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Using brainstorming in a business context is also problematic from a social psychological point of view: For brainstorming to work as planned (collecting lots o

by bildung 13y ago

Using brainstorming in a business context is also problematic from a social psychological point of view: For brainstorming to work as planned (collecting lots of different ideas, every idea including the quirky ones count are valid at this stage, ideas only get filtered after the brainstorming session ends), certain criteria have to be met by the group doing the session. If the boss or a potentially competing colleague is around, most people won't brainstorm freely, even though the moderator says it's ok to get crazy. For brainstorming to work as intended the group has to be cooperative and without hierarchies (really without, not startuppy without). Otherwise, people will fear the criticism of the others and only speak about the too-dull-to-fail ideas.

duncanawoods 13y ago
You can have hierarchy within an effective team. Its not mutually exclusive in the same way that lack of hierarchy guarantees nothing. Group problem-solving can reveal team problems and help resolve them. If your team is not working well together, you need to fix it ASAP and not avoid the situations where it comes to the fore.
- bildung 13y ago
  > You can have hierarchy within an effective team. Absolutely! I was talking specifically about hierarchiy affecting the brainstoring method. > Group problem-solving can reveal team problems and help resolve them. If your team is not working well together, you need to fix it ASAP and not avoid the situations where it comes to the fore. I have the suspicion we are talking about different things here (me not speaking English natively could also be reason). With brainstorming I meant the specific didactic method used to generate a collection of ideas with as much breadth as possible, specifically including quirky and unusual ideas for a specific class of open questions like finding a new product idea or a name for a new project. This method has a defined process and was subject to a few paedaogical studies. I think what you have in mind is more like collectively trying to solve a specific engineering problem. In a setting like that many aspects of brainstorming methods do not apply, particularly because the problem to be solved is more closed in nature and has a specific class of right solutions. (edit: formatting)

by bildung 13y ago

duncanawoods 13y ago

You can have hierarchy within an effective team. Its not mutually exclusive in the same way that lack of hierarchy guarantees nothing. Group problem-solving can reveal team problems and help resolve them. If your team is not working well together, you need to fix it ASAP and not avoid the situations where it comes to the fore.

bildung 13y ago
> You can have hierarchy within an effective team. Absolutely! I was talking specifically about hierarchiy affecting the brainstoring method. > Group problem-solving can reveal team problems and help resolve them. If your team is not working well together, you need to fix it ASAP and not avoid the situations where it comes to the fore. I have the suspicion we are talking about different things here (me not speaking English natively could also be reason). With brainstorming I meant the specific didactic method used to generate a collection of ideas with as much breadth as possible, specifically including quirky and unusual ideas for a specific class of open questions like finding a new product idea or a name for a new project. This method has a defined process and was subject to a few paedaogical studies. I think what you have in mind is more like collectively trying to solve a specific engineering problem. In a setting like that many aspects of brainstorming methods do not apply, particularly because the problem to be solved is more closed in nature and has a specific class of right solutions. (edit: formatting)