"Change only favors minds that are diligently looking and preparing for discovery" - Louis Pasteur

If your traditional brainstorming sessions have been less than productive lately, why not mix things up a little bit using these popular alternatives:

• SCAMPER:  This alternative takes ideas that you have already generated in a normal brainstorming session and subjects them to the following lateral thinking concepts
  
• (S) Substitute
• (C) Combine
• (A) Adapt
• (M) Modify
• (P) Put to another use
• (E) Eliminate
• (R) Reverse
• Bashful Brainstorming/Brainwriting:  In case there are some bashful people in your brainstorming session, why not try having the participants write down their ideas.  You can also generate a large number of ideas by having each participant pass their ideas to the person on their right to build on ideas or come up with new ideas.  This concept also helps to eliminate the negative impact that a manager's presence can have during a brainstorming session.
• Pass The Book:  If you are having a hard time getting ideas from very busy people you can try creating an "Idea Book" and post a distribution list or routing slip to the front of the book. On the inside cover (or first page) is the problem definition statement. The first person to receive the book lists his/her ideas and then routes the book to the next person on the distribution list. The second person can log new ideas or add to the ideas of the previous person. This continues until the distribution list is exhausted. A follow-up "read out" meeting is then held to discuss the ideas logged in the book. This technique does take longer, but allows individual thought whenever the person has a spare minute to think deeply about the problem.
• Super Competitor:  If the group is having a hard time overcoming office politics or a "business as usual" mind set, try telling the group to solve the problem at hand by thinking like a fictitious "super competitor."  This company isn't limited to all of the hang ups of your environment.  It is  a very effective method to get these idea rut participants to breakthrough their constrained thinking patterns.

There are hundreds and hundreds of available alternatives to conventional brainstorming and idea generation.  To review some of the most popular and effective, click HERE to go to Mycoted's outstanding compendium of Creative Thinking Techniques.