communicate openly and honestly. It helps to select a neutral setting. Find a room where the team members can slip off their jackets, grab some refreshments and get to work. Record ideas. A flipchart or a blackboard enables members of the group to see each idea and build on ones that interest them. Rotate note takers to enable all to actively participate in the ideation process. Encourage the flow of ideas. There should be no evaluation early in the process. Members should not look for the elusive right idea immediately. The goal of the team is to generate lots of ideas. The right one will eventually emerge-almost always from one idea built on another. Carefully monitor verbal and nonverbal communication. Listen to all members of the group. Also, watch for nonverbal communications. This will often tell you, even more than words, how members feel about the groups progress. Select the best idea. Periodically summarize the groups progress. Once the group winds down, review the ideas. Focus discussion first on positive attributes of each idea. Only then focus on the negative aspects. Through a process of elimination, identify the top ideas and then make a final selection. Choose an idea that fully meets the task objective and that all members of the team are willing to support. How to Make Sound Business DecisionsBusiness is all about decisions-decisions you make as an individual, a team member or a team leader. There are considered decisions that come with the luxury of time, like marketing plans and budgets, and then there are other decisions that are thrust upon you and have to be made instantaneously, said American Management Association President and CEO Edward T. Reilly. Every decision can be important to your business-and your career. Reilly offers the following tips that will help you make sounder decisions: Before you make a decision, carefully weigh the risks and rewards. Dont act, or react, without giving thought to the consequences. You want to make thoughtful decisions, not reckless ones. Dont let your emotions influence your decisions. Too often, such decisions will be wrong-and regretted. After you have spoken, you may find yourself either backtracking or trapped. Seek balance and moderation in your decisions. You dont want to be known as someone who is indecisive or is impulsive. Colleagues expect decisions to be made-it can be frustrating not knowing what course to take-but they also respect someone who listens and weighs information before making a decision. Make decisions for the right reason. If you are in a position of strength, watch that one of your subsequent decisions wont actually diminish your power. Dont jeopardize yourself or your team out of bravado or to impress others with a grand gesture. Make decisions for the right reasons-weighing a fleeting moment of glory against the long-term consequences. Picture the worst-case scenario. Compensate for your personal decision-making biases. Are you a numbers person or a big picture person? Do you look for the quick-fix or a long-term solution? Improve the quality of your decisions by better understanding yourself. Practice the 80/20 rule. Recognize that 80 percent of the information you will need to make a good decision generally can be assembled in a relatively short time. Dont wait for the remaining 20 percent-in most instances, it isnt likely to change the situation. Develop quiet confidence in your decision-making ability. The more decisions you make, likely the better they will be. Most profe