Traditional brainstorming doesn’t work. According to Art Markman, PhD, author and professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, “Individuals working together using rules of brainstorming come up with fewer ideas (and fewer good ideas) than the same number of people with the same expertise working alone.” The problem with brainstorming, he says, is that we’re probably doing it wrong.
See “Why Other People Wreck Brainstorms (And How to Stop Them)” in Fast Company (may require subscription).
The concept behind brainstorming—collecting diverse ideas, building on creativity—is a good one. Rather than sitting around in a group randomly spitting out ideas, experts recommend trying one of these methodologically-sound idea generation techniques instead:
- Method 6-3-5: Sometimes called “brainwriting.” Six people come together around a common problem, then each writes down three initial ideas on their own. Each participant’s ideas are passed to the person next to them, who builds on the original idea or adds something new. Repeat the process, passing ideas around to the next person, until each concept has been reviewed five times. See good video explanation here.
- Collaborative Sketching (C-Sketch): A similar concept to Method 6-3-5, but participants sketch or draw the ideas or concepts. Participants each sketch one concept/idea at a time, then pass that on to another participant to modify. Participants can also work together to modify each sketch. This method is sometimes called 5-1-4: five participants each work on one idea at a time that gets modified four times.
- Gallery Method: A concept where participants move past the ideas, rather than the ideas moving past the participants. Group members first write down their ideas independently. Those ideas are posted (or grouped together and posted) on a wall or flip chart in a room. Participants walk around the room (as if in an art gallery) reading the ideas. Participants are encouraged to add new or related ideas to what is posted, or use posted ideas as inspiration for refining their own ideas.
For research on the success of these methods, check out “Experimental Investigation of Progressive Idea Generation Techniques in Engineering Design” from the proceedings of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
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Penny Schnarrs
Virtual Communities Program Manager
Association of American Medical Colleges
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