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 The
Brainstorming (brainstorm) method is a semi-structured creative group activity,
used most often in ad-hoc business meetings to come up with new ideas for
innovation or improvement. Members of the group are encouraged to put forward
ideas about a problem and how it may be solved, in order to generate as many
ideas as possible, even if they are not always usable alternatives. The idea
behind brainstorming is, that a group of people can achieve a higher (synergy)
level of creativity than the sum of the participants separately.
Brainstorming Rules
Three major rules for a successful brainstorm session are:
- Participants should be encouraged to come up with as much ideas as possible,
however strange they are (there are no bad ideas).
- No judgment should be given about any idea, until the end of the session.
Whether negative or positive.
- Participants should be encouraged to build on each others ideas, creating
unlikely combinations and taking each one in unexpected directions.
Brainstorming hints
Some hints for a successful brainstorm session are:
- Use an experienced facilitator. External?
- Appoint one person to write down all ideas that come out of the brainstorm
session.
- Use a flip chart for making the notes. This enables later study and
evaluation at the end of the session.
- Identify a precise topic to be discussed (keep the session focused on
the problem).
- No more than 8-10 people in one session. If there are more participants,
then split up the brainstorm session and report to each other afterwards.
- One person writes everything down.
- Evaluate the ideas in 2 steps: A: define the criteria. B: score the
results on the criteria.
- At the end of the brainstorming session you should discuss the steps
needed to implement the ideas. If this is complicated, do another brainstorming
session on how to implement the ideas.
- Clearly define the problem you want solved, and lay out any criteria
to be met.
- Ensure that no one criticizes or evaluates ideas during the session.
Criticism introduces an element of risk for group members when putting forward
an idea. This stifles creativity and cripples the free running nature of
a good brainstorming session.
- Encourage an enthusiastic, uncritical attitude among members of the
group.
- Try to get everyone to contribute and develop ideas, including the quietest
members of the group.
- Let people have fun with the brainstorming meeting.
- Encourage people to come up with as many ideas as possible. Both the
solidly practical ones and the wildly impractical ones are welcome.
- Welcome creativity.
- Ensure that no train of thought is followed for too long.
- Encourage people to develop other people's ideas, or to use other ideas
to create new ones.
The effectiveness of brainstorming
Although brainstorms are used frequently worldwide for over 70 years, the
effectiveness of them for generating new ideas is debatable. Brainstorms are
most effective to generate a lot of ideas in a short timeframe. Group processes
are also effective for evaluating existing ideas. However (bright) individuals
are said to be better at creating original and higher-quality ideas.
Book: Michael Michalko
- Thinkertoys (A Handbook of Business Creativity) -
Book: Jason Rich
- Brain Storm: Tap into Your Creativity to Generate Awesome Ideas and Remarkable
Results -
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Brainstorm as Quality Circle Tools
"Brainstorm can be understood as a quality circle tools where by members with diversified skills and knowledges from different functional or business areas interact diagnosing problems and provide alte..." |
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Conditions for Brainstorming
"A good brainstorming session is possible only if all the participants are:
1. Respecting each other and
2. Follow the etiquette of discussion, i.e. listening to the others with..." |
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Network Brainstorming (via Internet)
"Network brainstorming (on the Internet) (electronic brainstorming) is as a process much more difficult than the traditional process conducted in one room:
- Members of the group don..." |
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Brainstorming is Good
"Brainstorming makes people in the organization to work as a team, this a good result to the organization, brainstorming solves lots of issues which arises in the organizations day to day work." |
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Brainstorming Outcome: the Next Step
"Brainstorming is a creative strategy where individuals can squeeze their brains to think out of the box and obtain something novel with the rest of the team. After the brainstorming session is done, o..." |
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Brainstorming Definition
"I feel it is one of the tools to get an idea about problem solving through collecting, analysing, discording information till reaching a break even point. This can help later solving of the problem b..." |
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Use Brainstorming as a New Leader
"I used brainstorming sessions to generate ideas and also to get to know how my team thinks. When you're a new leader of an organization, get the team together and brainstorm about what needs to..." |
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Outsourcing Brainstorming
"Here is a new tool for your team:
get ideas in time for tomorrows meeting. Use a great new crowdsource service. Accesses thousands of brilliant minds. ideaconnection.com/contests/
" |
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Brainstorming is Team-building
"Agreements on management issues and approaches strengthen team-spirit and enhance common values.
Differences in management issues and approaches when positively taken for the good o..." |
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Brainstorming Difficulties
"Brainstorming is a great idea. Staffs at all level and spectrum shall be engaged in the entire process of the exercise.
Dfficulties normally cropped up in such sessions are the absense of shared ..." |
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How to Use Affinity Diagrams in Brainstorming
"I have been using the Affinity Diagram method for a long time now and this has proven to be a hit when it comes to selecting criteria and then categorizing ideas. It's participative, silent, quick and..." |
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Group Composition for Successful Brainstorming
"Make sure that the participants in the group do not think alike.
Have different personality types in the session.
Brainstorming has an element of "storming". It was discovered with computer ..." |
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Inverse Brainstorming
"Brainstorming is a creative tool to solve a problem.
In REVERSE BRAINSTORMING, you reword the problem to how to create it, and then work towards solution. In both cases, the problem is present and ..." |
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Reverse Brainstorming
"Also refered to as: 'Negative Brainstorming'. This variant can be used when a regular brainstorming session has not provided enough good ideas.
These are the main steps in the negative brainstorm..." |
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Preparing participants
"A good method to open the mind and stimulate creative thinking is to start with asking a simple question like "What can you do with a glass of water".
Just go around in the group and let everyone ans..." |
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Brainstorming Special Interest Group
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Compare: Groupthink
| Spiral of
Silence |
Cause and Effect Diagram
| Mind Mapping |
Six Thinking Hats
| Belbin Team Roles
| Metaplan |
Stage-Gate |
Scenario Planning |
Game Theory |
Root Cause Analysis |
Dialectical Inquiry |
Analogical Strategic
Reasoning |
Theory of Constraints
| Force Field Analysis
| Catalytic Mechanisms
| Johari Window
| Delphi Method
| Pyramid Principle
| Value Engineering
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