The best things I learned in training: Brain writing

Brainstorming can be a nightmare for the quiet, the less experienced and the introverted. It can also favor the status quo if the facilitator isn't careful to ensure even participation.

In brain writing many of these issues are dealt with by the simple expedience of each person working individually - writing their ideas before sharing them with the whole group.

During in person meetings (remember those?) you can do this with sticky notes and allow a few minutes for each person to write their ideas (one per sticky note) before the whole team putting all the notes on the board before the facilitator and group begin to group ideas by category / priority etc.

In a virtual setting the facilitator has each participant come up with their ideas in a document file to cut and paste onto a virtual whiteboard in a teams of Zoom meeting (Miro is a great tool to use for such a virtual process) before grouping.

In both cases the participants have time, space and privacy to develop their ideas without judgement.