Brainstorming

Hi, I read a chapter on "Brainstorming" in Edward deBono's book, Lateral Thinking a Textbook of Creativity. As we talked about brainstorming in last week's class, I want to share what I read.

I think the term “brainstorming” = “brain” + “storm” says a lot already. In fact, deBono says, “in a brainstorming session anything goes.”

The main features of brainstorming:
-cross stimulation
-suspended judgment
-the formality of the setting

In a brainstorming session, ideas are provoked by the ideas of others. We should NOT evaluate because even an idea that seems to be too obvious or ridiculous may generate new ideas. Formality gives participants freedom of thoughts without any criticism.

Some of the evaluations we tend to do that we should avoid are:
“That would never work because….”
“No one would accept that.”
“That has already been tried and found to be no good,” and
“That is not new.”

Format for Brainstorming Session:

Size: 12 is a good number

Chairman: guides the session (not controls), and stops criticism/evaluation

Time: 20-30mins (even if ideas keep coming out, better stop the session at the end of the time period than dragging it until the very last idea.)

Evaluation:

Sort out the ideas later on and at the end should have:
-ideas of immediate usefulness
-areas for further exploration
-new approaches to the problem