Brain Storm

Often misused term.

The old-fashioned brainstorm technique developed and popularized by AlexOsborn is an idea generation technique that focuses on the problem and uses the ideas of other group members as stimuli. Key to successful BrainStorm is that we adhere to some principles: PostponeJudgment, quantity breeds quality, hitchhike on each other's ideas, all ideas are registered.

Quantity and quality of ideas can be stimulated by ArtificialIncubation.

Variants: BrainWriting, CardSwap, StoryBoard?, ThoughtShower

-- MartineDevos

Related ideas: Use stimulating titles and labels (like WikiWeb page names).

I was on a ski lift with a guy from FrogDesign, where they take brainstorming to new heights. He says the key to getting really valuable insights is never, never laughing. The suggestions get wilder and wilder until finally something beautiful clicks. But it is really hard. -- KentBeck

Unfortunately, there seems to be a pattern (LaughIn??) in human nature to laugh at ideas that are ahead of their time. Orson Welles' movies were laughed at and ridiculed at one time, but are now considered to be visionary works. (Citizen Kane was ranked #1 on the AFI list). Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address was widely panned as too simplistic, prompting the Senator who gave the three hour speech before him to comment: "The President said more in five minutes than I said in three hours, gentlemen." Do I have to mention Socrates and Galileo? -- DJBrown

Not laughing is part of RaisingBrightKids. I have no trouble taking any nonsensical idea seriously, but now my oldest is having trouble not laughing at the youngest. Not laughing at the unusual must take either a peculiar mindset or a lot of practice. Guess I'll try to get my colleagues to practice more... -- AlistairCockburn

How about a big smile? That meets both your & the child's emotional & growth needs. :-) -- GuyHenryAtkinson?

BruceAnderson had an exercise about this. I don't remember exactly how it went, but one member of a pair had to come up with wacky, nonsense ideas and the other member had to respond encouragingly. "Why don't we try elephant dung on this?" "That might work." "How about sacrificing a goat?" "Let's try it and see what happens." Pull this one out if you notice that some people's objections are stifling suggestions. [Yes, I call this "practicing saying yes", and use it when small groups have to come up with some ideas quickly. -- BruceAnderson]

The ad agencies have a long tradition of using brainstorming as a way to come up with a novel way to advertise a product. In at least two cases the leader unfroze the group by deliberately producing a truly 'bad' idea. For example naming the new fish based product "Cod Pieces" on the way to "Fish Fingers"... -- DickBotting

Related techniques are called Synectics? and LateralThinking? -- DickBotting

Brainstorming is usually thought of as a group activity where the expressions of others trigger your own Brain to "storm". However BrainStorms? can be triggered outside of group and in fact can occur when a person is even isolated from all human contact. Some people think that creative BrainStorms? are often more likely when engaged in a non-thinking activity such a taking a solitary walk, away from stimulus. I remember reading of an English Mathematician who had been working on some concepts for which he had not been able to develop a solution, and while walking alone one day, he suddenly had the BrainStorm which allowed him to pursue his work on the subject and introduced a new way of looking at the relationship of mathematics to the physical world.

You might be thinking of Hamilton's canal-side walk. There's also Poincaré on the bus, ArchimedesOfSyracuse in the bath, etc.

Bristol-born Paul Dirac was fond of long solitary walks and did most of his work walking.

Solo Brainstorming

I find it easier to do solo brainstorming if I can doodle on a piece of paper. Long bus rides are also good. Driving is not so good because I can't get distracted enough. -- Asim

Opposing View

I have usually found that "brain storming" sessions, in actual practice, are of minimal value. Getting a bunch of opinions from people not familiar with the issue does not lead to identifying a good idea. The idea would arise largely from luck and it is unlikely any of the participants would have enough knowledge to identify it as a good idea. A far better approach is to assign a group to investigate the problem. This is hard, time consuming work, but it is far more likely to result in success than a group whiteboard session.

Also, the phrase has another meaning some times: "I had a brainstorm and forgot my lunch", i.e. a polite version of BrainFart. Context is everything.

The purpose of brainstorming is to stimulate alternative thinking. The reason we don't laugh, criticize, or filter anything out is that sometimes two seemingly unrelated and apparently dumbshit ideas can mesh to bring about a synthesis of pure brilliance. Without ideas that are askew and outside of the normal, "parallel" thinking on a subject we may never come across the one idea that really shines.

CategoryCreativity, CategoryProblemSolvingStrategy