Brainstorming risks
by Piet De Brouwer | Last update: 17/05/2021Brainstorming is a well-known, widely used technique. But do you also know its greatest danger?
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a ubiquitous and widely used technique that comes up in every organisation. Sitting down together to come up with new ideas and/or solutions can only be encouraged. But how do you ensure maximum output from such a brainstorming session? Because very often, there is a rather quick chit-chat. Words follow each other in rapid succession. Usually they are related, but the further one storms on, the less relevant the newly introduced terms become.
In addition, it often happens that the same people take the floor over and over again, outstripping “deviant” contributions with different variations on the same theme: theirs.
Want to run a brainstorming session well? Then, first and foremost, make sure everyone gets to speak. However, there is another (and bigger) danger lurking around the corner in brainstorming. A permanent danger that gags creativity and broad thinking: association.
Example
Asked in group to list random first names, we get: Jean, Gerard, Paul, Maurice and fill in your own. You probably gave a boy’s name. If the people who sat before you in the group gave a girl’s name, you would probably have expanded on that.
The same would occur with cities: Roeselare, Bruges, Ostend, Kortrijk… and we are still in West Flanders. The same would occur with cities: Brussels, Paris, London, Berlin, … and we are still in Europe. If you start with New York, you get 10 real metropolises before you get to Brussels.
“ Associative thinking drastically narrows the output of your brainstorming.
Not the ideal tool…
Our minds like to connect with what someone in my group says. We do not like to deviate, our minds are “lazy” and so we stay in the same category. As a result, brainstorming an sich is not the ideal means to address a problem in a complete and broad way.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to throw way brainstorming altogether. On the contrary. Because by simply upgrading your brainstorming session, you can avoid the danger of association. How exactly to do this is explained in this article.