How do we get our team into creative mode and keep our minds sharp when most of us spend most of our time at home? Always in the same surroundings, with only programmes like The Queen's Gambit or the Question d’intérêt podcast to inspire us? Remote brainstorming is becoming increasingly difficult to activate.

In the age of coffee shops and virtual meetings, you have to know how to keep your employees' hands and minds busy to capture their attention. We're talking about adding a different twist to the subject of the meeting to make sure we get all the brain juice we can, whatever the topic.

Here are 3 tips for successful remote brainstorming, courtesy of Noa, our numbers-loving friend who's passionate about our performance.

1 – Ready, Set, Cameras On!

A reaction is worth a thousand words, everyone's heard that before... 😊 For this reason, it's important to have the faces of all the participants on your screen.

In the early days of containment, people were quite participative, although virtual meetings have been rarer in recent years. Although it has now become commonplace to respond with the camera on, it would not be surprising to see a new wave of return to audio only. In short, don't hold back from asking people to activate their camera, but don't forget to ask them in advance!

2 – Breaking the Ice During a Remote Brainstorm

Despite the fact that you probably all know each other already, taking a few minutes to relax the atmosphere and get everyone's heads around the meeting at ON is a must. Questions like: what will you be doing on Day 1 of your retirement? What series is keeping you up early at the moment? Or: what's the last book you read that you'd recommend?

You'll see, this little ice-breaker, whether there are 3 or 8 of you, will increase the connection factor during discussions!

3 – Organise your Ideas

In real time, during a face-to-face brainstorm, the idea was to let the ideas go where they will. Online, during a remote brainstorm, the time seems longer, which is why it's important to have a moderator to follow up people's ideas. The moderator is also the best person to fill in any unnecessary silence...

At noa, we're all about efficiency. In this case, the key is preparation. If these three basic rules are followed, our ideas will have the potential to rock the world!