A Dry Erase Wall Can Enhance Both Group and Individual Brainstorming

Brainstorming can be defined as the consideration of multiple ideas by an individual or a group in an effort to devise a stratagem or find a solution to a particular problem. This technique is most often associated with group meetings in offices where ideas are freely shared and built upon among team members. In today’s business environment, the practice of group brainstorming is extremely popular with managers, but brainstorming can also be practiced by individuals in the traditional workplace, in the home office, in the classroom, or in other settings using a dry erase wall.

Advertising executive Alex Osborn, who is often called the “inventor” of group brainstorming, outlined the method in his 1948 book Your Creative Power. As the owner of his own advertising agency, Osborn was constantly searching for new ways to help his employees come up with better ideas, a process he referred to as “thinking up.” With this goal in mind, he formulated several principles and features of brainstorming in the group setting that are still commonly applied today.

Group and Individual Brainstorming on a Dry Erase Wall are Both Effective in Inducing Creativity

Brainstorming, which has the capacity to stimulate the mind, generate novel ideas, and thus greatly enhance the problem-solving process, is typically done by groups in the workplace, but it can also be carried out by individuals working in the office, at home, or in the classroom. Some companies are deeply infatuated with the concept of group brainstorming. Whenever a problem needs to be solved, or a new project needs to be considered and developed, a company’s team members are brought together to enthusiastically call out possible solutions or ways of going forward, with at least one person struggling to take notes on what everyone is saying. For many in management today, this approach seems to be the only acceptable way to solve a complex problem or begin the process of developing fresh ideas for a new project.

The Practice of Individual Brainstorming Also Has Its Own Benefits

With their innate urge to schedule group brainstorming sessions, business managers often forget to give team members a chance to privately prepare and formulate their ideas in the quiet of their own office or work area. This vital step in the brainstorming process was advocated by Alex Osborn, who spoke highly of solitude, of time away from group distractions, as a natural part of the creative process. Thus, the person who gave us today’s whiteboard-centered, often frenzied group brainstorming technique placed just as much emphasis on the workings of the individual’s imagination and creativity while brainstorming apart from a group.

Traditional Dry Erase boards Limit the Flow and Dynamics of a Brainstorming Session

Whether brainstorming is done with a group of team members in the workplace or by an individual working alone at home, a dry erase painted wall can be hugely beneficial in accelerating and enhancing the flow of creative ideas. When teams get together for sessions in the office, a conventional framed whiteboard is often the focus of attention and action, as ideas are called out and recorded on the board by a team member or manager. However, the limited surface area of a traditional whiteboard severely restricts the number of words and images that can be produced at any given time during a session.

Dry Erase Walls are More Useful and Less Stressful for Any Form of Brainstorming

By contrast, with a dry erase painted wall in the office, its vast surface area allows for many more words and graphics to be displayed simultaneously. This feature dramatically reduces the need for frequent erasing and rewriting or redrawing of new material, so workers’ engagement and interest in collaboratively generating ideas is increased. On the large dry erase painted wall, instead of having to spend many precious minutes writing and erasing, team members are able to connect more deeply and thoughtfully with the ideas and images being proposed by their colleagues. Text and images may be easily viewed, thought about, commented on, and revised all through the course of a session. Leaders can also emphasize especially pertinent points or details in real-time while making revisions to the topic being discussed, and team members give their continuous input.

The Quality of Individual Brainstorming Sessions is Equally Strengthened

As with group brainstorming meetings, the quality of individual brainstorming sessions may be dramatically improved through the use of a dry erase painted wall. The immense writing and drawing area offered by a dry erase wall makes recording an endless stream of ideas and images infinitely easier than if the same task were tried on the small surface of a conventional framed whiteboard. In the home office, jotting down a free-flowing stream of thoughts and images related to project planning, new marketing initiatives, freelance writing topics, and countless other subjects are made easy when you have a large, durable dry erase wall at your disposal.

Individual Brainstorming Can Be Just as Productive as Group Sessions with whiteboard walls

A recent survey of creative professionals, including musicians, writers, photographers, and podcasters from around the world, revealed that a majority of these individuals find group brainstorming to be less helpful than individual brainstorming for tackling creative challenges. Thus, if you’re currently working from home, either temporarily or permanently, you can feel assured that your individual brainstorming sessions in the home office are bound to bear fruit, based on the experiences of many people in a variety of creative fields.

Setting up Your Home Office to Enhance Brainstorming is Essential
How you set up your home office and the tools you provide yourself with will go a long way toward promoting successful brainstorming while you carry out your remote work projects. The following are some tips for enhancing your personal brainstorming experience in the home office through the use of premium dry erase paint.

1. Install dry erase paint on an easily accessible wall
Applying dry erase paint to an office-wide surface, such as a large wall near your desk, can give you all the space you need to do individual brainstorming for your remote work assignments. In this way, you can span a large open area for use in an endless variety of job-related tasks. With a dry erase painted wall close to your desk, you can write and draw away with complete abandon while you brainstorm ideas. In addition, research shows that having a medium like a dry erase wall for doodling and sketching can improve memory and concentration in people of all ages.

As a result, setting up your home office space with a dry erase painted wall and a set of low-odor dry erase markers can not only improve your brainstorming sessions but also encourage you to draw, which will, in turn, boost your memory. From making sketches of family members to drawing symbols that help you remember your Wi-Fi password, doodling on a dry erase wall can help you to retain more information while performing your job-related tasks; plus, the wall can add a bit of design flair to your home office space and brighten up your mood when the work day gets stressful.

2. Add a writeable dry erase area to your desktop
You could also give yourself a designated writing and drawing space right at your fingertips by coating your desktop with durable, top-quality dry erase paint. A dry erase surface that’s right at hand on your desk will allow you to brainstorm and quickly perform other tasks like note-taking during conference calls and virtual meetings, and then erase your work when you’re done. Besides being extremely handy, this option helps you to keep from using too much paper in the form of note pads or sticky notes, thus cutting down on deforestation and paper waste, which is good for us all, especially planet Earth.