Bob Sutton: Brainstorming: Pros and Cons - The Diigo Meta page

• 22 Apr 09
  

  Jamie Baker

  brainstorming - need the right organizational culture for it to be useful. Outlines the wrong culture

  creativity lateral thinking

  • Brainstorming by itself is a technique that people can do well or badly, and there is big variance in skill and leadership -- something that even some lab studies that are labeled as being about brainstorming show. But I assert that brainstorming only makes a difference if it is part of a larger create process, as you see at IDEO, Pixar, and other places that do real creative work
  • If the group doesn't do some preparation and doesn't use the ideas generated -- if they don't later battle over which are best,  prototype some ideas, test them, try to implement them -- then it is just a bunch of useless ideas and perhaps a fun meeting.
  • 4 more annotations...
  • • brainstorming is just one juncture in the process and in fact recognized as just one way to generate ideas (individual ideation is at least as important as group brainstorming)
    • Brainstorming is something that doesn't work well in organizational cultures that are very authoritarian, where people view meetings as places to crush others and their ideas, where people have trouble with ambiguity, or where people do not feel otherwise psychologically safe.
    • It also should not be used by people who have no skill at doing it
    • In short, brainstorming does seem moderately useful in the right hands, in the right organization, and as part of a bigger creative process
• 31 Jan 09
  

  Donald Burkins

  Sutton summarizes his thoughts about brainstorming and some "silly" research suggesting that individuals are more creative of new ideas than groups engaged in brainstorming. Links to a Sutton academic article, as well.

  Sutton brainstorming group_process creativity Large_Group_Intervention Quality_Tools TQM Continuous_Improvement PLC collaboration tools facilitation

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