Brainstorming
Generating many radical, creative ideas
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The original approach to brainstorming was developed by Madison Avenue advertising executive, Alex Osborn, in the 1950s.
Brainstorming is probably the best-known creative tool that helps people generate many radical and creative ideas as an informal approach to problem-solving with lateral thinking. This technique helps generate creative solutions to a problem and develop new ways of looking at things.
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Used with your eTwinning partners, it helps you bring the diverse experience of all project members into play during project developing. This increases the richness of ideas explored, and because brainstorming is fun, it helps project members bond with one-another as they solve problems in a positive, rewarding environment.
This technique also helps all people involved to feel that they’ve contributed to the end solution, and it can be great for team-building!
Using brainstorming also helps people commit to ideas, because they have participated in the development of these.
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Brainstorming provides a freewheeling environment in which everyone is encouraged to participate in order to develop a rich array of creative solutions to the problems they're facing.
During brainstorming sessions there should therefore be no criticism of ideas. Ideas should only be evaluated at the end of the brainstorming session. Brainstorming deliberately gives permission to be 'stupid' and 'child-like'.
How to use it:
- Find a comfortable meeting environment
- One person should record the ideas that come from the session in a format than everyone can see and refer to.
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- Define the problem you want solved clearly. It is very easy for people to head off in the wrong direction.
- Make it clear that that the objective of the session is to generate as many ideas as possible.
- Give people plenty of time on their own to generate as many ideas as possible,
- Provide a fair opportunity to anyone contribute by giving his/her own ideas, including the quietest members of the group.
- Encourage people to develop other people's ideas, or to use other ideas to create new ones.
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- Encourage them to come up with as many ideas as possible, from solidly practical ones to wildly impractical ones.
- Ensure that no one criticizes or evaluates ideas during the session. There are a number of ways of reducing ideas such as everyone voting for favourites or just discussing and seeing what comes to the surface.
- Ensure that no train of thought is followed for too long. In a long session, take plenty of breaks so that people can continue to concentrate.
Tips:
- Brainstorming is a useful way of generating radical solutions to problems, just as long as it's managed well.
- Let people have fun brainstorming! Encourage an enthusiastic, uncritical attitude among members of the group.
- When ideas start to wane, you should take a break and start again.
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The key characteristics of this technique are the following:
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Quick |
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Long |
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Logical |
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X |
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Psychological |
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Individual |
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X |
Group |