Coaching practices for Brainstorm Action Steps
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Brainstorm Action Steps, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I have a goal but no path to it, just a mountain of things I could do that all feel equally important
- We fill the whiteboard with dozens of ideas, the energy is great
- In our group sessions I have a thought, but by the time it’s finally my turn to say it out loud it’s slipped away
- There are so many half-formed goals and someday-projects rattling around in my head that I can’t even see them clearly
- I’ve got maybe two ideas for what to do about this and both feel hopeless, so I shoot every other thought down before I even finish it
Practices that may help
- Build a Massive Action Plan (MAP)
Brainstorm every possible action that could move you toward the result, then ruthlessly prune to the ones that actually will.
Tony Robbins’ Rapid Planning Method (RPM), Made Practical - Harvest and cluster ideas after the session
The generation phase is worthless without a systematic harvest: sort, name, and prioritize the output.
Osborn’s Brainstorming Rules, Made Practical - Use brainwriting to defeat production blocking
Have everyone write ideas silently at the same time, then share — this is the group brainstorm that research actually supports.
Osborn’s Brainstorming Rules, Made Practical - Write all 25 goals without editing
Brain-dump every goal, aspiration, and project you’re holding — professional and personal — uncensored.
Warren Buffett’s Two-List Strategy - Generate solutions without premature evaluation
List as many potential solutions as possible before judging any of them.
Problem-Solving Therapy, Made Practical - Brainwrite instead of group brainstorm
Have people generate ideas silently and individually first, then pool and build.
Divergent Thinking: Generating Many Ideas - Reverse brainstorm: solve the opposite problem first
Ask "How would we guarantee the worst possible outcome?" — then invert every answer.
Lateral Thinking, Made Practical - Osborn’s Brainstorming Rules, Made Practical
Alex Osborn’s 1953 rules — defer judgment, go for quantity, combine ideas, and welcome wild ideas — were designed to suppress the social inhibition that kills idea-generation in groups. The rules themselves target a real problem, but controlled research consistently finds that nominal groups (people brainstorming alone then pooling) outperform interacting groups; the rules work best when combined with individual idea generation first. - State the goal, then invert it
Ask "what would guarantee I fail at this?" before asking how to succeed.
Inversion: Solve Problems Backward - The Action Method, Made Practical
Scott Belsky’s Action Method, developed at Behance, argues that most productivity systems fail by treating all captured content equally. Its core move is to classify every piece of information into one of three buckets: Action Steps (things you do), References (things you might use), and Backburner Items (things you might act on later). Only Action Steps advance projects. The system is practitioner-designed and well-used in creative industries; formal evidence is limited.
Related concerns
- Brainstorming Solutions
Have people generate ideas silently and individually first, then pool and build.
Brainwrite instead of group brainstorm
- Group Brainstorming Problems
Have people generate ideas silently and individually first, then pool and build.
- How To Run A Brainstorm
The generation phase is worthless without a systematic harvest: sort, name, and prioritize the output.
Harvest and cluster ideas after the session
- Osborn S Brainstorming Rules After A Loss
Alex Osborn’s 1953 rules — defer judgment, go for quantity, combine ideas, and welcome wild ideas — were designed to suppress the social inhibition that kills idea-generation in groups. The rules themselves target a real problem, but controlled research consistently finds that nominal groups (people brainstorming alone then pooling) outperform interacting groups; the rules work best when combined with individual idea generation first.
- Osborn S Brainstorming Rules After A Setback
Alex Osborn’s 1953 rules — defer judgment, go for quantity, combine ideas, and welcome wild ideas — were designed to suppress the social inhibition that kills idea-generation in groups. The rules themselves target a real problem, but controlled research consistently finds that nominal groups (people brainstorming alone then pooling) outperform interacting groups; the rules work best when combined with individual idea generation first.
- 6 3 5 Brainwriting Method
Have everyone write ideas silently at the same time, then share — this is the group brainstorm that research actually supports.
Use brainwriting to defeat production blocking
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