Brainstorming is a a group activity designed to generate new ideas or solutions to a problem.
It was developed by US advertising executive Alex Osborn in the 1940’s.
Brainstorming has become the most popular creative thinking tool.
In fact, for many people it is the only creativity tool.
Osborn had 4 key principles:
– No criticism;
– Wild ideas are encouraged;
– Go for quantity; and
– Participants aim to create and build on the ideas of others
Perhaps one of the other principles that has been developed over time is that evaluation should be kept till the end of a session.
On the surface this seems a good idea.
It can stop people being overly critical and judgemental.
But there are problems with this approach:
– Sometimes groups run out of time and miss out on evaluation altogether.
– Another problem is that evaluation is left to another group which may miss the passion and energy of the original idea.
To overcome these concerns I suggest the following:
The group conducts quick, initial evaluations throughout the session.
This literally is a 60 second exercise.
The group decides what are the best ideas.
Then those that are not quite right.
Finally the group decides what are the original ideas that need more work.
Then the group can work on these potentially powerful ideas.
Evaluating as you go I have found is a more effective way of running a brainstorming session.