Discover new ways of working by leading a team brainstorming session this January

Are you ready to welcome in 2022 with a fresh outlook? 

As you’re getting back into the swing of things after the holidays, now is the perfect time to turn that new year’s energy into something big!

The start of any year or term is the perfect time to get your team together to discuss your current offerings and come up with new ideas for 2022. The perfect way to do this is by leading a team brainstorming session. 

Brainstorming is a group creativity activity. It involves getting a team to collaborate to solve problems, generate new ideas, and work together for your nursery’s overall success.

As a marketing team, we always get together to come up with new ideas for creative campaigns. So we’ve pulled together our most effective team brainstorming techniques, so you can lead your own.

Bring your team together to brainstorm

As you should with any type of staff meeting, start by inviting your chosen employees. You should:

• Invite only the people that need to be there.
• Set a clear agenda.
• Come up with a schedule.
• Share the plans beforehand. 

Effective brainstorming techniques

Ask your group(s) to generate as many ideas as possible—no matter how “off the wall” they may seem. During this session, no criticism is allowed so you can set a positive and productive tone.

With any changes you make in your setting, you must consider how these changes will affect your parents, staff and children. Write these 3 questions on a whiteboard board to help your groups stay on track.

• How can we delight our parents in 2022?
• How can we delight the children in 2022?
• How can we delight our staff in 2022?

Whilst working the room, spark ideas and conversations by asking your team questions like:

• What can we provide that goes over and above our competitors?
• Can we provide extra services? Things like foreign languages, music and dancing, yoga and exercise.
• Could we offer a more efficient and accurate admin service?
• Could we use technology to attract parents?
• Could we make the indoor/outdoor areas of our nursery more appealing/inspiring?
• How could we improve parental engagement?
• Do our employees have any hidden talents that they could use?  E.g are they good at creating social media posts? Could they help with your marketing?

Review all of the ideas as a team, vote for the most interesting and then lead a discussion about how to combine, improve, and implement the ideas across the year. Let your staff be involved in the decision making processes and give them tasks to take off your workload and help to get the job done.

Putting your ideas into action

While brainstorming sessions are fun for participants, the output can sometimes be forgotten or considered impractical just days after the exercise. Make sure you or a colleague takes notes from the meeting so you can put your ideas into action right away. 

We’ve put together this interactive workbook, made for ANY childcare setting. It includes 15 fun challenges and some goal setting templates for you to take advantage of and organise your resolutions. No matter how big or small your goals are, we’ve got templates and tips to help you reach them.

One of the templates is an action plan template to help you put your ideas into action right away.

Download your free interactive workbook today.