BRAINSTORMING

[Mr. M. GOVINDARAJAN]

Alex Osborn coined the term ‘brainstorming’.  Brainstorming is a conference technique by which a group attempts to find a solution for a specific problem by amassing all the ideas spontaneously by its members.  It is a process designed to obtain the maximum number of ideas relating to a specific area of interest.

Brainstorming is a group process for generating ideas using the four divergent thinking guidelines of deferring judgment, striving for quantity, freewheeling and seeking combinations. Deferring judgment is the basis for the other three guidelines.   It implies the process of waiting to judge ideas and options until after there are many ideas and options are generated.  The ability to defer judgment is important both externally and internally.   It helps to generate a higher quantity and quality of ideas.  Strive for quantity is creative problem solving.  With quantity one is more likely to get quality.  If one generates more ideas, while brainstorming, there is a likely chance that one or more of them will be the creative solution to the problem.

Freewheel suggests capturing every ideas that comes into one’s mind, even if it seems crazy or out there  It is helpful to give one’s self permission to be playful and strive for originality.   It necessitates the use of the imagination.  Seek combination asks brainstorming participants to build on previously stated ideas.  Old ideas can be modified, altered or combined to generate new ideas.   This is also known as piggy-backing or hitch-hiking.

Brainstorming is a convergent thinking.   It is a process which provides an organizing framework for generating new and useful outcomes or actions, using both divergent and convergent thinking.   Brainstorming is a facilitator.  The person charged with the responsibility of providing the process expertise for creative problem solving.  There are numerous approaches to brainstorming.  The traditional approach is the most effect because it is the most energetic and openly collaborative, allowing participants to build on each other’s ideas.

Creativity exercises, relaxation exercises or other fun activities before the session can help participants relax their minds so that they will be more creative during the brainstorming session.  The following are the steps for brainstorming:

• Define the problem or issue;
• Give a time limit;
• Once the brainstorming starts, participants shout out solutions to the problem while the facilitator writes them down.  Whatever the idea it must be written down.  Laughing is to be encouraged.  Criticism should not be there;
• Once the time is up, select five ideas those are best.  Make sure everyone involved in brainstorming session is in agreement for the selection.
• Write down about five criteria for judging which ideas best solve the problem;
• Give each idea a score of 0 to 5 points depending on how well it meets each criterion.   Once all of the ideas have been scored for each criterion, add up the scores;
• The idea with the highest score will be serve the problem.

The following are the techniques of brainstorming:

• Free writing;
• Break down the topic into levels;
• Listing/bulleting;
• Cubing;
• Similies;
• Clustering/mapping/webbing: The general idea;
• Journalistic questions;
• Thinking outside the box;
• Using charts or shapes;

In free writing let one’s thoughts flow as they will, putting pen to paper and writing down whatever comes into one’s mind.  Don’t judge the quality of what all write and don’t worry about style or any surface level issues, like spelling, grammar or punctuation.  If one can’t think of what to say, write that down really.   The advantage of this technique is that one free up his internal critic and allows himself to write things one might not write if one was being too self conscious.

In the second technique, once one has a course assignment  he might brainstorm:

• The general topic like ‘The relationship between tropical fruits and colonial powers’;
• A specific subtopic or required question, like ‘How did the availability of multiple tropical fruits influence competition amongst colonial powers trading from the larger Caribbean islands during the 19^th Century?”
• A single term or phrase that you sense you’re overusing in the paper.  For example, if you see that you have written ‘increased the competition’ about a dozen times in your ‘tropical fruits’ paper, you could brainstorm variations on the phrase itself or on each of the main terms: “increased” and “competition”.

In the listing/bulleting technique one jots down lists of words or phrases under a particular topic.  Try this one by basing your list either-

• On the general topic;
• On one ore more words from your particular thesis claim; or
• On a word or idea that is the complete opposite of your original word or idea.

Cubing technology enables one to consider the topic from six different directions.  The cubing brainstorming will result in six sides or approaches to the topic.  Take a sheet of paper, consider your topic and respond to these six commands-

1. Describe it;
2. Compare it;
3. Associate it;
4. Analyze it;
5. Apply it;
6. Argue for and against it.

In similie technique complete the given sentence using suitable words.

The clustering technique has three or more different names, according to how you describe the activity itself or what the end product looks like.  In short, you will write a lot of different terms and phrases onto a sheet of paper in a random fashion and later go back to link the words together into a sort of ‘map’ or ‘web’ that forms groups from the separate parts.   Allow yourself to start with chaos.  After the chaos subsides, you will be able to crease some order out of it.

In journalistic technique one would use the ‘big six’ questions that journalists rely on to thoroughly research a story.  

The six are- Who?, What?, When?, Where?, Why and How?

In ‘thinking outside the box’ technique one can take advantage of experience in other courses from other departments.  Suppose you are writing a paper for an English course.   One could ask oneself ‘If I were writing about this very same topic in a biology course or using this term in a history course, how might I see or understand it differently?  Are there varying definitions for this concept within, say, philosophy or physics that might encourage me to think about this term from a new, richer point of view?”

We create charts, graphs or tables in lie of word lists or phrases as one try to shape or explore an idea.  One could use the same phrases or words that are central to the topic and try different ways to arrange them spatially, say in a graph, on a grid, or in a table or chart. You might even try the trusty old flow chart.  The important thing is to get out of the realm of words alone and see how different spatial representations might help you see the relationships among your ideas. If you can’t imagine the shape of a chart at first, just put down the words on the page and then drawn lines between or around them. Or think of a shape. Do your ideas most easily form a triangle?   Square, Umbrella? Can you put some ideas in parallel formation?  In a line?