Do you think that brainstorming is a method that takes place in a pleasant environment, free of pressure and fears of negative feedback? You have surely been told that during many training sessions, but today we can encounter a different opinion.
Recent research from the University of California implies that the involvement of debate or criticism in the team during brainstorming generates up to 20% more innovative ideas than when using conventional methods without any pressures. Moreover, the team members that tried the new approach were producing more thoughts even after the teams parted. The article on this subject was published on the Smart Blogs website.
Why is it so effective?
Conventional views on brainstorming methods argue that if you criticize others for their ideas, you destroy the whole thought process. Nevertheless, the suppression of criticism results only in an affirmative nodding that does not stimulate the brain to be creative. Disagreement forces us to reconsider and reformulate our opinions. It also forces us to look at things from different angles to create still better and better ideas.
In a group or individually?
A partial myth is that group brainstorming is that more heads know more. Yes and no. In fact, group brainstorming is a suitable method especially when it comes to debugging details of an idea itself. However, the effective generation of innovative thoughts occurs more individually. Therefore, set parameters in advance and ask team members to do individual preparation before the meeting. You prevent ambitious individuals from scoring points for themselves by criticizing all random ideas directly during the meeting.
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