Please stop brainstorming! At least until you’ve let people think quietly about the problem.
Matthew Eccles
Providing everyday, practical tools and techniques for leaders and teams to be more effective and more successful. I champion challenging, supportive leadership.
As an introverted and thoughtful sort of chap I’ve always been uneasy in those ‘let’s get together and brainstorm it’ sessions. I’ve always felt I came up with my best ideas metaphorically ‘in the bath’. A while back, I came across some research that suggested that you get more and better ideas when people work on the problem alone. When I started digging around the subject, I found that there is a strong body of research that shows this to be the case – that solo work generates more and better ideas for managers to consider than group work. However, the research also shows that you get even more and better ideas if you carefully manage a process that enables the ideas from solo work to be built on and finessed by small groups in a well facilitated process. So, in light of this, please don’t expect that you’ll get a heap of great ideas by setting up a brainstorm. You might, but it’s likely that you’ll get more with a different process.
P.S. Brainstorm is a bit like Hoover. It’s become a generic term of reference when actually it’s a specific ‘brand’. It’s a group activity process for generating lots of very quick and simple ideas for advertising propositions. It was created by an ad-guy called Alex Osborn (the ‘O’ in BBDO) in the 1930s, 50s or 60s (depending on which source you read). It was never intended to be used on complex business problems.
There are lots of other creative processes more appropriate for that. Open Space and World Café are two examples that I like a lot.
Totally agree too Matt and 9 times out of 10 I really do come up with solutions to problems (whether mine or others) in the shower in the morning ???? Hope all is well ??
Integrated Marketing Strategist - Brand | Digital | Customer Comms | Social
3 年There are definitely 2 modes of coming up with creative ideas - in groups vs. solo. Most of us I’m sure use both but do prefer one over the other. I’m one of those who creates ideas whilst listening and talking with others. I learnt many years ago that it can be mistaken for either ‘not doing your job properly’ or ‘trying to steal ideas from others’. Likewise I’ve seen soloists been told they should’ve shared their ideas earlier in order that others could build on them. Whatever ones preference it’s important to signal to team members what mode you’re operating in and you’d be surprised what a difference it makes. Nice post Matt and hope you’re well.
Fractional CMO | B2B Marketing Strategist | Manufacturing & Engineering Specialist
3 年Totally agree Matt. COVID has forced the issue, as group idea generation in Zoom just doesn’t work. We’ve been using Conceptboard for folks to post their ideas prior to a group session to discuss and priorities ideas. Then a smaller group works on refining and working through the details. This ‘hive mind’ approach has had fantastic results, engaging groups of 30-40 participants, unthinkable numbers for the brainstorm method.