The Basic Idea
Every great idea starts with a good brainstorming session. You’ve probably participated in countless brainstorming sessions as part of school or work, to varying degrees of success. Sometimes a group brainstorm can feel productive and exciting, but other times they may feel like a waste of time. Indeed, despite the overwhelming popularity of brainstorming, research has repeatedly demonstrated that group brainstorming is inefficient – but there must be some benefits to it, right?
Brainstorming can be defined as a group creativity process of creating potential solutions to a problem – in other words, thinking of new ideas together in a small period of time. Generally, a small group of people shares ideas with each other, and one person records these ideas to evaluate later.
Creativity can seem like a process outside our control – sometimes inspiration disappears just as we need new ideas – but research has revealed certain practices that can improve the quality of our results when we brainstorm.
It is easier to tone down a wild one than to think up a new one.
– Alex Osborn
