Brainstorming itself is an established method in many different fields. It is often used in groups – and often in the wrong way: Brainstorming has become a buzzword and is used in many contexts only as a group discussion, where someone writes some aspects on a whiteboard. The whole group discusses them critically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that is the first mistake: a critical discussion. Brainstorming is a method without critical discussion. Any intention is allowed, crazy ideas, absurd ideas – of course, “good” ideas too. Do not judge the thoughts as good or bad!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the earliest founders of the technique, Alex F. Osborn, observed brainstorming<\/a> in 1939 during group thinking at his company. Here he called “brainstorming sessions.” And he defined brainstorming as “the use of the brainstorm a creative problem – and to do so in commando fashion, each striker boldly pursuing the same goal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n And likewise, Oswalt suggested some fundamental rules: No judgment or criticism of an idea, “freewheeling” as ideas spread wildly, focus on quantity rather than the quality of ideas, combining and improving ideas as complements. To sum it up: Quantity is king. Write down as much as you can, free-flowing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nicely describes other typical mistakes, for example, the brainstorming article<\/a> by Christopher Schulz:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone has undoubtedly experienced that only the boss was right in a brainstorming session. Even though this is also an elementary violation of the mindset of Design Thinking (LINK): This is also a no-go in brainstorming as a creative method because one primary aspect is that all answers should be considered equal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another interesting aspect: brainstorming is more beneficial when group members do it alone. For example, Guido Hertel pointed out in an interview about brainstorming<\/a> that “brainstorming in groups leads to fewer ideas than when the same number of people develop ideas alone.” One reason for this is that “team members interfere with each other’s flow of ideas and impair their creativity,” as Hertel describes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This leads to two consequences:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, last but not least: Brainstorming exists in different methods. Here I would like to highlight just a few examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are plenty more brainstorming techniques. Maybe I’ll get into them in later weblogs. But one thing is clear: It is indeed very beneficial to use different methods, perhaps in combination or even at other times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to learn more about agile and design thinking, subscribe to my newsletter<\/a>. Brainstorming is also an essential method of Design Thinking. But it is usually misused. Used correctly, it has the potential for authentic creativity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stroisch.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stroisch.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stroisch.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stroisch.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stroisch.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stroisch.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4706,"href":"https:\/\/www.stroisch.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704\/revisions\/4706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stroisch.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stroisch.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stroisch.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stroisch.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Quantity in brainstorming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Brainstorming mistakes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Do brainstorming alone<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Different brainstorming methods<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
And efficiently, I have developed the Design Thinking Box<\/a>, where you can find cards and templates to make agility work for you – for example, as a solo entrepreneur. And surely feel free to contact<\/a> me if you have questions – or use the comments for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"