BY REBECCA GREENFIELD
Brainstorming, in its current form and by many metrics,
doesn’t work as well as the frequency of “team brainstorming meetings” would
suggests it does.
EARLY IDEAS TEND TO HAVE DISPROPORTIONATE INFLUENCE OVER THE
REST OF THE CONVERSATION.
Sharing ideas in groups isn’t the problem, it’s the
“out-loud” part that, ironically, leads to groupthink, instead of unique ideas.
“As sexy as brainstorming is, with people popping like champagne with ideas,
what actually happens is when one person is talking you’re not thinking of your
own ideas,” Leigh Thompson, a management professor at the Kellogg School, told
Fast Company. “Sub-consciously you’re already assimilating to my ideas.”
That process is called “anchoring,” and it crushes
originality. “Early ideas tend to have disproportionate influence over the rest
of the conversation,” Loran Nordgren, also a professor at Kellogg, explained.
“They establish the kinds of norms, or cement the idea of what are appropriate
examples or potential solutions for the problem.”
Because brainstorming favors the first ideas, it also breeds
the least creative ideas, a phenomenon called conformity pressure. People
hoping to look smart and productive will blurt out low-hanging fruit first.
Everyone else then rallies around that idea both internally and externally.
Unfortunately, that takes up time and energy, leaving a lot the best thinking
undeveloped. We’ve all been in meetings like this: Some jerk says the obvious
thing before anyone else, taking all of the glory; everyone else harrumphs.
Brainstorm session over.
To avoid these problems, both Thompson and Nordgren suggest
another, quieter process: brainwriting. (The phrase, now used by Thompson, was
coined by UT Arlington professor Paul Paulus.) The general principle is that
idea generation should exist separate from discussion. Although the two
professors have slightly different systems, they both offer the same general
solution: write first, talk second.
Brainstorming works best if before or at the beginning of
the meeting, people write down their ideas. Then everyone comes together to
share those ideas out loud in a systematic way. Thompson has her participants
post all the ideas on a wall, without anyone’s name attached and then everyone
votes on the best ones. “It should be a meritocracy of ideas,” she said. “It’s
not a popularity contest.” Only after that do people talk.
Nordgren, via an app he developed called Candor, has people
record their thoughts before the meeting. Then, everyone goes around in a
circle saying each idea.
This write first, discuss later system eliminates the
anchoring problem because people think in a vacuum, unbiased by anyone else. Of
course, people still jot down the most obvious ideas, which aren’t necessarily
bad ideas. But in brainstorming the goal is quantity, not quality. To avoid
spending too much time on repetitive suggestions, people using Candor only
present ideas someone else hasn’t already said.
IN MOST MEETINGS WITH TRADITIONAL BRAINSTORMING, A FEW
PEOPLE DO 60-75% OF THE TALKING. WITH BRAINWRITING, EVERYONE GETS A CHANCE.
In her studies, Thompson found that brainwriting groups
generated 20% more ideas and 42% more original ideas as compared to traditional
brainstorming groups, she writes in her book Creative Conspiracy. “I was
shocked to find there’s not a single published study in which a face-to-face
brainstorming group outperforms a brainwriting group,” she said. In Nordgren’s
research he has found that the process leads to more diverse and candid ideas.
Discussion still has its merits, but should only take place
after the group has generated a variety of distinct ideas with which to work.
Raw ideas rarely work. It’s the permutation and combination of the outlandish
and banal that lead to the best proposals. “Usually the best idea that is selected
at the end isn’t exactly what anyone came up with at the beginning; the idea
has been edited,” Nordgren added.
The best part of introverted thinking, however, is that it
cuts down on what I’ll call the “loudmouth meeting-hog phenomenon.” You know
the type: the person who, along with one or two other people, dominate the
conversation. (Here Fast Company‘s Baratunde Thurston acts out this very
scenario with Behance Co-Founder Scott Belsky.) Thompson’s studies have found
that in most meetings with traditional brainstorming, a few people do 60-75% of
the talking. With brainwriting, everyone gets a chance.
Nice article. But this is nothing new. Several companies
have been using these ideas instead of traditional brainstorming for decades.
Writing ideas down and posting it on the wall was pioneered by Disney among
others back as early as the 90s. We did this in graduate business school over
10 years ago to some success. Sometimes you post ideas on the wall and discuss
during a meeting. sometimes you post ideas on a wall and leave them there for
awhile for people to read and react. Should traditional brainstorming meetings be
the only option, it does help to send out agendas and info well before hand for
participants to read and begin to formulate ideas. The old meeting invite with
the title “brainstorming session” leads to the problems written about above.
