Once a company starts operating, brainstorming often falls by the wayside. But there's a cost to that—big ideas get missed and, unexpectedly, your team's morale may lag.

So every week I huddle with the team at Kohort for a brainstorming session. The group and I meet every Wednesday at 5PM. If we don't have a topic we need to address, we brainstorm one. Sometimes we brainstorm about the future, working through how we want the company to operate years down the road.

While at first glance, this might seem like a waste of time, I know it's not. While it does consume the attention of everyone on the team for an hour—and adds up to quite a few man-hours—it's invaluable.

Brainstorming forces everyone to get out of the weeds and focus on the big picture. It's a chance to come up for air and remember how the whole project fits together and why we're here. Brainstorming makes the North Star shine a little brighter.

Brainstorming forces us all to think deeply and critically. We unveil new ideas and illuminate previously unnoticed shortcomings. We find ways to be better. Sometimes, we change our path.

Most importantly, brainstorming unifies our team. The act of brainstorming weaves our various ideas, hopes, and dreams together. It defines a vision for each topic that unifies divergent perspectives and aligns us more closely around a common goal. In this way, it also—I believe—is helping us to reach our potential.

This was originally posted on Inc.com.