Brainstorming

BRAINSTORMING

Brainstorming is a creativity technique by which people try to find solutions for specific problems by gathering ideas, proposed by different members of a team or a single individual, and exploring them.

In other words, brainstorming is a situation where a group of people meet to generate new ideas and solutions around a specific domain of interest by removing inhibitions. People are able to think more freely and they suggest many spontaneous new ideas as possible. All the ideas are noted down and those ideas are not criticized and after brainstorming session the ideas are evaluated. The term was popularized by Alex  Faickney Osborn in the 1953.

Four rules of brainstorming:

1.    Go for 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 bigger 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 wild ideas:

To get a good long list of suggestions, wild ideas are encouraged. They can be generated by looking from new perspectives and suspending assumptions. These new ways of thinking might give you better solutions.

4.    Combine and improve ideas:

As suggested by the slogan "1+1=3". It is believed to stimulate the building of ideas by a process of association.

 

Several factors can contribute to a loss of effectiveness in group brainstorming:

·         Blocking:

Because only one participant may give an idea at any one-time, other participants might forget the idea they were going to contribute or not share it because they see it as no longer important or relevant. Further, if we view brainstorming as a cognitive process in which "a participant generates ideas (generation process) and stores them in short-term memory (memorization process) and then eventually extracts some of them from its short-term memory to express them (output process)", then blocking is an even more critical challenge because it may also inhibit a person's train of thought in generating their own ideas and remembering them.

·         Collaborative fixation:

Exchanging ideas in a group may reduce the number of domains that a group explores for additional ideas. Members may also conform their ideas to those of other members, decreasing the novelty or variety of ideas, even though the overall number of ideas might not decrease.

·         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.

·         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.

·         Personality characteristics:

Extroverts have been shown to outperform introverts in computer mediated groups. Extroverts also generated more unique and diverse ideas than introverts when additional methods were used to stimulate idea generation, such as completing a small related task before brainstorming, or being given a list of the classic rules of brainstorming.

Methods of improving brainstorming sessions:

There a number of ways that groups can improve the effectiveness and quality of their brainstorming sessions.

ü   Avoiding face-to-face groups:

Using face-to-face groups can increase production blocking, evaluation apprehension, social matching and social loafing.

ü   Stick to the rules:

Brainstorming rules should be followed, and feedback should be given to members that violate these rules. Violations of brainstorming rules tend to lead to mediocre ideas.

ü   Pay attention to everyone’s ideas:

People tend to pay more attention to their own ideas, however brainstorming requires exposure to the ideas of others. A method to encourage members to pay attention to others’ ideas is to make them list the ideas out or ask them to repeat others’ ideas.

ü   Include both individual and group approaches:

One method that helps members integrate their ideas into the group is brain writing. This is where members write their ideas on a piece of paper and then pass it along to others who add their own ideas.

ü   Take breaks:

Allow silence during group discussions so that members have time to think things through.

ü   Do not rush:

Allow lots of time for members to complete the task. Although working under pressure tends to lead to more solutions initially, the quality is usually lower than if more time is spent on the task.

ü   Stay persistent:

Members should stay focused and persist at the task even when productivity is low.

ü   Facilitate the session:

A skilled discussion leader should lead and coordinate the brainstorming sessions. This leader can motivate members, correct mistakes, and provide a clear standard of work. They can also be used to keep track of all the ideas and make sure that these ideas are available to everyone.

 

I conclude saying that, it's important to allow individuals time for independent creative thinking. If you give everyone the individual time to think, you’ll likely increase the amount of creativity among your team. The quality and quantity of ideas will be increased.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorming 
Date:07/03/2019