AGOLDMANNREBECCA GREENFIELD 4 MONTHS AGO
I like the idea of Candor but would lieket o point out that
there is a much more intuite and veresatile tool also cost free which is called
Tsop-it. “tsop” stands for “post” and is speld backward. You can reach and use
it under http://www.tsop-it.com. I use it all the time
MONTEROREBECCA GREENFIELD 4 MONTHS AGO
Even though creativity is considered one of the key
ingredients for innovation, it is surprising how small is the number of
startups focused on helping people work with ideas. Seenapse.it is a great
crowdthinking tool for connecting unrelated ideas . You should check it out,
I’m pretty sure there’s nothing else like it out there.
YVES STUBERREBECCA GREENFIELD 4 MONTHS AGO
yes. but: other ideas give you another input for further
ideas. in my opinion that’s the main positive thing of brainstorming. weiting
down is good for answering a basic question, but then ideas shod flow one
dirsction or another. or did i miss something?
EDOUARD SIEKIERSKIREBECCA GREENFIELD 4 MONTHS AGO
… And there is a big cognitive bias
:http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1457&context=articles
The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas
EDOUARD SIEKIERSKIREBECCA GREENFIELD 4 MONTHS AGO
Ideation is just part of the
problem…http://www.humanitarianinnovation.org/news/innovation-isnt-idea-problem
GERALD MANGALINDAN RNREBECCA GREENFIELD 4 MONTHS AGO
This article is helpful for people who frequently attend to
meetings. This will make the meeting run efficiently and productively.
ADRIAN HOLZERREBECCA GREENFIELD 4 MONTHS AGO
Dear Rebecca, we have created SpeakUp (www.seance.ch) which
allows to both write down ideas anonymously and also rate each other’s ideas.
We have evaluated it in the university context (to encourage students to ask
questions in large classrooms), feel free to try it out and provide us
feedback. Cheers. Adrian
OJ_METEIREBECCA GREENFIELD 4 MONTHS AGO
Dear Rebecca, Congratulation in your much unique dimension
of insights and innovative sharing. I have been a teacher, lecturer and
continuing trg and workshop Facilitation as trainer and facilitator during last
37 year and have been all along feeling blind following of any method such as
Brainstroming at times robs real optmum period of drawing out real creative
ideas from participants( while not minimizing need for brainstroming at its
right time and situation). I wish your contnuity on creative critique and
sharing perspective series. With regards and respect……………………: OJ Metei
CRISTINA KISSREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
in many fields this, I’m sure it’s a fantastic idea but, in
an advertising agency usually great ideas are born by combining different ideas
or thought; sometimes, a bad idea has a word in it that inspire someone else
for a good idea. and at the end of a brainstorming you have 2 or 3 ideas that
wore born right there with everyone’s contribution. I believe that 1 idea
“made” with little pieces from a group of people will always be better than an
idea of just one mind.
KEVIN DUNCANREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
Most people are perfectly capable of having excellent ideas
both on their own and in the company of others. Although research shows that
the most original and effective ideas are generated individually, the most
important elements are:
Having a succinct brief or challenge.
Getting people to prepare properly.
Having some decent techniques to encourage more lateral
thought.
There are 20 of them here: http://theideasbook.net/
KEVIN DUNCANREBECCA GREENFIELD5 MONTHS AGO
With the right techniques, people are eminently capable of
having ideas both on their own and in the company of others. Research shows
that the most effective and original ones come from individual thought – after
a clear brief. The optimum number in a collective meeting is 4.
Overall though, the most important thing is to use some
decent techniques to unlock more lateral thought. There are 20 of them here:
http://theideasbook.net/
WAYNE PAUREBECCA GREENFIELD5 MONTHS AGO
Hi Rebecca. First off, let me say I generally find the
articles from FC marvelous and enjoy reading your aricles.
However (while I can see some of Leigh Thompson’s concerns)
I’m personally not prepated to say “BrainStorming” itself is not working or
“broken”. Are you aware of the IDEO/Stanford d.school Design Thinking metholody?
I’ve written my thoughts (http://bit.ly/1ooShUw) on why I
think most of these issues are already being addressed with Design Thinking’s
8x Brainstorming rules. Not sure you’ll (or others will) agree but we use these
all the time and don’t really suffer from ‘Doom Loops’, etc.
Maybe those techniques would have had a different effect on
the Kellogg School research/stats?
thanks, w.
JONATHAN VEHARREBECCA GREENFIELD5 MONTHS AGO
Also, for the record, IDEO would tell you that Brainstorming
does work. Review Tom Kelly’s Book, “The Art of Innovation: Lessons in
Creativity from IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm.” There’s an entire chapter
on what a good brainstorming session looks like, and how important it is for
IDEO’s success.
JONATHAN VEHARREBECCA GREENFIELD5 MONTHS AGO
Interesting article, even if the terminology is flawed. This
article doesn’t describe the classic “Brainstorming” as described by the person
who coined the term, Alex Osborn, the article describes a B-S session.
