"Let's brainstorm a few ideas on this," - a proposition that can mean many things. The problem with the word "brainstorm" is that it sounds fast, trendy, action oriented and effective. The problem with the technique of brainstorming is that it is slow, process oriented and - some research suggests - not very effective.
What is brainstorming?
It is a technique - or rather a collection of techniques - which aim to enable a group of people to come up with new ideas on a question and to reach agreement on which are the best. It is practised in many ways - from the complex to the simple. The most complex use that I have seen was in Hamburg, in Germany, where a group of highly trained facilitators used a number of moveable boards, covered in brown paper that could be removed, stored and re-posted and on which an array of sticky cards in different shapes and colours could be mounted. It was extremely impressive to watch the way that the facilitators worked the flow of ideas, categorising, prompting and drawing our conclusions from a fairly large group of people.
In its more simple form, brainstorming is a process involving a group of people with one other person acting as facilitator/scribe. Members of the group call out ideas and the 'scribe' writes them down on flip charts. The rules are set such that no one is allowed to make a negative comment about an idea. "That won't work," is not allowed. Building on an idea is encouraged. "That's a good idea and it makes me think that (a related idea) might work as well."
The group works at producing new ideas until they run out of steam. At this point, the group is faced with an array of ideas written on probably several sheets of flip chart paper. A simple way of handling this array is to ask the members of the group each to list what they consider to be the best ten ideas. The facilitator then puts a mark against each idea that is in someone's 'top ten' and the ideas that receive the most 'votes' are chosen for action.
There is little doubt that any group, with an expert facilitator, will come up with a range of ideas, provided that the problem is relevant to their skills, knowledge and experience. However, Adrian Furnham (writing in Business Strategy Review, 2000) says that his study of brainstorming shows that such groups in fact come up with fewer and less good ideas than individuals working on their own.
What does it work for?
The real question is that of the objective of running a brainstorming session. There is little doubt that the highest creativity is achieved by individuals. Einstein, Picasso and Shakespeare did not, as far as we know, work in committee. However, there is a world of difference between creativity and implementation. Great painters and even scientists have little problem with implementation. The picture or the scientific paper are ends in themselves. (It may be that Shakespeare had more of a problem in that he had to persuade the actors and the director that the play would be a success but then we know very little about his life as such.)
Frequently in business, and even in quasi-business or social life, it is less the idea and more the fact that a group of people are willing to implement it that is important. Brainstorming at least enables a group of people to feel that they have contributed, that their ideas have been heard and considered, that they themselves have seen a number of ideas different from their own and that they have participated in the choice of a solution. In such circumstances, people are more likely to be willing to support 'their' chosen solution than one which has been imposed from the outside, even via a very creative person.
Right or supported
Like many things in management, the answer is probably situational. If the correctness or true originality of the solution is paramount, then brainstorming is probably not the best solution. Indeed, groups are probably innately conservative and will probably initially applaud and then reject truly original ideas. However, if support from the group to ensure implementation is the most important aspect, then brainstorming does seem to have benefits. In this way, the choice is rather like Roskin's analysis of decision making strategies
This is taken from our online Development Academy.
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