A User's Guide to Brainstorming
It's great for picking ideas, less so for generating them
Brainstorming is the most popular tool managers use to tap into their employees' ideas. It's also one of the most misunderstood. "At most companies, the manager tells the team to come up with a bunch of ideas and then just picks one," says Keith Sawyer, author of Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration. "That's exactly the wrong way to do it." Decades of research show that brainstorming sessions are often best for selecting good ideas, not generating them. Individual workers tend to come up with plenty of ideas. The group excels at picking the winners.
A rule of thumb: If it's verbal ideas you're after—like a headline or a new project name—brainstorming may be a dud. But if you're trying to come up with visual or spatial concepts—a better shopping cart or a new company logo—then a group brainstorm may help. Here are other ways to get the most out of brainstorming:
Keep the group small. The ideal group size is around six, small enough to prevent anyone from being intimidated but large enough to reflect a range of opinions.
Stay diverse. "Group genius can happen only if the brains in the team don't contain all the same stuff," writes Sawyer.
Reward the team. The most effective groups are rewarded en masse. But savvy managers should make individuals accountable, to prevent loafing.
Don't plan too much. Studies show that the more time spent planning—and the less time spent actually brainstorming and implementing an idea—the fewer concepts come to fruition.
Practice. Don't count on one brainstorming session to turn on the creativity. "Group genius can't be bottled," Sawyer says. "It has to be spread throughout the organization and practiced every day."
This story appears in the June 18, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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