And while brainwriting does indeed generate more ideas per
minute than even classic brainstorming, starting with it early limits the range
of ideas, because the cross-pollination among the group isn’t complete. And why
only use one technique when you can use a range of techniques that appeal to
different types of people.
Also, for the record, the acknowledged inventor of
Brainwriting is not Paulus at U.T. Proper citation: Source: H. Geschka,
“Methods and Organization of Idea Generation,” from Creativity Week Two, 1979
Proceedings.
COLLAGAREBECCA GREENFIELD5 MONTHS AGO
Good article. This is similar to agile retrospective. Part
of an agile software development lifecycle. Similar concepts/principles can be
applied to any projects or teams.
COLLAGAREBECCA GREENFIELD5 MONTHS AGO
Good article. This is a similar, if not the same concept, as
agile retrospectives in software development. The same practice can be applied
to any projects or teams.
COLLAGAREBECCA GREENFIELD5 MONTHS AGO
Good article. This is similar to agile retrospective. Part
of an agile software development lifecycle. Similar concepts/principles can be
applied to any projects or teams.
A simple alternative to brainwashing, ”brainwriting”
Comment removed.
INFLUATEREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
Great article. Thank you! Please find my article about
Brainstorming where I find the same conclusion with references to research. (in
English) I also would like to add discussion and a critical attitude after
generating ideas.
http://www.influate.nl/index.php/brainstormen-werkt-niet/?lang=en
WAYNEREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
Excellent article…
DEE BROOKSREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
Like Andy Hepelle (below), I’m a DesignShop pro. I’ve been
supporting people getting creative for 13 years.
The exercise Andy describes is indeed a wonderful source of
ideas, and it improves on brainstorming in several ways. Here’s a partial list:
it supports multiple learning styles
like brainwriting, it supports introverts and extroverts
it includes many questions, which are seeds for idea
germination, and encourage breadth of response
most critically, it is part of a larger, structured,
repeatable process that carries the ideas forward and tests, validates, and
iterates them
Paul Taylor’s comment about brainstorming being most useful
when re-working an idea already in development is another way of saying the
same thing: these exercises, regardless of modality, are most useful when
they’re set in a larger context and a delimited scope. There are many ways to
create that box of scope.
No blog to link to now; please reach out to learn more.
TORMOD HANSTADREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
Thanks for a very nice post and I put this on my mind .
ORIANAREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
I love the website http://www.allourideas.com which allows
each person to submit their ideas on a subject and vote for which ideas are
best, all in an anonymous way.
WAYNEORIANA 5 MONTHS AGO
Thanks for sharing… what a great idea…
ORIANAREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
I love the website, http://www.allourideas.com which allows
you to submit your own ideas anonymously and vote for other peoples
PAUL TAYLORREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
If the resident loudmouth takes over every meeting with his
“brilliant ideas” then I’d say that the person presiding the meeting is inept.
If a bad idea is chosen on account of someone having:
a) nothing better to present; b) a louder voice / assertive;
c) being more engaging in the meeting room,
then the fault is on the person presiding the meeting. They
should know better. They should know when just to say “no” to something that is
so horrifically bad. Find the “balls” to say the meeting was a waste of time
and people were not prepared for it.
Personally, I find brainstorming works better when the idea
has already begun development and we’re trying to overcome some impediment or
come up with a by-product of the original. I would not lay the entire
responsibility of a product/solution on a single brainstorming meeting where
people simply yay or nay something into existence – possibly due to sheer lack
of accountability.
WILLIAM COSCARELLIREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
Actually, this strategy needs a caveat: There are people who
need quiet to process and people who need to say the words, almost literally to
know what they think.
Groups can often be hijacked by the “Externals” to the
detriment of “Internal ” processors. However, asking an “External”, who may be
either Spontaneous or Systematic” to write down ideas in advance often leads to
a decrease in number and quality of their ideas. I’ve used Edgar Schein’s model
of the the stages of a group and then played to the strengths of each style as
a function of each the demands of the individual stages. I have peer reviewed
work on the styles and written on the application by stage. Here’s one
perspective on getting groups to work:
http://decisionmakingstyleinventory.blogspot.com
STORZREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
I wouldn’t say brainstorming doesn’t work. I do agree that
giving people time to think and then write down their ideas enables each
person’s perspective to be heard. We have our Creative Consumers® associates
complete a homework assignment before every session to ensure that they have
enough time to do some deep thinking on their own. With the right type of
facilitation, working individually, working in pairs, working in small groups –
then sharing ideas aloud really works. It enables people to hear the different
perspectives live and then build on each other’s ideas. Afterwards, I totally
agree that voting individually makes sense. Vote and then discuss. That way you
get both the individual’s perspective on what’s rising to the top, as well as
the rich discussion of the group to help choose the ideas that will best move
you forward. You can check out this article written by my colleague as well
(http://www.ideastogo.com/blog-10-rules-for-brainstorming-success)
STORZREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
I wouldn’t say brainstorming doesn’t work. I do agree that
giving people time to think and then write down their ideas enables each person’s
perspective to be heard. We have our Creative Consumers® associates complete a
homework assignment before every session to ensure that they have enough time
to do some deep thinking on their own. With the right type of facilitation,
working individually, working in pairs, working in small groups – then sharing
ideas aloud really works. It enables people to hear the different perspectives
live and then build on each other’s ideas. Afterwards, I totally agree that
voting individually makes sense. Vote and then discuss. That way you get both
the individual’s perspective on what’s rising to the top, as well as the rich
discussion of the group to help choose the ideas that will best move you
forward. You can check out this article written by my colleague as well
(http://www.ideastogo.com/blog-10-rules-for-brainstorming-success)
RANDALL LARSONREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
Our creative agency took a look at how highly creative
people work, then emulated and scaled that process to work in a team setting.
