2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
Kevin Ashton, author of How to Fly a Horse, posted on his blog why the brainstorming technique, which we think is the best way to come up with new ideas, doesn't work.
The brainstorming technique, or brainstorming, was invented by advertiser Alex Osborne in 1939. She was first mentioned in the book How to Think Up in 1942. This is how the technique is defined by James Manchtelow, CEO of MindTools, a company that popularizes technology as a "way to creatively solve business problems":
Brainstorm is often used to inspire a team to find original ideas. In our company, brainstorming takes place in the form of an unrestricted meeting, at which the leader asks a problem that needs to be solved. The participants in the meeting propose their decisions, and the main rule that everyone adheres to is not to criticize other people's words.
Osborne considered the brainstorming idea a success. As an example, he cited a meeting of the US Treasury, in which the group came up with 103 ideas on how to sell bonds in 40 minutes. Large corporations soon introduced technology to their subordinates. By the end of the twentieth century, brainstorming began to be used everywhere, and now no one has a question what it is.
The evidence that brainstorm works is on the surface:
- A group of people can come up with more ideas than one person.
- The absence of criticism has a better effect on the idea than its instant evaluation.
However, not everyone considers brainstorm to be a panacea for creating:
Work alone. You can only create the best product if you work alone. Not with helpers. And not on the team.
Steve Wozniak
The brainstorming technique is based on the idea that the idea is what matters. However, ideas are like seeds: there are a huge number of them, but only a few of them germinate into something worthwhile. The idea is also rarely original. Ask several independent groups to brainstorm the same topic. Most likely, you will receive a list of similar ideas.
This is because ideas are not born out of leaps, but out of small steps. Scientists William Ogburn and Dorothy Thomas studied this phenomenon and found that 148 big ideas came to several people at the same time. And the longer this study went on, the larger the list became.
Therefore, brainstorm does not work. Coming up with an idea doesn't mean being. Creativity is not about inspiration, but about creating something. We all have ideas, but only a few take steps to translate them into reality.
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