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Brainstorming

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‘Brainstorming is a method of problem solving in which members of a group contribute ideas spontaneously.’ (wiktionary). Brainstorming is originated by Alex Osborn.

Overview

Brainstorming is a creativity technique in which ideas are generated in order to solve a problem. Other methods are individual ideation and the morphological analysis approach.


Brainstorming can be used as a supplement for:

  • individual ideation: by means of generating a maximum number of potentially usable ideas in a minimum of time.
  • a business conference: stimulate creative thinking in a judicial and relative unproductive atmosphere.
  • creative training: brainstorming improves the creative attitude towards solving problems and improves the creative ability in groups and individual.


The best way of working out a problem solving process is a triple attack of individual ideation, group brainstorming and again individual ideation.


Brainstorming can be done either individually or in a group. In group brainstorming sessions, the participants are encouraged, and often expected, to share their ideas with one another as soon as they are generated. The key to brainstorming is not to interrupt the thought process. As ideas come to the mind, they are captured and stimulate the development of better ideas. Brainstorming is used for enhancing creativity in order to generate a broad selection of ideas in leading to a unique and improved concept.


In order to enhancing creativity a brainstorm session has four basic rules:

  • Focus on quantity
  • Criticism is forbidden
  • Unusual ideas are welcome
  • Combine and improve ideas


Focus on quantity

It is a means of enhancing divergent production, aiming to facilitate problem solving through the maxim quantity breeds quality. The greater the number of ideas generated, the greater the chance of producing a radical and effective solution. An individual may revisit a brainstorm, done alone, and approach it with a slightly new perspective. This process can be repeated without limit. The result is collaboration with your past, present and future selves.


Criticism is forbidden

In a group, it is often emphasized in brainstorming sessions that you should put criticism 'on hold'. Instead of immediately stating what might be wrong with an idea, the participants focus on extending or adding to it, reserving criticism for a later 'critical stage' of the process. The assertion is that when suspending judgment, you create a supportive atmosphere where participants feel free to generate unusual ideas. However, persistent respectful criticism of ideas by a minority dissenter can reduce groupthink, leading to more and better quality ideas.


Unusual ideas are welcome

During a brainstorm session many regular and standard ideas are suggested. These ideas are often a good, but not always the best solution to the problem. By looking from another perspective, or by setting aside assumptions, some unusual ideas can be generated. These ideas will open new ways of working or thinking. To get a good and complete list of ideas, generation of unusual ideas is welcomed. When the idea is too ‘wild’ and not feasible, the idea can be tamed down to a more appropriate idea. It is easier to tame down an idea then to think up an idea.


Combine and improve ideas

The participants will generate ideas of their own, however in the case of a brainstorm session 1+1=3. Two good ideas can be combined to form one very good idea. It is also encouraged to improve existing ideas, to build up to a very good idea. The approach of combining and improving ideas will lead to better and more complete ideas then solely generation of new ideas and will cause a chain reaction of idea generation by using the power of association.


Results of a brainstorm session

The main result of a brainstorm session is a solution to a problem. The solution can be an idea, which is a complete solution to the problem. It can be a list of ideas, leading to an approach to a subsequent solution of the problem. Or it can be a list of ideas resulting into a plan to find the final answer.


Indirect results of a brainstorming session

The main purpose of brainstorming is to generate ideas to solve a problem; however a group brainstorming session has more value next to the solving idea. For example:

  • Improve initiative: During a brainstorm session, participants are encouraged to constantly throwing their ideas, to take initiative all the time. This initiative can last even after the session.
  • Improve creative thinking: Participants are encouraged to look from a creative perspective to the problem and the power of association is used to create ideas. The participants get more experience with creative thinking and they can use it after the session.
  • Improve morale: The participants work together as a team to find a solution to a problem and every participant is encouraged to take initiative. These two factors can improve the morale of the team and its members.
  • Enjoyment: Most of the participants like the interactive and creative atmosphere in which problems are solved.


