As the old adage goes, "two heads are better than one." Brainstorming to solve critical business problems can authenticate this proverb. In a well-organized brainstorming session, quieter team members may become louder and more assertive while aggressive power-players may spend more time listening than talking.
A group that interacts every day, such as business colleagues, are naturally going to form beliefs their relative status. Some of these are derived from actual treatment while other beliefs stem from personal insecurity,
This is a key reason that brainstorming works. Business, personal and even familial hierarchies form rapidly and may persist for great spans of time. These hierarchies don't emerge from title, income or seniority. They are often based on who is the loudest, most aggressive and self-absorbed. When group roles organically shift, such as they do during truly democratic brainstorming, quieter voices with insightful ideas that are oft-overlooked can receive equal regard.
In order for an egalitarian session of brainstorming to occur, democracy needs to be its backbone. Every idea should be viewed on equal terms. Every idea is a viable candidate for solving the problem at hand. By immediately removing any biases that might affect the ideas we gravitate to, we are viewing the ideas on their own terms.
Applied Imagination is one of the most popular handbooks for effective brainstorming, and it is likely the oldest text on the subject. It was written in 1953 and is still used by consulting firms to teach both large and small businesses the benefits of brainstorming. The most important element is to strip the ideas away from the people that announced them. Only when ideas stand alone can their true merit be assessed.
The best sessions will have a volunteer record the most feasible solutions with the most supporters behind them. The recorder will then review the list with the group to evaluate the pros, cons and practicality of each item. Although the recorder wants to filter through the stream of incoming ideas, Applied Imagination recommends that quantity is better than quality. The book also says to welcome eccentric ideas and refraining from judging any idea.
Some of the best consulting firms in the country frequently rely on Applied Imagination to teach the art of brainstorming and creative problem solving. Kaizer Permanente is a national healthcare facility that relies on brainstorming heavily. They call it "innovation process" and it borrows heavily from the rules set forth in Applied Imagination. Kaizer Permanente has solid statistics to back up the results from their previous sessions. Nurse interruption improved by upwards to 50% after their first innovation process on the subject.
As the list of ideas begins to refine and good ideas merge together, it becomes important to disregard hierarchy as well. If any monetary group, whether a giant corporation or a small business, continues trying to solve complex problems but it cannot separate the raw logic from the unpredictability of human behavior, it is likely they will continue to fail.
Pretensions need to be left at the door. Contaminating pure ideas under pretenses of superior and inferior will always make the solution far more convoluted than it needs to be. You do not want selfish or otherwise convoluted human traits to stand between your group and a good idea. Remember, the best ideas sell themselves, so the human element should be removed as much as possible.
Applied Imagination explained how you could follow a few easy steps to successfully brainstorm after separating your logical mind from your emotional one. As complex as the entire process is, it can be described in one sentence: build your team, define the target, stay on course, learn from the masters and most importantly: practice.
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