Regardless of the culture to which we belong, we all have a more or less clear idea of what brainstorming is, and the vast majority of us have done it at some point. Especially those of us who work in a team whose work is somewhat creative, because it is believed that several heads think better than one, and the premise of brainstorming is that one of the present people must come up with the millionaire idea, at some point.
However, statistics have shown that this is not always the case and that rather, the practice of brainstorming could be counterproductive, since more than introducing new ideas to the discussion, it strengthens the judgments on which the leader’s beliefs are based and are responsible for choosing the final idea.
Professor of Story Science, Angus Fletcher, states that “Most brainstorming sessions wrap by attempting to select the best ideas on the whiteboard. When you do that, what you’re actually doing is attempting to eliminate the worst ideas via logical techniques such as convergent and critical thinking. That’s counterproductive. It reinstates whatever biases you managed to escape during the brainstorm, and it kills your most promising creations.”
What is this about? It’s normal for you to ask this question since the frequency with which brainstorming is carried out seems to suggest that it is the best way to collect new ideas. But they are not, and the reality is that many things happen under the table. Let’s look at some of the reasons why brainstorming may not work for your business.
Ready Training Online’s Alternatives to Brainstorming lists the main reasons why brainstorming no longer works and it is necessary to use another technique, or at least modify it and bring out its true potential. Let’s see:
- Neurodiversity: Neurodiversity is a viewpoint that brain differences are normal, rather than deficits. Neurodivergent people experience, interact with, and interpret the world in unique ways, so expecting them to think the same way, or at the same pace, as other people on the team is neither appropriate nor inclusive. Companies need to adapt to alternatives that can be adjusted to the needs of each team member.
- Groupthink: Since the main objective of brainstorming is that, from the individuality of each member of the team, they can contribute something new to the discussion, groupthink is completely counterproductive. However, it happens. Since only 60-70% of the people participate in a brainstorming session, part of the team is left out and their ideas are lost. In addition, it is common that when listening to an idea, the thoughts of others circulate around that idea already heard. Therefore, the ideas said at the beginning of the session always have a higher probability of being chosen.
- Mediocrity: In the same order of thoughts, people with greater qualities of eloquence and charisma tend to be the most vocal, those who speak louder and more clearly, so their ideas tend to be taken into account, beyond the real quality of these, only for the fact that they are expressed in a more convincing way. This affects the decision made towards the end since ideas that are perhaps better are no longer taken into account because the issuer does not function safely.
- Chaos: Like any situation where a group of people talk and discuss an issue, brainstorming sessions can quickly get out of hand. If the person leading it does not have a good handling of groups, chaos is the sure destiny of that session, and in the end, they will end up making a hasty decision to close it.
So what does that leave us with? Probably the best thing you can do is look for alternatives to stop relying solely on brainstorming when harvesting new ideas for your company or project. Here we show you a modification that you can integrate into the old practice, which will undoubtedly improve your processes.
Try Brainwriting
Leigh Thompson and Loran Nordgren, management professors at the Kellog School, came up with a much more efficient alternative to brainstorming and called it brainwriting.
As its name suggests, brainwriting refers to the written practice of collecting group ideas. And it works like this: under prior agreement, the leader informs his team about the topic or project for which new ideas are needed and gives some time frame in which the team members can think and write down their ideas. organized way, thus escaping group thinking and the influence of the first ideas in meetings.
Also, in this way, everyone has the opportunity and time to speak. During the meeting, in an orderly way, each member will share with the team their premeditated ideas, and the leader will be able to decide which idea is more appropriate for what they need.
However, there are many other ways to listen to the ideas of a group and try to find the millionaire idea among them, you just have to search, and experiment. We invite you to find the one that suits your team and company.
