Is Brainstorming Productive?
Let’s suppose you were tasked with making the most delicious popcorn to sweep the market, leading the company brand into success. You ready the necessary ingredients – the best batch of corn kernels, salt, butter – all that good stuff. You carefully measure and match the perfect ratio of oil to popcorn. Then, you place the mix into a faulty popcorn machine.
No, seriously.
It sounds ridiculous to use a faulty popcorn machine to make popcorn. However, decades of research suggest that frankly, that’s exactly what many companies are doing unknowingly when they plan group brainstorming sessions – placing their best ingredients inside a faulty machine and hoping for the best. Sure, brainstorming may lead to the occasional breakthrough or a decent product, but more often it’s an ineffective process that may even just be a flat out waste of your time.
Popcorn brainstorming is a myth that has seduced many businesses, becoming de rigueur to sparking group creativity. And theoretically, the model of brainstorming first introduced by businessman Alex Osborn was proposed to do exactly that: generate as many ideas as possible; prioritise unusual or original ideas; refine the ideas generated; and refrain from criticism until ideation is over. This method, more commonly referred to today as ‘popcorn’ brainstorming (as ideas ‘pop’ everywhere), was claimed to greatly enhance creative performance in comparison to individual ideation.
Yet decades of scientific research seem to weigh against this type of brainstorming and its supposed effectiveness. Rather, evidence seems to suggest traditional popcorn brainstorming groups produce not only fewer, but poorer quality ideas than the same number of people working in isolation. “It’s a process continued to be used because it feels intuitively right to do so…believed to work in spite of the absence of evidence,'' says Professor Tomas Premuzic of the University College London. “So go ahead, schedule that brainstorming meeting. Just don’t expect it to accomplish much, other than making your team feel good”.
So, what’s wrong with brainstorming?
The first step to innovation is a flow of creativity. However, the traditional model of brainstorming inevitably causes a number of human level barriers to occur, causing it to act as a roadblock, rather than a facilitator. Here are just some of the ways a popcorn brainstorming session can go awry:
Anchoring: This is a cognitive bias programmed into all of us – we tend to fixate on the first idea or piece of information, giving it disproportionate focus. So let’s say in a theoretical brainstorming session, someone has just voiced the first idea. Well, research tells us that we’ll have that idea on our minds for the majority of the session (especially if it sounds half decent). This impacts subsequent directions of thought, constraining our creativity and narrowing the scope of ideas presented.
Groupthink: This goes hand in hand with anchoring. Once the group has ‘anchored’ onto an idea, they will often agree with and build around the idea, foregoing the opportunity to come up with other, potentially better ideas. People start converging, conforming to an artificial consensus, making it harder for unique, viable alternatives to be heard (after all, you’re also told to be ‘uncritical’).
Evaluation apprehension: We’re all too used to the fear of being ridiculed for a ‘wild’ idea, and the potential loss of credibility or respect – a bias that pervades all popcorn brainstorming sessions (shy people are especially vulnerable to this). The establishment of a ‘consensus’ (see Groupthink above) doesn’t help either, causing unique ideas to be met with less enthusiasm, receive less focus, and, as a result, strengthen this effect.
Social loafing: We tend to put less effort into a task when working as part of a group. Let’s face it – we’ve all slacked off during group work because, you know, there’s only so much one person is going to add to the discussion, right? Plus, someone else will probably do the work anyway. Consequently, people become less engaged and off task – and that won’t get you any results.
It’s time for an upgrade
So, turns out brainstorming is not so sacrosanct after all. But before you shout “heresy!” and declare group brainstorming bust, remember – groupwork still has its own slew of benefits. It’s still necessary for discussing and building on ideas, as well as for critique and feedback, which are essential for a truly innovative breakthrough.
So the question now becomes: how can we combine the productivity realised by individual idea generation with the benefits of group brainstorming? According to Art Markman of Harvard Business Review, as well as numerous other sources, the essence of effective group ideation seems to lie in these 3 aspects:
Put the individual before the group
This is the biggest one: separate the ideation from the group work. The typical brainstorming environment is one that is not very conducive to creativity. To this, Leigh Thompson, a Professor at the Kellogg School of Management suggests we brainwrite, instead of brainstorm: give people time to write down as many of their own ideas prior to the meeting, allowing ideas to diverge without the barriers of a brainstorming session. Afterwards, converge on a few points of interest during the discussion and feedback phase – by which point you’d have a large idea bank to work with. Brainwriting allows for a wide array of unique ideas to be presented, with adequate focus given to each of them.
Relieve pressure
Pressure is a killer for creativity - time pressure, especially, is the worst enemy of innovation or exciting new ideas. In fact, one study by Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile found that across 177 employees, creativity (in terms of idea generation) was reduced by 45% on high pressure days in comparison to low pressure days. What’s the moral of the story? Give people time. Ensure that evaluation will not happen until everyone has generated ideas, and give them plenty of warning before the session to generate ideas (if brainwriting). Pressure due to the presence of others (i.e. evaluation apprehension) should also look to be reduced. Remind people that, above all, ideas will not be judged on their quality, and give each idea adequate focus, stressing quantity over quality. This is where the facilitator’s role becomes very important!
Employ sketches and diagrams
Augment talking and/or writing with drawing – this helps the idea stay practical, and according to one study, is an ideal way of conveying creative solutions. Diagrams also help in describing spatial relationships, so never only resort to notes or writing when presenting ideas.
The ideal groupwork session
So what might an ideal group brainstorming look like? Ultimately, you’d like to have a well planned out, 60 to 90 minute gathering wherein both the group members and facilitator are familiar with the rules and process, and interact to dynamically manage the ideation and discussion phases. However, when you are just starting out to implement these rules, it might be helpful to follow some established guidelines to get used to the process:
6 - 3 - 5 brainwriting
6 – 3 – 5 brainwriting stands for ‘6 people, 3 ideas, 5 minutes’. 6 participants, supervised by a facilitator, writes down 3 ideas within 5 minutes, after which time the note is passed onto the next person. This is repeated until all participants end up with their starting note (here’s a video explanation for added clarity), after which the group moves onto the discussion phase. Participants are free to be inspired by whatever their colleagues have written on the note, either building on it or starting a fresh new idea. For clarity, participants might also opt to add simple sketches. The 6 – 3 – 5 method has been shown to outperform nominal (that is, individuals working separately) groups, which in turn outperformed traditional brainstorming groups!
The Note and Vote
Want to brainstorm like Google? The ‘note and vote’ begins with a 10 minute individual, silent ideation session, wherein people jot down as many ideas as they can. Afterwards, participants are given 2 minutes to pick TWO of their favourite ideas from their idea bank, which are then recorded on a whiteboard. The group then votes on their favourite idea(s), with the facilitator making the final call. “It’s not perfect,'' says Jake Knapp, designer and previous leader of Google ventures, ”but it’s faster and likely better than the old way”.
Easier innovation
The take home message? There's absolutely no reason to stay on the popcorn brainstorming train. It's good for neither the individual, nor the team- so if you have any planned, it’s probably best to scrap it and go for the alternatives (see 6 - 3 - 5 brainwriting and The Note and Vote above).
Yes, it’s going to be a lot of trial and error. And yes, it’ll definitely be harder than throwing people into a room, and telling them to ‘brainstorm up’ an idea. So keep to the rules- put the individual before the group, relieve the pressure, and make sure to employ sketches and diagrams. Know that what you're doing lies upon decades of scientific verification. Know that you’ll be paving the way for easier innovation.
Make it easier for that next smash idea to present itself by making small improvements to how you brainstorm.