Brainstorming Methods

Poll

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Author:
Kal Bishop

When leaders, consultants and managers require ideas, they automatically tend to herd people into a room and conduct a (usually ineffective) brainstorming session. One reason for their ineffectiveness is a failure to consider the impact of group size.

There is a pervasive belief that creativity is enhanced in larger groups. However, significant data indicates that large groups are detrimental to creative output. Some of the arguments against large groups are:

a) The sum of ideas produced by individuals acting alone is greater than the sum of ideas produced by those same individuals when acting as a group.

b) Large groups dilute ideas.

c) Symptoms of group think increase as a group gets larger due to the illusion of invulnerability, unquestioned belief in the group’s morality and rationalisation by collective justification of decisions.

d) As group size increases, the percentage of individual performance decreases. A single person is 95% engaged in a task, two people are each 90% engaged and the decline increases until it evens out at about 15 members to around 30%.

e) Groups of three to five elicit much more conformity than just one or two.

f) Large groups increase levels of evaluation apprehension and social loafing.

g) Large groups result in core and peripheral members, restricting information flow.

h) Conflict is inevitable as group size increases, causing sub-group formation and politicking.

i) Large groups create sub-groups with conflicting identitites and goals.

j) Large groups introduce time inefficiencies. 30 individuals can work on 30 problems and produce 150 ideas (30 x 5) in the same time that 1 group working on 1 problem and produces 5 ideas (1 x 5).

The above and other data suggests that group size should be kept small. But there are also benefits to large groups such as a high degree of intellectual cross pollination, a high degree of competency exchange and radical frame-breaking. And what are the pros and cons of individuals working alone and in pairs?

These and other topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased at a deep discount from the following link only: http://www.managing-creativity.com/deepdiscount.html

Kal Bishop, MBA, http://www.managing-creativity.com


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You are free to reproduce this article as long as the author's name and site URL are retained. A link to the MBA dissertation would be appreciated.

About the Author : Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com. Source: www.isnare.com

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Brainpower... Creative Strategies for Brainstorming for Business Success We experience creativity every time a fresh idea pops into our minds. We recognize creative imagination in everything from a pastel painting to a business plan. By trying these ten tips, you will discover some amazing creative abilities that may surprise you. 1. Substitute someone else's perspective for yours. How would a teacher, lawyer, actor, artist, explorer, journalist, psychologist, engineer, homemaker, child, or accountant approach your idea or subject? Don't know? Ask them! 2. Look at your idea through the eyes of a critic. For each idea, make a list of all criticisms that may arise. Try to develop as many solutions as possible for overcoming obstacles or repairing weaknesses in your idea. 3. Connect your idea to other worlds or fields. Look at the worlds of Politics, Art, Science & Medicine, Hollywood, The Ice Age, Astronomy, Astrology, Ballet, Animation, The Army, Asia, Teaching, Music, Europe, and the like. Can you make an analogy, and what ideas can you draw upon from these fields and worlds? 4. Magnify your idea. What can you do to enlarge, expedite, extend, strengthen, exaggerate, dramatize, or improve your idea? 5. Simplify your idea. Can you condense, trim down, compact, minimize, or narrow your idea? 6. Change your idea. Modify the name, color, sound, shape, form, function, smell, taste, and properties of your idea. 7. Make your idea meet the needs and wants of the masses. Does your idea meet the basic needs and wants of more comfort, money, food, shelter, time, space, convenience, attractiveness, health, and beauty? If not, alter your idea to meet one if not all of these needs and wants. 8. Add more value. What will add more value? Add extra features, durability, safety, thickness, accuracy, guarantees, uses, and freebies. 9. Examine...