[IxDA Discuss] Balancing brainstorm participants

[Chauncey Wilson]

Hello Mike,

There are a variety of techniques for improving brainstorming.  I've been
researching brainstorming methods for several years.  there are techniques
like the Nominal Group Technique (see my description at the end of this
note, freelisting, brainwriting, that can be used as an alternate method of
generating ideas that reduces some of the problems.  In addition, there are
some good rules for reducing what the researchers call "production
blocking"  - the blocking of ideas due to people telling "war stories", or
providing more detail than is necessary.  Here are a few tips.

1.  Develop an explicit set of rules for brainstorming and post it on the
board in large text or hand out the rules at the beginning.
2.  Only allow one person talk at a time (if multiple people are talking,
that will block the production of ideas).
3.  Only ask people to provide enough detail for everyone to understand the
item.  No stories.
4.  Keep the group size reasonable - 5-12 is generally a good range.  you
can have multiple brainstorming sessions with smaller groups and combine.
5.  Ask people not to take notes since that is a distractor that will result
in fewer ideas.
6.  Remind people nicely if they start to tell war stories.  While the
person is taking 30 seconds to tell a story, no ideas are being generated.
7.  *Avoid "filler conversations".* Filler conversations occur when a person
states an idea and then goes on to explain or elaborate on an idea or "tells
a war story" related to the idea. Filler material wastes time that could be
used to generate new ideas and can block the production of ideas by others
who have to attend to their colleague's unneeded verbosity. Group
brainstorming is more effective when filler material is kept to a minimum
(Dugosh, Paulus, Roland, & Yang, 2000).
8.  Do not invite managers to the meeting.  Some people who are shy may be
embarrassed to express that wild and crazy idea.  Status differences can be
a strong inhibitor and having strangers in the room can make some people
shy.  Always, introduce everyone and if possible, do a brief warm-up.
9.  Some diversity is good, but too much can reduce the number of items
generated because people are nervous about expressing ideas in front of
relative strangers.


Nominal Group Technique

The nominal group technique  is designed to eliminate some of the social
inhibitors that can occur with face-to-face brainstorming. In the nominal
group technique, participants are given a problem or topic and asked to
write down ideas privately for a specified period of time. Then all the
ideas are listed on a board by going around the table and having each person
read out one idea at a time. If a person doesn't have an idea, he/she can
pass for that round. No criticism is allowed when the ideas are read out.
When all ideas are listed publicly, the facilitator reviews each idea to see
if any further clarification is needed. If clarification is needed, the
person who proposed the idea has 10-30 seconds to explain (but not defend,
refute, or sell the idea).*  *After everyone understands all the ideas, the
participants vote on or rank the ideas using a secret ballot. The ideas with
the most votes or highest average ranks are chosen for further consideration
or another round of voting is conducted to pare the list down.

I've done a fair amount of research into brainstorming and would be happy to
discuss this in more detail offline.

Some key references are:


Higgins, J. M. (1994). *101 Creative problem solving techniques: The
Handbook of new ideas for business.* Winter, Park, FL: The New Management
Publishing Company. Higgins' book is a compendium of problem-solving
techniques. The book describes methods at a high level and provides
practitioners who have used some traditional methods like face-to-face group
brainstorming with variations for special cases (very large groups).  [Note,
there is a new edition out which updates the 1994 book, Just bought it
myself.  It has sections on brainwriting for example.



Osborn, A. F. (1963). *Applied imagination: Principles and procedures of
creative problem-solving (Third Revised Edition). *New York, NY: Charles
Scribner's Sons.  This is considered a classic book on modern brainstorming.
Alex Osborn, who began his writings on brainstorming in the 1940s, wanted a
meeting process that would reduce the inhibitions that block the generation
of creative ideas.  Many of the classic rules for modern brainstorming
originated with Osborn. This book is out of print, but a worthwhile read if
you can locate it.


Paulus, P. B., & Nijstad, B. A. (Eds.), *Group creativity: Innovation
through collaboration*. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Paulus and
Nijstad have edited a book that captures a wide range of research into group
creativity. Much of the book deals with brainstorming and related methods
for generating ideas and solutions to problems. While the book is loaded
with research and theory, most chapters have a set of practical implications
for group creativity methods like brainstorming and brainwriting.


Chauncey

On 9/10/07, Mike Wood <mjwood at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
> Thanks so much for your help on my question regarding studio orgs, amazon
> is
> rushing me your recommended resources. I have another question for which I
> could use some pointers/resources, etc. How do you balance the
> conversation
> when participating in a larger brainstorm or design meeting? How do you
> make
> sure you benefit from quieter folks' opinions, stop the louder folks from
> dominating the discussion, reduce interupting, etc. The only formal method
> I have seen is passing the conch shell or the talking stick but I that
> seems
> a bit limiting.
>
> We are fortunate to have a moderator for our larger design discussions so
> we
> have some flexibility on implementing solutions.
>
> Look forward to your ideas.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Mike
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