I tend toward introversion. When I tell people that, they usually don’t believe me. I like being on stage: giving talks at conferences, performing in local community theater productions, singing as a jazz vocalist with a small ensemble. So when I tell people I’m an introvert, they usually laugh. “I am!” I assure them.
As an introvert, I like working alone. But I also know that I’m more creative when I’m collaborating with others, and not just collaborating asynchronously through email or sharing documents, but collaborating with others in real time.
I’m probably not alone, however, in my reaction to the suggestion that we all get together and brainstorm. I have to admit that sometimes I cringe. It’s partially because I’m an introvert. But it’s also because brainstorming can be ineffective and even harmful to creative collaboration if done incorrectly. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do brainstorming.
Doing Brainstorming The Right Way
In case you’ve somehow managed to avoid participating in a brainstorming session, here’s how brainstorming often works: A group of people convene in a room together with an idea or a problem to solve. Everyone comes up with ideas, and the usual rule is that ideas are not judged or criticized until later—the goal is to generate as many ideas as possible as quickly as possible. One person is usually assigned to be the scribe, and this person writes down the ideas on a flipchart or whiteboard.
Scott Isaksen and John Gaulin (2005) reviewed dozens of research studies on brainstorming, and did some of their own research. Here’s what they concluded:
- The instructions that people are given are important. In one study, when the researchers gave the group the instruction to generate five to seven ideas, the group produced seven ideas. When they gave the instruction to generate at least 20 ideas, the group produced 21 ideas. When the instructions did not include a number, the group generated 29 ideas.
- Having a trained facilitator to lead the group has a huge (positive) impact. The groups with a trained facilitator produced more ideas by a factor of 5 to 1 over groups without a trained facilitator.
- Some of the groups used a variation of brainstorming called “brainwriting.” Brainwriting is different than brainstorming: people write down their own ideas first, then hand that paper to the person on the right, who adds more ideas and hands the paper to the right, and so on.
- The groups using brainwriting and a facilitator came up with more ideas and better ideas than any other groups. When the facilitator participated in coming up with ideas (not just leading the group), then the group effect was even stronger.
- Individuals working alone generated fewer ideas than any of the brainstorming or brainwriting groups. The differences were striking. The brainstorming groups with facilitators generated an average of 126.5 unique (non-redundant) ideas per group. People working on their own, not in a group, generated 58 unique ideas. The brainwriting groups, with facilitators, generated an average of 208 unique ideas.
Brainwriting As An Antidote To Anchoring
One of the reasons that brainwriting is better than brainstorming is that it avoids anchoring. In brainstorming, someone comes up with an idea first and says it out loud. As soon as that idea is mentioned, it can act as an anchor and may influence all the other ideas people come up with. With brainwriting, no one “goes first,” so there’s no anchoring, and as a result there are usually more diverse ideas.
Another reason brainwriting works better than brainstorming is that quiet people, who may not shout out ideas in a regular brainstorming session, have the chance to have as much input as everyone else.
Takeaways
- Collaborating with brainstorming can be a good way to generate ideas, but use the variant of brainwriting instead of brainstorming to come up with more diverse ideas.
- Use a trained facilitator for brainstorming/writing and let him or her participate in the generation of ideas.
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