Why brainstorm sessions fail

The main reasons why brainstorm session are not giving the expected results are in a faulty operation and exaggerated expectations. When the four basic rules and the best practices are not followed by the group, or when the group expect miracles to happen, the session will not give the optimal result.


Brainstorming applications

Brainstorming has many applications but it is most frequently used in:

  • New product development - obtaining ideas for new products and making improvements to existing products
  • Advertising - developing ideas for advertising campaigns
  • Problem solving - issues, root causes, alternative solutions, impact analysis, evaluation
  • Process management - finding ways of improving business and production processes
  • Project Management - identifying client objectives, risks, deliverables, work packages, resources, roles and responsibilities, tasks, issues
  • Team building - generates sharing and discussion of ideas while stimulating participants to think
  • Business planning – develop and improve the product idea.

A short brainstorm session

Brainstorming is very well suited for ad-hoc problem solving. A short brainstorm session can be applied in many occasions where a quick solution is needed. For example: students working on a project, a support team looking for a quick solution for their customer or a project team who have to deal with the illness of one of its members.

The session contains, as depicted in Figure 1, three phases:

File:Activity short brainstorm session.jpg

Figure 1: Activities of a short brainstorm session

1. Set problem Determine and specify the problem which needs a solution. Every participant of the short brainstorm session has to know exactly what the problem is.

2. Generate ideas Generate as many ideas as possible. Keep in mind the four basic brainstorm rules and record the good ideas. This process can continue for five to fifteen minutes.

3. Select most appropriate idea Select from the suggested ideas the most appropriated idea.

Preparation of a brainstorm session

More complex problems or brainstorm sessions with a diversity of people are prepared by the chairman. The chairman is the leader and facilitator of the brainstorm session. The preparation described here contains the basic activities, but depending on the situation more activities can be added. Figure 2 depicts the preparation activities in an activity diagram.

File:Activity preperation.jpg

Figure 2: Activity diagram of preparing of a brainstorm session

1. Set problem One of the most important things to do before a brainstorm session starts is to set the problem. The problem has to be clear, not to big and captured in a perfectly definite question, for example “What service for mobile phones is not available now, but needed?“. If the problem is too big, the chairman has to split up the problem into smaller components, each with its own question. Some problems seem to be multi-dimensional and non-quantified, for example “What are the aspects involved in being a successful entrepreneur”. Finding solutions for this kind of problems can better be done with a morphological analysis.

2. Create background memo The background memo is the invitation and information letter for the participants, containing the session name, time, date and place and the problem. The problem is described with its question, and some example ideas are given. The example ideas are solutions to the problem, and used when the session slows down or gets of the track. The example ideas also give the participants an idea of the direction upfront. The background memo is send to the participants at least two days in advance, wherefore the participants can think on the problem upfront.

3. Select participants The chairman has to compose the brainstorm panel, containing the participants and an idea collector. Many variations can be made in the brainstorm panel composition, but the following composition is advised: - Five core members of the project who have proved themselves. - Five guests from outside the project, with affinity to the problem. - One idea collector who records the suggested ideas.

4. Create list of leads During the brainstorm session the creativity and production of ideas can slow down. At this moment the chairman has to boost the creativity by suggesting a lead to an answer, for example “Can we combine those ideas?” or “How about a look from an other perspective?”. It is advised to prepare a list of such leads, ensuring enough leads to boost the creativity during the session.

Conduct a brainstorm session

The brainstorm session is lead by the chairman; he will insure that the four basic brainstorm rules are followed. The activities of a typical brainstorm session are:

1. A warm up practice if inexperienced participants are in the group. During a warm up practice the participants can experience the criticism free and uninhibited atmosphere. A simple problem is the topic to brainstorm on, for example: “What must be in the next corporal Christmas present?”, “What can be improved in Microsoft Windows?” or “What can we do for teambuilding?”.

