Whitespace: Is brainstorming the enemy of innovation?

Issue 81: January 2012

AIM is delighted to offer a brand new course Brainstorming is a ubiquitous tool of modern business, a practice that's so commonplace its use may seem beyond question. But as 2012 kicks off a number of thought leaders have started to reassess its place in the innovation process.

Criticism of brainstorming is not new with researchers hinting at its flaws for decades. But as the pace and importance of innovation continues to intensify more critics are attacking a key downside of collaborative ideation: groupthink.

Rather than delivering disruptive ideas that can build a competitive advantage it's claimed extroverted participants generally circumvent the brainstorming process by unintentionally dictating which ideas receive the most attention.

It's important to understand that critics of brainstorming aren't calling for an end to collaboration. Instead they are suggesting a new approach that sees more emphasis placed on the individual talents of knowledge workers.

A brief history of brainstorming

Last week in a New York Times opinion piece author Susan Cain noted that solitude is currently out of fashion in professional environments. It has, in fact, been passé for quite some time, largely thanks to a concept born out of modern warfare.

The man credited with the invention of brainstorming, adman Alex Osborn, is said to have conceived the model in the 1950s as process in which a group of people 'attack' a problem commando-style without pausing for reflection or analysis.

Osborn believed that when judgement of an idea is suspended group participants feel more comfortable to share bold or embryonic ideas. This 'anything goes' ethos helped make brainstorming a hit with advertising agencies before spreading to other fields.

Part of the allure of brainstorming is the large volume of ideas a single session can produce. It also offers a feel good factor with all participants perceiving they have made a meaningful contribution. But according to critics there is a major flaw: it doesn't actually work.

The dangers of groupthink

The problem with brainstorming, according to decades of research, is that it rarely achieves its primary goal: the encouragement of new perspectives. Instead, participants predominantly follow a leader, often without realising it.

Cain describes this process as groupthink, a phenomenon that occurs when the extroverts who invariably and often subconsciously control a brainstorming session turn the quest for divergence into a popularity contest between comfortable ideas.

One solution could be to add more people to a brainstorming session. More people means more diversity right? Well apparently not, with researchers finding that larger groups produce even less original brainstorming outcomes.

A better approach, according to Cain and the influential creativity researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihaly is not to avoid collaboration but to complement it with the provision of independent thinking time and workplace flexibility for talented members of staff.

Why co-creation beats groupthink

Cain argues that introverts are better placed to achieve innovative outcomes than most extroverts; introversion, it's claimed, ultimately enables the intense focus required to develop a novel solution to existing problem.

While Steve Jobs is often described as the collaboration king that made Apple, the company's first computer was predominantly the result of Steve Wozniak's solo obsession with building a user-friendly home computer.

According to Cain the key to getting it right is to give solo workers the privacy and freedom they need to develop new associations. But the innovation process shouldn't end there.

Innovation cannot thrive in a social vacuum. Reflecting on his design firm's creative practice, Fabio Sergio suggests that intense, personal immersion needs to be balanced with high-intensity collaborative experiences; a process of co-creation.

Accommodating co-creation

In a world of open plan offices, teleconferences and habitual meetings, the best approach to fostering organisational innovation is to find ways to encourage a mix of both solo work and collaborative experiences.

Cain suggests that rethinking work environments is one means of achieving a balance. She advocates office layouts that allow people to both disappear into personalised spaces and interact regularly on both a formal and casual basis to discuss their ideas when ready.

A revaluation of the relationship between innovation and productive is also required. Taken at face value co-creation appears to be more abstract and less efficient than a structured, time-efficient brainstorming session.

But if the delivery of true novelty rather than 'me too' products or processes is a priority, it's time to start giving talented and motivated staff the interruption-free time they need to be co-creative, and the workplace they need to achieve it in.

Details of Susan Cain's new book Quiet: The Power of Introverts can be found here.

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