Using the same think first, share second approach we actually work individually
or in pairs for up to a week. THEN we get together and let each person PITCH
their ideas to the group. The results have been amazing. The ideas are more
diverse and much more insightful. Many times these ideas then kinda collide to
form much richer ones.
STANLEY STANLEY GRYSKIEWICZREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
Brainwriting has been around since the early 70s and was
introduced at Battelle Institute in Germany. They were using the name
Brainwriting even then. It is as powerful as portrayed in this article for
overcoming “uniformity pressure” and giving airtime to the less verbal
participants. I compared Brainwriting with two additional idea generation
techniques for my PhD research at the U of London (1980). Just to be clear, the
name was not coined by Prof. Paulus. I can site some publications with original
sources from Battelle. I also published in the 80s and must recently in a
handbook published by the Center for Creative Leadership.
EMMA PÖEREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
This is why focus groups as a research strategy are also
ineffective.
MIKESTYREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
Taking time for everyone to write initial suggestions and
then going over them anonymously sounds like a pretty good start to avoiding
groupthink. IMO the “anchoring” effect is more significant than the “loudmouth
meeting-hog phenomenon.” With that said, I may be a loudmouth meeting-hog.
JWEATONREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
Excellent reminder of the downside to “group-think”..it
rarely represents the group. Have to give kudos to Johnson Controls for their
commitment to storyboarding and ideation practices, which I was grateful to be
part of for over a decade. This method worked especially well in real
cross-functional settings, and allowed all participants to have their post-it
notes “heard” equally. The consolidation and evaluation that followed was
always a challenging but encouraging event — and people rarely skipped a chance
to part of an ideation session. Since then, I’ve been able to replicate the
process as a consultant to boost strat planning and business development
outcomes at small companies of all types, and it really does work.
ROBERT LOCKLEARREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
I’ve Used the McNellis storyboarding/compression planning
technique for over a decade. Pretty much the same principles as above. Not an
original idea and McNellis has developed the process and used it all over the
place from theater productions to Disney to city planning.
WAYNE ROBERT LOCKLEAR 5 MONTHS AGO
Robert, thanks for sharing…
BE WELL NORTHWESTREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
I’m one of the 65 – 70% who talk most in a brainstorming
meeting. Why? Because I actually “brainstorm” before the meeting and have ideas
written down, while the other 30-35% of people come totally unprepared, barely
even aware of what the meeting is for.
I don’t blurt out my ideas right away; usually I sit there,
trying not to monopolize, while that other “introverted” group we’re so
enamored of these days doodles on their notepads and says nothing, or brings
forth the “low-hanging fruit” as you called it. This makes brainstorming sessions
go on much longer than needed. Your idea of asking people to do the
brainstorming beforehand is a good one–if they’ll actually do it. In the
meantime, no slamming those of us who actually participate.
ANDY HEPPELLEREBECCA GREENFIELD 5 MONTHS AGO
I have been .@Capemini for 11 years. When I joined the firm
I was introduced to the Accelerated Solutions Environment, designed by Matt and
Gail
Taylor.http://www.fastcompany.com/events/realtime/monterey/mentors/taylors.html
The most powerful exercise used in a “Design Shop” in the
Accelerated Solutions Environment gives each Participant (groups of 30 to 2500)
a white wall, set of colourful markers, printed page of idea starting questions
and a block of approximately 20 minutes to prioritize and record what the individual
believe needs to be included in the rest of the conversation. This exercise is
positioned before group sharing and conversation. It is designed to create a
common shared experience, to set a pattern of work and to allow all
Participants to express their points of view and ideas, without “Anchoring” to
the ideas of the most powerful or vocal participants. I love Rebecca
Greenfield’s piece on new techniques for new ideas. Well done. I hope to see
more. Andy
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