Written by: Prasun Regmi - 22028, Grade XII
Posted on: 17 February, 2022
Brainstorming is an idea that first emerged back in 1942. The term was introduced by Alex Faickney Osborn, founder and advertising executive of the US advertising agency BBDO. In fact, brainstorming was introduced as a creative technique inspired by the working atmosphere in BBDO. During his time in the company, Osborn`s observations of the everyday work in the office took him closer to developing this creative technique. He found out that during the company's meetings and discussions, all employees were not proposing creative ideas, methods or solutions, which resulted in poor meetings` closings.
Brainstorming is the word that all of us have crossed once or many times in our lives. We’ve not just crossed along it but used it. Brainstorming is a technique to generate ideas in writing and even used to solve problems in the business field. The concept of brainstorming includes defining a simple or a complex problem for which solutions generate different ideas that are later accepted or rejected. The participants in the process of brainstorming present and reveal new ideas as potential solutions for a specific problem. In this process, brainstorming helps the stimulation of the human mind towards creative problem solving. Most people have
heard of (or used) brainstorming techniques to generate creative ideas and many believe that it was created by psychologists or decision scientists. However, brainstorming was the brainchild of an advertising executive in the 1950s. Since its invention, brainstorming has become very popular and there are tremendous claims about the technique`s success. Unfortunately, research has suggested that brainstorming may not be very effective, and that individuals actually perform as well, or better, than brainstorming groups. Brainstorming typically involves
groups of 6 to 10 members throwing out ideas in a noncritical and nonjudgmental atmosphere, trying to generate as many ideas as possible. The basic rules are: (a) no idea is too far out; (b) no criticism of ideas is allowed; © the more ideas the better, and (d) members should build on one another's ideas.Over 40 years of research on brainstorming suggests that the technique is not as effective as its proponents claim. The problem is that despite the ground rules, group dynamics are too powerful and the creativity of people in the brainstorming groups is often inhibited. For example, members become embarrassed and inhibited, others may engage in "freeriding" and not contribute to idea generation. The research suggests that individuals are equal to or better than brainstorming groups in generating creative ideas.
The interesting thing is that members of a brainstorming group strongly believe that group brainstorming is more productive than individual brainstorming. The moral is that because a method sounds popular or logical, research must be done to determine its effectiveness.
