Ideas from several contributors.

How can your team, department, or even the entire company’s pooled knowledge and ideas be unlocked? And how can you accomplish this without only giving voice to those with the greatest egos? 

The Crawford Slip Method is a straightforward but successful form of brainstorming that gives all team members’ thoughts equal weight, regardless of how quiet they may be. Even if you haven’t used the Crawford Slip Method, you have likely come across this method of coming up with ideas and answers. 

Dr. C.C. Crawford, a professor of education at the University of Southern California, developed the technique in the 1920s. It only entails collecting feedback from people on slips of paper (nowadays often on sticky notes). The strategy may contribute to performance improvement, according to more studies. 

This not only helps you come up with a wide range of answers, but it also encourages participation and makes individuals feel that their efforts are valued. Writing throughout the session rather than speaking can have additional benefits, including fostering uninterrupted thought and levelling the playing field between more reserved and outspoken individuals. 

More than that, it provides you a sense of the general “popularity” of each thought as people’s individual contributions are gathered into clusters of related concepts. 

How to Prepare the Tool for Use 

1. Prior to the session, consider how you will present the issue to your team, evaluate contributions, and provide feedback to participants. 

2. Be prepared to provide paper slips or Post-It notes for each contributor to jot down their suggestions. Have plenty of slips on hand since, depending on the challenge, you may ask each individual to submit between 5 and 25 ideas. 

Informing and facilitating 

3. Clearly state the topic for brainstorming at the beginning of the meeting or session. Be specific, but keep it as straightforward as you can. Use pictures, videos, or other visual representations of the topic to be solved when appropriate to stimulate thought. Inform donors of how their contributions will be used and what kind of feedback they can expect. 

4. Request as many thoughts and suggestions as possible from participants, asking them to record each one on a separate slip of paper. To collect between 5 and 25 suggestions from each person, encourage them to continue contributing until they run out of ideas. When the majority of participants have ceased writing, it’s time to end the session. 

Analysis 

5. Group the contributions logically and according to common themes. The approach you use will depend on the problem you’re trying to address. 

For instance, if you’re searching for suggestions to enhance customer service, you may map out the crucial steps in the process and then arrange people’s ideas in accordance with these crucial steps. 

Additionally, keep track of how many slips each suggestion was on so you can determine its “popularity.” 

Feedback 

6. Designing and putting into practice specific solutions based on the ideas provided can take weeks or even months. However, you should strive to give everyone involved feedback as soon as possible, either during or just after the session. 

Whether the suggestions are ultimately put into action or not, fast feedback demonstrates to the community that contributions are valued and taken seriously. When you really apply the resultant fixes and improvements, don’t forget to provide more feedback.

If you found this article insightful, you might also be interested in exploring these topics further. Here are five articles that could capture your attention:

1. Self-Coaching Strategies – Discover techniques to coach yourself towards personal and professional growth.
2. Team Management – Learn effective ways to lead and manage a team successfully.
3. Essential Competencies for Managing a Team – Understand the key skills and competencies required for effective team management.
4. Providing for Your People – Explore strategies to support and nurture your team members’ development.
5. Mentoring – Gain insights into the art of mentoring and how it can benefit both mentors and mentees.