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March 28, 2006
The Brainstorming Problem
I was looking over my blog rss feeds (bloglines is a great tool) and came across Wired's article about brainstorming. I never thought about the history of the concept and why it came about. The article introduces this and goes on to explain why in this day and age it doesn't work as well.
I always had a problem with brainstorming sessions especially when they were briefed on the spot. How does one expect someone to come up with a creative solution on the spot? When it comes to creative solutions, I do have a bag of tricks but why reuse an idea if there are fresh solutions to be found.
There have been many times when I found myself sitting in a room with a random sampling from a company to come up with a creative solution to a business problem. I never found myself in a meeting to come up with an accounting solution or a client relation’s solution but for some reason everyone is capable of coming up with creative solutions. This atmosphere is on par with "the chain is as strong as the weakest link". You begin to defer to the lowest common denominator, the biggest mouth or someone trying to prove their importance to the company.
I'm in a room where there is a range of qualifications/understanding. The problem is presented and then its go time. In my head, I eliminate every trite, banal and obvious solution and try to come up with a solution that will be set apart from the rest. However, before I can process the problem, around me starts to fly every obvious solution there is. So what happens is we get a long list of obvious solutions. How do you quantify what makes an idea better then another? Well if you have experience and training in the field of design you understand the principles and know that they rely on trends and the audience that the material will end up in front of. Also, you need to keep in mind budget, resources and turnaround time. If the group is a random sampling from a company, they will all have different levels of understanding. However, they will have perfect understanding of the obvious solutions. Is it possible to educate each person on what makes good ideas and bad ideas? Maybe. Is it realistic? No! So inevitably what happens is the idea that is the strongest obvious solution prevails.
This is not to say that I do not brainstorm. I brainstorm best with people on my level of understanding or people who complement my understanding with strengths of their own and we defer to the other in our areas of weakness. Creative problems have hundreds of solutions and the best solution is not always the best idea. It is the idea that will work best within the parameters of the problem. Experience, creativity and training are needed to achieve this solution, not a desire to be creative.
Posted by Dane Troup at March 28, 2006 10:15 AM