Brainstorming FAIL

Public Domain - wikipedia

Who knew?  We've been conditioned to believe that "get in a group and discuss this" was a good way to generate ideas, spur creativity, generate out of the box thinking.  Turns out, it may not be the best way to do any of that.*

A recent article in Psychology Today which actually cites research dating back to the 1950s demonstrating that we are probably generate more creative ideas alone than we do in groups.  I think this article may have been the catalyst for a recent Dilbert strip:

Click to see all of this - from July 8, 2012 - copyright Scott Adams - no infringement intended

I've been a part of so many of these groups they run together, pedestrian activities in group get togethers where a leader has to fill time so he or she says, "Now, get together and share some ideas on how to apply what I just said.  I need to drink some bottled water and look over my notes for a minute."  Oh, that last part is said in their heads, usually - I say it out loud when I'm speaking...**  Some few stand out - being in a large group of pastors being asked "What is a disciple?  Break into small groups and discuss." And watching 100 well educated and very experienced men and women struggle for twenty minutes to define what a disciple is.  Um, isn't that what we are supposed to be DOING?  Sigh...

Now, I've been a part of a number of fantastic collaborative work groups - in fact I get together every other week with a group of pastors now and we plan out our worship series and work on themes and even things like graphics and other creative elements for worship.  But it only works well when - and this comes right from the article - when we've done our homework before hand and we come with something we did on our own that then as a group we can all start building on.  That's when there are no stupid ideas.  Sure, some get dismissed immediately, some are dead end roads, some are "wow, I wish we could do that," but we START SOMEWHERE.

Hmmm.  Sounds a bit like boundaries being essential for creativity again...

So, the research suggests that in a group, instead of being more creative, brainstorming causes us to fixate on a single idea or a small set of ideas.  I've seen that.  I've been in groups where we go in with nothing and somebody suggests something somewhat viable, and we start going down that path, and by the end we're doing something nobody really wants to be doing (not even the person who originally suggested the idea, because of what it's become) but we're committed now, so we keep plowing ahead and plodding along, miserable...but we brainstormed the idea together, so it MUST be the best idea, right?***

I swear, the platypus was the animal brainstormed by committee.  Then God said, "I'll do the rest myself."



















*Which is why I've always called it "pooling our collective ignorance."  I HATE - no that's not a strong enough word - I ABHOR such exercises, generally, and when forced to participate will do so sullenly and with the least amount of contribution I am able to get away with making.  Noting the exceptions in what follows in the post, of course...


**Oh, heck yeah I use the technique - but I call it what it is - time for me to regroup :) OR - I already know the answers I'm looking for and I simply want to draw them from you - you know, so you can participate... of course that's not so much brainstorming for creativity (usually) as it is engaging people, whole different set of brain cells being used there...


***OF course it CAN be a great idea.  But how often is it?  Better if someone has a great idea and brings it and others tweak it - and that person (oh, say, Mr. Steve Jobs, for example) says yes or no to the ideas.  A lot of movies suffer, for example, because there are too many people making the "final" decisions - not one person with a single vision saying yes or no to everything...