2. The chairman presents the problem and gives a further explanation if needed.

3. The chairman asks the brainstorm panel for their ideas.

4. If no ideas are coming out of the group, the chairman suggests a lead to encourage creativity.

5. Every participant presents his or her idea and the idea collector writes down the idea.

6. If more participants are having an idea, the chairman let the most associated idea be presented first. This selection can be done by looking at the body language of the participants, or just by asking for the most associated idea.

7. The participants try to elaborate on the idea, to improve the quality.

8. When the time is up, the chairman will organize the ideas based on the topic goal and he will encourage discussion during this phase. Additional ideas may be generated.

9. Group sub ideas under main categories.

10. Review the list from top to bottom to ensure everyone understands the ideas. Eliminate from the list any duplications. Remove any obviously ridiculous suggestions.

11. Thank all participants and give them each a token recompense as a sign of appreciation.


Best practices:

  • Participants with an idea, but without the possibility to present their idea can write down their idea to remember it and present it another time.
  • Number the ideas written down by the idea collector, so the chairman can use it to encourage the quantitative idea generation, for example: “We have 44 ideas now, let’s get it to 50!”.
  • The idea collector should state the idea in the words she has written to confirm that it expresses the meaning intended by the originator.
  • When more participants are having an idea, the one with the most associated idea should have priority. This to encourage the elaboration on previous ideas.
  • During the brainstorm session the attendance of managers and superiors is strongly discouraged. This will radically reduces the effect of the four basic rules, especially the generation of unusual ideas.

The complete process of conducting a brainstorm session is depicted in Figure 3.

File:Activity conducting.jpg

Figure 3: Activity diagram of conducting a brainstorm session


Facilitate a brainstorm session

A brainstorm session can best be conducted in a moderate size room, equipped with about a dozen chairs in the shape of a hollow square so that each participant is looking at the others in the group. A flip chart, blackboard, or overhead projector is placed in a prominent location. The room is free of telephones, clocks, or any other distractions.

Nominal group technique

Nominal group technique is a type of brainstorming that introduces structure to the process. It is useful in ensuring that all participants have an equal say and can be used to generate a rank-ordered list of ideas.

Typically each participant is asked to write down their ideas. Then the moderator asks each participant in turn to express one of the ideas that they have written down. The moderator writes down each idea on the flip chart. Then each participant copies the group's final list on a blank page giving each idea a score. The pages are collected from each participant and the scores summed, providing a rank-ordered list.

Group passing technique

Each person in a circular group writes down one idea, and then passes their piece of paper to the next person in a clockwise direction, who adds some thoughts to what is written down. This is repeated until everybody gets their original piece of paper back. By this time, it is likely that the group will have created some quite powerful ideas.

A popular alternative to this technique is to create an "Idea Book" and post a distribution list or routing slip to the front of the book. On the inside cover (or first page) is the problem definition statement. The first person to receive the book lists out his/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 does take longer, but allows individual thought whenever the person has a spare minute to think deeply about the problem.

Controversy

The story that an organization has banned the word 'brainstorm', in favor of 'thought shower', due to its connection with epilepsy, appears regularly in British newspapers. Invariably, it is given as an example of 'political correctness gone mad'. One example can be found in the Observer, 26 June 2005 regarding the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Belfast. Another example is the Telegraph, 26 April 2003 regarding trainee teachers.

A survey in 2005 by the UK charity National Society for Epilepsy found that 93 per cent of people with the condition do not find the word brainstorming offensive.

Another UK epilepsy charity, Epilepsy Action, discuss this in their Epilepsy Facts, Figures and Terminology web page. An informal survey by Epilepsy Action in their journal Epilepsy Today (Issue 73, October 2005) confirmed the NSE findings.

See also

References

Osborn, A.F. (1963) Applied imagination: Principles and procedures of creative problem solving (Third Revised Edition). New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

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