Project managers have to deal with different types of people in any activities and it is the role of the project manager to initiate communication to get ideas from his or her team members. Team members suggesting something in related to a particular idea or concept is very much welcome in project management. This is the reason why it is so important to use group creativity techniques.
Group creativity techniques are techniques used to generate ideas within a group of people or stakeholders. There are different activities that project managers can organize to identify ideas for the project to meet the requirements. Below are different types of techniques that can enhance the creativity of the group.
- Brainstorming: This technique is used to collect different ideas related to the project requirements. The goal of this technique is to only generate as many ideas from the stakeholders. It does not prioritize the ideas, unlike the other techniques.
- Nominal group technique: This technique enhances brainstorming because a voting process is used to rank useful ideas for prioritization or further brainstorming.
- Mind mapping: Mind mapping is used through individual sessions with each team member. The project manager then consolidates the ideas into a single map to create a common ground of understanding. It is also used to generate more ideas from the members.
- Affinity diagram: It is a technique used to classify a large number of ideas for analysis or review.
- Multicriteria decision analysis: This technique uses a matrix to create a systematic analytical approach in order to establish different criteria. These include risk levels, valuation as well as rank other ideas.
Project managers can use two or more techniques so that they can boost creativity among the team members. This term is defined in the 5th edition of the PMBOK.