Brainstorming Doesn’t Work. We all went through brainstorming sessions if we are of a certain age and worked in a team environment. That was the cutting-edge method to tap into innovation and outside-the-box problem-solving. We were told to say whatever comes to mind, don’t judge it, and don’t critique it, no matter how far-fetched or silly it might seem. We generated long lists of thoughts.
Alex Osborn – the creator of the brainstorming method, set this basic principle of brainstorming: Absence of criticism. According to Osborn, if people were worried about negative feedback, if they were concerned that their new ideas might get ridiculed by the group, then the brainstorming process would fail. “Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom, while discouragement often nips it in the bud.” Osborn wrote. “To increase our creative potential, we should focus only on quantity. Quality will come later.1
The underlying assumption is simple: if people are scared of saying the wrong things, they’ll end up saying nothing at all. The only problem is brainstorming doesn’t work.
What does work is turning inward first. A group meeting is not the first but the second step.
“The fatal misconception behind brainstorming is that there is a particular script we should all follow in group interactions…. [W]hen the composition of the group is right—enough people with different perspectives running into one another in unpredictable ways—the group dynamic will take care of itself. All these errant discussions add up. In fact, they may even be the most essential part of the creative process. Although such conversations will occasionally be unpleasant—not everyone is always in the mood for small talk or criticism—that doesn’t mean that they can be avoided. The most creative spaces are those which hurl us together. It is the human friction that makes the sparks.” — Jonah Lehrer
Ask people to ponder the problem while alone. Write down everything that comes to mind. And bring it to the group. Then let the group engage in a curious exploration of the ideas.
“At IDEO we have dedicated rooms for our brainstorming sessions, and the rules are literally written on the walls: Defer judgment. Encourage wild ideas. Stay focused on the topic. The most important of them, I would argue, is “Build on the ideas of others.” — Tim Brown (Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation)
Tibetan Buddhist monks have a practice of debating. Conflict in the form of questioning and asserting contrary ideas is encouraged. Buddhism is a wisdom tradition. Buddhist thought asserts that the power of our own understanding liberates us. Buddhist debate aims to defeat your own and others’ misconceptions, establish your own correct view, and clear away objections to your idea. “It is like the approach of a physician—to remove what does not belong and to strengthen what does.” When we approach idea filtering with these perspectives, we make room for magic to happen.2
“Studies have shown that performance gets worse as group size increases: groups of nine generate fewer and poorer ideas compared to groups of six, which do worse than groups of four. The “evidence from science suggests that business people must be insane to use brainstorming groups,” writes the organizational psychologist Adrian Furnham. “If you have talented and motivated people, they should be encouraged to work alone when creativity or efficiency is the highest priority.” The one exception to this is online brainstorming.” — Susan Cain (Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking)
The only way to maximize group creativity – to make the whole more than the sum of its parts – is to encourage a candid discussion of mistakes. Through group wisdom and the filter of a multitude of different viewpoints and perspectives, brilliant solutions emerge.
Photo from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tibetan_buddhist_monk_during_monastic_debate_making_hand_gesture_at_Sera_Monastery,_Lhasa,_Tibet_on_3_August_2008_%28cropped%29.jpg
1 Jonah Lehrer, Imagine: How Creativity Works
2 Daniel Perdue, The Course in Buddhist Reasoning and Debate: An Asian Approach to Analytical Thinking Drawn from Indian and Tibetan Sources
