Brainstorming

Brainstorming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a group or individual creativity technique by which efforts are made to find a conclusion for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its member(s). The term was popularized by Alex Faickney Osborn in the 1953 book Applied Imagination. Osborn claimed that brainstorming was more effective than individuals working alone in generating ideas, although more recent research has questioned this conclusion.^[1] Today, the term is used as a catch all for all group ideation sessions.

Origin
Advertising executive Alex F. Osborn began developing methods for creative problem solving in 1939. He was frustrated by employees’ inability to develop creative ideas individually for ad campaigns. In response, he began hosting group-thinking sessions and discovered a significant improvement in the quality and quantity of ideas produced by employees. Osborn outlined the method in his 1948 book 'Your Creative Power' on chapter 33, “How to Organize a Squad to Create Ideas.”^[2]

Osborn's method



Osborn claimed that two principles contribute to "ideative efficacy," these being :
1.Defer judgment,
2.Reach for quantity.[3]

Following these two principles were his four general rules of brainstorming, established with intention to :
reduce social inhibitions among group members,
stimulate idea generation
increase overall creativity of the group.
1.Focus on quantity: This rule is a means of enhancing divergent production, aiming to facilitate problem solving through the maxim quantity breeds quality. The assumption is that the greater the number of ideas generated, the greater the chance of producing a radical and effective solution.
2.Withhold criticism: In brainstorming, criticism of ideas generated should be put 'on hold'. Instead, participants should focus on extending or adding to ideas, reserving criticism for a later 'critical stage' of the process. By suspending judgment, participants will feel free to generate unusual ideas.
3.Welcome unusual ideas: To get a good and long list of ideas, unusual ideas are welcomed. They can be generated by looking from new perspectives and suspending assumptions. These new ways of thinking may provide better solutions.
4.Combine and improve ideas: Good ideas may be combined to form a single better good idea, as suggested by the slogan "1+1=3". It is believed to stimulate the building of ideas by a process of association.[3]

Applications
Osborn notes that brainstorming should address a specific question; he held that sessions addressing multiple questions were inefficient.
Further, the problem must require the generation of ideas rather than judgment; he uses examples such as generating possible names for a product as proper brainstorming material, whereas analytical judgments such as whether or not to marry do not have any need for brainstorming.^[3]

Brainstorming groups
Osborn envisioned groups of around 12 participants, including both experts and novices. Participants are encouraged to provide wild and unexpected answers. Ideas receive no criticism or discussion. The group simply provides ideas that might lead to a solution and apply no analytical judgement as to the feasibility. The judgements are reserved for a later date.^[3]

Variations
Nominal group technique
Main article: nominal group technique

Participants are asked to write their ideas anonymously. Then the facilitator collects the ideas and the group votes on each idea. The vote can be as simple as a show of hands in favor of a given idea. This process is called distillation.
After distillation, the top ranked ideas may be sent back to the group or to subgroups for further brainstorming. For example, one group may work on the color required in a product. Another group may work on the size, and so forth. Each group will come back to the whole group for ranking the listed ideas. Sometimes ideas that were previously dropped may be brought forward again once the group has re-evaluated the ideas.
It is important that the facilitator be trained in this process before attempting to facilitate this technique. The group should be primed and encouraged to embrace the process. Like all team efforts, it may take a few practice sessions to train the team in the method before tackling the important ideas. Group passing techniqueEach person in a circular group writes down one idea, and then passes the piece of paper to the next person, who adds some thoughts. This continues until everybody gets his or her original piece of paper back. By this time, it is likely that the group will have extensively elaborated on each idea.
The group may also create an "idea book" and post a distribution list or routing slip to the front of the book. On the first page is a description of the problem. The first person to receive the book lists his or her ideas and then routes the book to the next person on the distribution list. The second person can log new ideas or add to the ideas of the previous person. This continues until the distribution list is exhausted. A follow-up "read out" meeting is then held to discuss the ideas logged in the book. This technique takes longer, but it allows individuals time to think deeply about the problem.

Team idea mapping method
This method of brainstorming works by the method of association. It may improve collaboration and increase the quantity of ideas, and is designed so that all attendees participate and no ideas are rejected.
The process begins with a well-defined topic. Each participant brainstorms individually, then all the ideas are merged onto one large idea map. During this consolidation phase, participants may discover a common understanding of the issues as they share the meanings behind their ideas. During this sharing, new ideas may arise by the association, and they are added to the map as well. Once all the ideas are captured, the group can prioritize and/or take action.^[4]

Electronic brainstorming




Directed brainstorming
Directed brainstorming is a variation of electronic brainstorming (described above). It can be done manually or with computers. Directed brainstorming works when the solution space (that is, the set of criteria for evaluating a good idea) is known prior to the session. If known, those criteria can be used to constrain the Ideation process intentionally.
In directed brainstorming, each participant is given one sheet of paper (or electronic form) and told the brainstorming question. They are asked to produce one response and stop, then all of the papers (or forms) are randomly swapped among the participants. The participants are asked to look at the idea they received and to create a new idea that improves on that idea based on the initial criteria. The forms are then swapped again and respondents are asked to improve upon the ideas, and the process is repeated for three or more rounds.
In the laboratory, directed brainstorming has been found to almost triple the productivity of groups over electronic brainstorming.^[7]

