Worksheets - Meetings (4): Brainstorming and evaluating

Reading
Look at the following phrases. Four of them are the rules of successful brainstorming
and six of them are important criticisms. With a partner, discuss which phrases are
rules and which are criticisms, and what each phrase might mean.

Then read the text. Write one phrase in each gap.

 blocking  illusion of group productivity

 combine and improve ideas  personal contribution
 evaluation apprehension  social matching effect
 focus on quantity  welcome unusual ideas
 free rider problem  withhold criticism

Finally, without looking back at the text, try to remember as much as you can
about each phrase above. Discuss your ideas with a partner.
The problem with brainstorming
Brainstorming is one of the most popular techniques used in meetings to
generate ideas for solving a specific problem. Alex Osborn, the inventor of the
term ‘Brainstorming’, established four rules.

 Firstly, it’s important to (1). Write everything down, the

more ideas, the better.
 Secondly, participants need to (2). Never criticise another
person’s idea during the brainstorming session, as it will prevent people from
being creative. There’s plenty of time for criticism in the evaluation stage later.
 Thirdly, we should (3). Try to challenge your
assumptions and ask ‘what if …?’ questions.
 Finally, try to (4). This is the real power of brainstorming:
person A’s crazy idea, which would never work in practice, may get person B
thinking about a similar idea which might just work. Even better, person A’s
crazy idea and person C’s crazy idea can be combined, taking the best parts of
each. So instead of saying ‘no’ or ‘yes, but …’ we need to train ourselves to
say ‘yes, and
…’.

A successful brainstorming session can be really useful, but is it always as effective

as it could be? Researchers have identified many possible problems, all of which
suggest that it is far from perfect.

First of all, there’s the (5). This comes from the idea of travelling by
bus without a ticket. Why should I bother to buy a ticket when the bus is going
anyway? From a selfish point of view, it’s in my interest to ride for free and let others
pay for their tickets. The same goes for a brainstorming meeting: why I should I make
the effort to be creative when all the benefits, and the praise for good ideas, go to
the group? From a selfish point of view, it’s in my interest to let everyone else do all
the work. Even if people don’t think in such simple terms, it can be demotivating to
keep generating ideas when you know you will not be praised or rewarded
personally for them, especially if you don’t have especially a strong sense of being
part of a team.
Worksheets - Meetings (4): Brainstorming and evaluating

Reading
Look at the following phrases. Four of them are the rules of successful brainstorming
and six of them are important criticisms. With a partner, discuss which phrases are
rules and which are criticisms, and what each phrase might mean.

Then read the text. Write one phrase in each gap.

 Blocking C  illusion of group productivity

 combine and improve ideas C
B  personal contribution C
 evaluation apprehension C  social matching effect C
 focus on quantity B  welcome unusual ideas B
 free rider problem C  withhold criticism B

Finally, without looking back at the text, try to remember as much as you can
about each phrase above. Discuss your ideas with a partner.
The problem with brainstorming
Brainstorming is one of the most popular techniques used in meetings to
generate ideas for solving a specific problem. Alex Osborn, the inventor of the
term ‘Brainstorming’, established four rules.

 Firstly, it’s important to focus on quantity (1). Write everything down, the
more ideas, the better.
 Secondly, participants need to withhold criticism (2). Never criticise another
person’s idea during the brainstorming session, as it will prevent people from
being creative. There’s plenty of time for criticism in the evaluation stage later.
 Thirdly, we should welcome unusual ideas (3). Try to challenge your
assumptions and ask ‘what if …?’ questions.
 Finally, try to combine and improve idea (4). This is the real power of
brainstorming: person A’s crazy idea, which would never work in practice, may
get person B thinking about a similar idea which might just work. Even better,
person A’s crazy idea and person C’s crazy idea can be combined, taking the
best parts of each. So instead of saying ‘no’ or ‘yes, but …’ we need to train
ourselves to say ‘yes, and
…’.

A successful brainstorming session can be really useful, but is it always as effective

as it could be? Researchers have identified many possible problems, all of which
suggest that it is far from perfect.

First of all, there’s the free rider problem (5). This comes from the idea of travelling by
bus without a ticket. Why should I bother to buy a ticket when the bus is going
anyway? From a selfish point of view, it’s in my interest to ride for free and let others
pay for their tickets. The same goes for a brainstorming meeting: why I should I make
the effort to be creative when all the benefits, and the praise for good ideas, go to
the group? From a selfish point of view, it’s in my interest to let everyone else do all
the work. Even if people don’t think in such simple terms, it can be demotivating to
keep generating ideas when you know you will not be praised or rewarded
personally for them, especially if you don’t have especially a strong sense of being
part of a team.
A related problem is called the social matching effect (6) Observers have noted that
we try to match our behaviour to the behaviour of other people in the room. So if
everyone else is sitting silently, or focusing only on sensible ideas, we feel pressure
to do the same. Of course, the social matching effect can have the opposite effect,
by encouraging quieter or less creative people to contribute as freely as other
participants, but this positive effect tends to be weaker than the negative effect, for
the simple reason that it’s easier to contribute less.

There’s also evidence that people are bad at judging the level of their
personal contribution (7) to a brainstorming session. In one experiment, for
example, a group of four participants each believed they had contributed around
36% of the ideas at a recent brainstorming session, even though that it
mathematically impossible.

A fourth potential problem is evaluation comprehension (8), or being worried about

what other people will think or say about your ideas. It’s one thing to avoid openly
criticising other people’s ideas, but it’s much more difficult to avoid all signs of
judgement.
People may express criticism with a simple facial expression, a slight laugh or even
a
pause between hearing an idea and responding. And even if nobody is negative
in any way, it’s still difficult to accept that nobody is thinking negative thoughts
about your crazy idea.

A much more serious problem is called blocking (9). This happens when only one
person at a time is allowed to talk. If that person talks for too long, you may forget
your own idea, or decide not to express it when you finally get your chance. This
problem probably happens all the time: ideas come and go every second, but it is
terribly easy to get distracted, especially when we are listening politely to a colleague
expressing his or her own idea.

Finally, there is a problem called the illusion of group productivity (10), where
participants think the meeting is more effective than it really is. For example, it can be
very difficult to judge when the meeting’s objectives have been met: how many ideas
should be on the board? How many of those ideas need to be serious proposals, as
compared to lists of random words and thoughts? Without concrete criteria for
assessing success, groups tend to believe they’ve achieved their goal far too soon.

In other words, instead of making people more creative, the act of listening to each
other’s ideas may actually make them try less hard, withhold their own ideas and
give up too soon.

1. Work alone. Make five suggestions about how to improve brainstorming, based on
the criticisms in the text.

a. Prepared ideas in knowing the topic and timing beforehand

.

b. Throw as much of ideas in a short time by everyone, then go through it one by one
for explenation
.

c. Be confident in throwing ideas, there’s no right or wrong as long its related to the
topic. The reasoning can be discussed further
.

d. Be a team player, throwing an idea as well as no judgement in other peoples ideas

.