Why brainstorming doesnt work

There are two primary arguments. The first is that brainstorming is a skill that needs to be developed. Proponents of this position argue that companies should bring in facilitators to support brainstorming sessions. This argument has merit. The research does show that facilitated brainstorming groups do match the performance of individuals working on their own. But most companies don't have access to trained facilitators, and it's hard to justify the cost of bringing one in since companies can get the same outcome by having people generate ideas individually.

The second argument is that the collaborative benefits of brainstorming outweigh the loss in creative output. This might be true. Brainstorming does bring people together. It helps people feel like they are a part of the process. This is particularly important in creative firms, where there are tremendous benefits to including the client in the creative process.

If the client feels like part of an innovative process, it may be happier with the results. Thompson makes several recommendations on how to improve brainstorming. The simplest is to do brainwriting. After everyone has built on the set of ideas they got on the new set of sheets, they should pass them again to the person on their left or the next person on the list and repeat the process.

Overall, the group passes the sheets around five times. By that time, everyone in the group has seen all the ideas that were generated and has had a chance to build on them. This technique has a lot of benefits over traditional brainstorming. It requires everyone to work alone at first, which allows them to think independently about the problem. That maximizes the divergence of thought in the group at the front end. Also, because everyone ultimately builds on all of the ideas, none of them are recognizable as the idea proposed by a particular individual.

That prevents people who want to see their idea get adopted from hijacking the process to get recognition for their contribution. AWS Deloitte Genpact.

Events Innovation Festival. Follow us:. By Art Markman 3 minute Read. Impact Impact Ithaca says it will decarbonize every building in the city.

So does eating junk food. However, in practice, this approach would require careful selection of individuals and painstaking coordination of their efforts. Ultimately, brainstorming continues to be used because it feels intuitively right to do so. As such, it is one more placebo in the talent management cabinet, believed to work in spite of the clear absence of evidence. So go ahead, schedule that brainstorming meeting. You have 1 free article s left this month. You are reading your last free article for this month.

Subscribe for unlimited access. Create an account to read 2 more.