The Beginning
When I met our current communications strategist, Lauren Seaton, it was on a nondescript Friday, at a typical happy hour with a mutual friend. We both somehow knew we wanted to collaborate and work together, but at that moment, we didn’t know how or when. What we did discover that night, was that we both enjoyed beer.
A few weeks later, I met Lauren at WestEnd Tavern for beers after work to discuss our needs at DragonDev and I realized how her marketing and communications experience could help us. So, I decided to hire her part-time to help kick-start our social media presence and to help develop a communications strategy, as both were in dire need of attention.
Following that initial meeting, we made it a point to meet outside of the office. We would design wild marketing campaigns, many of which never came to fruition but which ignited our creativity and motivation. Basically, it helped us think outside the box.
Eventually, we decided to invite our designer, Lisa Hilmes, not only to add a moderator to help end the constantly re-opened bar tab at West Flanders, but also to bring another creative-minded person to the mix because three beers are better than two anyway. This eventually evolved into our daytime ‘Beer Brainstorming’ sessions (often combined with Fish n’ Chips at Mountain Sun) with what is now the DragonDev Creative Team.
Defined
beer /bir/ - an alcoholic beverage made by brewing and fermentation from cereals, usually malted barley, and flavored with hops and the like for a slightly bitter taste.
brainstorming /brānˌstôrm-ing/ - a conference technique of solving specific problems, amassing information, stimulating creative thinking, developing new ideas, etc., by unrestrained and spontaneous participation in discussion.
beer brainstorming /bir brānˌstôrm-ing/ - a creative session with fermented hopped-like adult beverages to ideate the outside-of-the-box projects
Why We Support it in Our Culture
Drinking beer during office hours?! You must be crazy!
We're not, though. We promise! Beer Brainstorming fits perfectly into our culture for three reasons.
First, we value getting out of the office and into the community. Sometimes the office is a bubble and you forget the real world. The change in scenery gives us a fresh perspective, a different view on how to approach a problem.
Second, we really love craft beer. We already have a beer friendly office – just a beer or two in the afternoon for those who wish to participate. For brainstorming, beer helps make sure we don't take ourselves too seriously. Being silly means we’re more open to considering zany ideas, and sometimes those zany ideas evolve into something more practical, yet innovative.
Third, we value collaboration! Having an informal spit-balling session allows you to give voice to people in the office who might not otherwise have a say in things like marketing, business development, company image, etc. And who knows, you might discover a treasure trove of good ideas in an unsuspecting employee.
Combining these three things has had a significant impact on our marketing and business development strategies, among other things. We have compiled white papers, written case studies, created client designs, redesigned our entire website (no longer WordPress – YAY!), all things that we wanted to do, but never had a chance to discuss them thoroughly enough to formulate a game plan of actionable items.
How Does it Work? How Do You Start?
The magic of beer brainstorming is beyond the combination of having beer outside the office during work hours. We often go with an agenda, but other times we simply start the session by brainstorming “what should we brainstorm about today?” Sometimes the beer brainstorming flops and we end up just having a beer and bonding over lunch, and other times a beer over lunch turns into a hugely insightful brainstorming session.
All you really need for beer brainstorming is to leave all the stress in the office, and for everyone to have an open mind. We also need to be willing to be silly, but not get silly just because of the beer. We like to start silly and come up with all kinds of wild or impossible ideas. Then, once we get about half a pint in, the silliness will churn out a good idea, and that idea spawns a new idea. Pretty soon, we become a productive think-tank, resulting in a slew of actionable goals by the end of the session.
DON’T FORGET A NOTEBOOK AND PEN. Documentation is a must, even if it’s just doodles. The more people who document, doodle and list-out, the better. Then, when you’re back in the office, you can rein in all those creative ideas and spin them into tangible projects.
If your business is feeling stagnant and you haven’t been creative lately, think about how you can build a brainstorming event of your own that lets you leave office baggage behind and motivates others to have fun and run wild with ideas you would never have thought of otherwise. The results may surprise you.
