Brainstorming relies upon participation from everyone in the meeting. In order for brainstorming to be successful, everyone needs to be a part of the discussion. In an article for Inc.com, Leigh Thompson, professor at the Kellogg School of Management and author of Creative Conspiracy: The New Rules of Breakthrough Collaboration shared a statistic about team dynamics that I wish was surprising: "In a typical six or eight person group, three people do 70 percent of the talking." This means that, during your next one-hour meeting, the remaining participants—those who aren't monopolizing the conversation—are contributing about four minutes each.

Thompson goes on to say, "The topper is that the dominant people do not realize this. In fact, they vehemently argue that the meetings are egalitarian. They lack self-awareness." She suggests the way for leveling the playing field is "brainwriting", which she describes as "the simultaneous written generation...