Guided brainstorming
A guided brainstorming session is time set aside to brainstorm either individually or as a collective group about a particular subject under the constraints of perspective and time. This type of brainstorming removes all cause for conflict and constrains conversations while stimulating critical and creative thinking in an engaging, balanced environment.
Participants are asked to adopt different mindsets for pre-defined period of time while contributing their ideas to a central mind map drawn by a pre-appointed scribe. Having examined a multi-perspective point of view, participants seemingly see the simple solutions that collectively create greater growth. Action is assigned individually.
Following a guided brainstorming session participants emerge with ideas ranked for further brainstorming, research and questions remaining unanswered and a prioritized, assigned, actionable list that leaves everyone with a clear understanding of what needs to happen next and the ability to visualize the combined future focus and greater goals of the group.
Individual brainstorming
"Individual brainstorming" is the use of brainstorming in solitary. It typically includes such techniques as free writing, free speaking, word association, and drawing a mind map, which is a visual note taking technique in which people diagram their thoughts. Individual brainstorming is a useful method in creative writing and has been shown to be superior to traditional group brainstorming.^[8]
Research has shown individual brainstorming to be more effective in idea-generation than group brainstorming.^[1]

Question brainstorming
This process involves brainstorming the questions, rather than trying to come up with immediate answers and short term solutions. Theoretically, this technique should not inhibit participation as there is no need to provide solutions. The answers to the questions form the framework for constructing future action plans. Once the list of questions is set, it may be necessary to prioritize them to reach to the best solution in an orderly way.^[9]
"Questorming" is another term for this mode of inquiry.^[10]

Incentives and brainstorming
Some research indicates that incentives can augment creative processes. Participants were divided into three conditions. In Condition I, a flat fee was paid to all participants. In the Condition II, participants were awarded points for every unique idea of their own, and subjects were paid for the points that they earned. In Condition III, subjects were paid based on the impact that their idea had on the group; this was measured by counting the number of group ideas derived from the specific subject's ideas. Condition III outperformed Condition II, and Condition II outperformed Condition I at a statistically significant level for most measures. The results demonstrated that participants were willing to work far longer to achieve unique results in the expectation of compensation.^[11]

Criticism
Some research claims to refute Osborn's claim that group brainstorming could generate more ideas than individuals working alone.^[1] Research from Michael Diehl and Wolfgang Stroebe demonstrated that groups brainstorming together produce fewer ideas than individuals working separately.^[12] Their conclusions were based on a review of 22 other studies, 18 of which corroborated their findings.^[1]
 Sources of brainstorming inadequacyDiehl and Stroebe identified three processes that derailed brainstorming efforts. These processes were free writing, evaluation apprehension, and blocking. Other processes, such as the social matching effect and the illusion of group productivity, can also undermine brainstorming efforts.
Free writing: Individuals may feel that their ideas are less valuable when combined with the ideas of the group at large. Indeed, Diehl and Stroebe demonstrated that even when individuals worked alone, they produced fewer ideas if told that their output would be judged in a group with others than if told that their output would be judged individually. However, experimentation revealed free writing as only a marginal contributor to productivity loss, and type of session (i.e., real vs. nominal group) contributed much more.^[1]
Evaluation apprehension: Evaluation apprehension was determined to occur only in instances of personal evaluation. If the assumption of collective assessment were in place, real-time judgment of ideas, ostensibly an induction of evaluation apprehension, failed to induce significant variance.^[1]
Blocking: Blocking describes the reality that only one person may gainfully voice his or her ideas in a group at any given time. Diehl and Stroebe examined the question of whether this effect could reduce idea-generation, as ideas suppressed long enough to listen to another group-member's ideas might be forgotten. Their research confirmed this hypothesis.^[12]
Social matching effect: The social matching effect is the tendency for individuals in a group to match the level of productivity by others in the group. When one (or a few) group members feel that they are contributing more to the brainstorming process than others, they express a tendency to reduce their contributions to the group's lower standards,^[13] as overcontribution is more effortful than undercontribution.
Illusion of group productivity: Members of groups often overestimate their productivity, a tendency known as the illusion of group productivity. As groups rarely have objective standards to determine how well they are performing, individual members can only guess at the group's effectiveness. Members of groups working on collective tasks are likely to feel that their group is more productive than most.^[14] Further, individual members overestimate their own contributions to the group. In one research study, members who were asked to generate ideas in a brainstorming session were asked to estimate how many ideas they personally provided. Group members claimed to present 36% of the ideas on average, when they actually only contributed about 25% of the ideas.^[15]
Diehl and Stroebe's sources of brainstorming inadequacy suggest that the act of listening to others might stifle creativity. On the other hand, the variations on brainstorming that produce the "social matching effect" would necessarily violate Osborn's principle of "focus on quantity" while those that produce "the free rider problem" and "evaluation apprehension" would necessarily violate "defer judgment." As such, Diehl and Stroebe's critiques, while valuable for identifying problem areas for potential have limited relevance to Brainstorming as popularized by Osborn, which required specific conditions at odds with Diehl and Strobe's test procedures.^[16][17]

External links
Brainstorming Approach (University of North Carolina)


This page was last modified on 19 December 2013