Brainstorming technique
Contents |
Abstract
Brainstorming is a creativity exercise where individuals or groups of people generate ideas impulsively with the goal of finding solutions to a specific problem. It is a simple, yet powerful tool used in virtually all industries. The term was originally introduced in the year 1953 by Alex Oxford in his book “Applied Imagination” and has now become one of best known idea generation method in the world. Brainstorming combines a relaxed, informal approach to problem solving providing an open environment that encourages everyone involved to participate. No idea is a bad idea no matter how wild they are and people are given the freedom of mind and action to spark off and reveal new ideas. Therefore, people should avoid criticizing or rewarding ideas during the brainstorming session as it limits the idea generation and creativity [1] [2].
In the following article the overall idea of the brainstorming technique will be discussed; the origin and when, how and why it should be used. General guidelines and rules will be outlined, that are recommended to follow in order to run an effective brainstorming session. Furthermore, other brainstorming variations will be introduced following with limitations of the technique and its strength and weaknesses. Finally, references relevant to the article will be listed for further reading.
Overview of brainstorming
Origin
In the year 1942, the advertising executive Alex Osborn and one of the founders of BBDO, published a book titled “How to Think Up” in which he presented the technique of brainstorming. Osborn originally used the term to “think up” to describe the process developed – something that was being used at BBDO as part of their ideation process. At that time he found that the atmosphere in business meetings was inhibiting the development of new solutions and proposed basic rules to change that. The term brainstorming became popularized in 1953 by Osborn in his book “Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Problem Solving”. Since then brainstorming has become one of the most widely used creative thinking techniques done in virtually all industries. [3].
What is brainstorming?
Application
General guidelines and rules of brainstorming.
After brainstorming
What do you with all the ideas? Here, techniques for analysing the output of the brainstorming session will be outline and discussed.
Variations of brainstorming
This section will cover briefly what different types of brainstorming there are and how they work.
Limitations
Limitations of Brainstorming and advantages + disadvantages
