Mar 10, 2009
Brainstorming–How Effective?
THE SEVEN RULES OF BRAINSTORMING (FROM IDEO)
1) Defer judgment
Don’t dismiss any ideas.
Any idea is a good idea, no matter how crazy.
Nothing can kill the spirit of a brainstorm quicker than judging ideas before they have a chance to gain legs.
2) Encourage wild ideas
Embrace the most out-of-the-box notions because they can be the key to solutions.
The whole point of brainstorming is coming up with new and creative ideas.
3) Build on the ideas of others
No “buts”, only “ands.”
Sometimes people say crazy and bizarre things, like “make it on Mars”, but there is some element of truth in it. When you build on the ideas of others, you might bring those crazy ideas back down to earth and make them real innovations.
4) Stay focused on the topic
Always keep the discussion on target.
Otherwise you can diverge beyond the scope of what you’re trying to design for.
5) One conversation at a time
No interrupting, no dismissing, no disrespect, no rudeness.
Let people have their say.
6) Be visual
Use yellow, red and blue markers to write on big 30-inch by 25-inch Post-its that are put on a wall.
Nothing gets an idea across faster than drawing it. Doesn’t matter how terrible of a sketcher you are.
7) Go for quantity
Aim for as many new ideas as possible. In a good session, up to 100 ideas are generated in 60 minutes.
Crank the ideas out quickly.
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We (at least we ‘strategic designers’) all take these rules to be true. This week’s Economist says: “Brainstorming is a rather dramatic name for a semi-structured business meeting whose chief purpose is to come up with new ideas for business improvement. It is loosely based on belief in a sort of psychological synergy: that a creative meeting can throw out something more than the sum of its parts, more than the sum of the ideas in the participants’ heads.”
Apparently brainstorming was “popularised as a management technique in the early 1940s by Alex Osborn, an American advertising executive” which is interesting since European designers fled the war and arrived in America at the same time: graphic design hit a free market economy and, blam!, we all get to shop for $35 Michael Graves teapots at Target toda and there are more design students today than we can employ in the next 20 years.
Well, I’ll admit that I was completely surprised by the following research published in The Economist this week: “The results of brainstorming … have frequently been deemed inadequate…. Research has suggested that individuals working on their own generally come up with more original and higher-quality ideas.” Groups may come up with more ideas but the quality isn’t as good.