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Stop Brainstorming

matthewstrom.com

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Re: Stop Brainstorming

#61

Post by vagabund »

borski wrote: post #51
saurik wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This works on "newbies" until they realize what's going on and then they learn to see through it and begin to resent not only this "trick" but also the people who attempt to use it, which maybe works if you keep churning through people--and this is an industry with enough new blood being injected constantly that maybe that even feels "sustainable"--but I still feel like the people who do it should be judged harshly.

This is a pretty cynical view. It's not actually a bad thing to make folks feel like they have a sense of ownership over an idea; human nature is human nature and motivating people to work hard and feel ownership is its own challenge.

I think manipulating people into believing something that's not true is a bad thing, even if it improves the bottom line. To think otherwise, I submit, is the truly cynical view.

Re: Stop Brainstorming

#62

Post by kaelig »

wwilim wrote: post #43

Is the author, by any chance, selling psychological safety training?

No, but that's a fair question as a lot of content of this type that's out there has an underlying commercial call to action.

Re: Stop Brainstorming

#63

Post by gilbetron »

I've seen many, repeated brainstorming sessions generate incredibly valuable ideas, and even more importantly, resulted in people thinking of great ideas outside of the session.

This article is terrible and comes off as someone that doesn't like brainstorm sessions and feels the need to justify their (valid) preference by saying brainstorming is bad.

I wouldn't work with this person.

Re: Stop Brainstorming

#64

Post by zoomablemind »

borski wrote: post #53
allenu wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've also found brainstorming isn't great for more "creative" thinkers. In a group setting it's easy to say "no that won't work" or not get buy-in on the spot, so ideas that aren't mainstream get shot down right away. People like me also need time and space to think deeply about certain topics, and a brainstorming session has neither time nor space, so you're immediately limited in the ideas that are presented.

Those people aren't brainstorming; the rules should be that ideas get evaluated later, and that no idea is too outlandish, even if it "won't work". You write every idea down, and cull later, at which point people have had time to think about how something might get done, rather than simply to cancel it off the cuff.

+1. Brainstorming is a way to generate leads by leveraging diverse group of minds/experiences/skills. In a healthy environment, such experience may be even bonding for the team, as long as ranks and seniority are left at the door (which is not easy).

Just clearly write out the scope and purpose, timebox it, and collect/record the ideas, no judgement, not even attribution. Then the next time, see if anything converges, evaluate what can be done.

Re: Stop Brainstorming

#66

Post by laserbeam »

jvanderbot wrote: post #49
codeflo wrote: post #29

I think the article’s missing an important trick: Brainstorming establishes a shared understanding (depending on the group dynamics, you might call it a fiction) that the group , not any individual, came up with the idea. That sense of ownership is psychologically important for aligning the group during the execution phase: People are usually a lot more motivated to implement a plan that they came up with, and if any…

Yes, the article almost perfectly misses the point of brainstorming. The studies quoted were for groups solving puzzles, not groups designing tools or products. Puzzles have solutions, products can be entirely abandoned. Almost zero of the brainstorming meetings I've ever attended were of the kind "How do we solve the well-defined problem X", and were almost exclusively of the kind "What do we want to do in the area…

It's actually unclear what type of puzzles we are talking about. One paragraph later mentions a jury judging puzzle solutions and creativity. We could be talking about open ended puzzles. Think "the marshmallow callenge", LEGO building challenges, or Zachtronics style puzzle games (programming puzzles where you can optimize as much as you want, and the game scores you on multiple competing metrics such as code size and cpu cycles used). It's totally possible to measure creative thinking using open ended puzzles where there's more than one solution, or where trade-offs matter. That mention of a jury judging solutions suggests open ended puzzles are employed here.

Re: Stop Brainstorming

#67

Post by purplecats »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #60

> It’s hard to deny the appeal of brainstorming. To be given a judgment-free space to express yourself? What a dream! And especially appealing, imagine, to the ad men of the 1940s. This, interestingly, aligns with some advice we received as a young couple. it was advised to periodically ask the other about their ideas and dreams without either 1) telling them it wont work or 2) asking how they'll make it work. Just t…

probably works for some couples better than others, for I am willing to bet that most people care significantly more about their own dreams and their children than that of their partners.

Re: Stop Brainstorming

#68

Post by vivegi »

While the article is making some good points, I don't agree with the overall article or its conclusions. A lot of the arguments in the article made against brainstorming are what I would consider implementation failures.

The corollary to Production Blocking occurs when a person realizes that the supposedly crazy idea that they were holding on to themselves for fear of being judged is not as crazy as they thought it is when they hear another person in the room say the same thing. It might even build allies and consensus leading to offline collaboration outside of the brainstorming context.

Evaluation Apprehension is a real concern. If a brainstorming session is run well, the facilitator would have established the ground rules (no interruptions, no judgments etc.,) and would quickly bring any conflicting behavior to an end.

The most important benefit of brainstorming, imo, is the fact that introverts are not drowned out by extroverts or junior team members being overruled on the spot by experienced people. This is not a bug, it is a feature.

In many scenarios, the person who comes up with the idea is not the same one who implements it. For eg: an end user of a system, a software engineer, a product manager etc., Having a diverse group where individuals play different roles tends to bring out differing perspectives. If you can't bring them out in the open in the early stages of idea generation, you are clearly missing out.

Edward de Bono, the person who coined the term Lateral Thinking has developed a lot of tools for creative thinking. His book, Serious Creativity changed my mindset and taught me that creativity, the kind we use every day as opposed to artistic creativity like painting/acting etc., is something that one can practice everyday and get better at. One such method / tool that he developed is Six Thinking Hats. In the book, he goes on to explain that the underlying cause of perceived lack of psychological safety is the human brain's ability to get into conflicting thinking modes for eg: when one person is in creative mode, another person is in evaluation mode or what de Bono calls as Green Hat and Black Hat respectively. Much of his work in Six Thinking Hats is around getting the entire group in the same thinking mode, what de Bono calls as Parallel Thinking. Here's a nice video of him explaining some of the thinking processes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbsKQQGwsMg

Recognizing this (different thinking modes) is key to having a productive group brainstorm and avoiding pitfalls.

Re: Stop Brainstorming

#69

Post by Nathanael_M »

gilbetron wrote: post #63

I've seen many, repeated brainstorming sessions generate incredibly valuable ideas, and even more importantly, resulted in people thinking of great ideas outside of the session. This article is terrible and comes off as someone that doesn't like brainstorm sessions and feels the need to justify their (valid) preference by saying brainstorming is bad. I wouldn't work with this person.

Yeah, I've had excellent results with brainstorming (either group or individual) as well as poor results. It's a tool that has its place. If he had an alternative solution, well that'd be cool to try, but this concept of "Look! I have scientific evidence to say brainstorming doesn't work! Stop doing it!" without anything to replace it is just irritating.

Re: Stop Brainstorming

#70

Post by ford »

Related (because I do believe in brainstorming) - I've found brainstorming works best when

A) Individuals brainstorm on their own before a group session. Group sessions should be for sharing the best ideas, identifying common themes, and for providing more inspiration for others in the group.

B) Individuals should set an extremely high requirement for the number of ideas they come up with. Coming up with 10 ideas for you or your team is easy - I bet most people here could do it in the next 5 minutes. Coming up with 100 ideas is hard. You end up not only getting more conventional ideas but writing down some things that are just plain absurd. Oftentimes the absurd or stretched ideas can lead you to something you wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

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