Electric Brainstorming (Digital Collaboration)
The term electric brainstorming or digital collaboration means making use of online tools and platforms to come up with ideas in a virtual environment. The method makes it possible for participants from all over to share their thoughts in real time and use creativity and diversity while cutting the distance.
Electric brainstorming generally makes use of various digital tools like Zoom for video conferencing, Miro or MURAL for interactive whiteboarding, and Google Docs for collaborative writing. These are the digital platforms that allow them to communicate and share ideas in real-time, see the idea and collaborate with the user at the same time regardless of the user's physical location.
Electric brainstorming makes creativity rich by offering members to contribute asynchronously, which means they can present ideas at their convenience without the pressure of immediate feedback. This level of flexiblity can result in the most unique and clever being added by the members. For instance, do to the fact that team members can use an online platform, they will be able to submit their ideas in a wider range of time thus creating a more diverse collection of ideas than by simply one brainstorming session in person.
A few of the difficulties that teams may face are nearly the same as those in technology, lack of involvement from the participants, or difficulties in rapport building especially compared to the physical interaction. To address these issues, the team leaders might take the steps like providing technical support, stating clear participation guidelines, and incorporating ice-breaker activities that help in building an overall collaborative atmosphere thus improving the team effectiveness.
Indeed, the electric brainstorming is applicable for remote teams, as it enables the members to get connected in real-time or asynchronous mode from different locations. As an illustration, a marketing team scattered across different countries can use platforms like Slack to share ideas and feedback instantly, visioning any incongruity and thus, ensure the active contribution of all team members in the brainstorming process.