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03/05/2013

Brainstorming Debunked

I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.'
Toni Morrison

In 1948 Alex Osborne published Your Creative Power, in which he introduced the concept of group brainstorming. The most important rule of brainstorming was the prohibition on negative criticism, which Osborne held nips creativity in the bud.  The concept of brainstorm took off and has been a hugely popular technique worldwide for decades. However, an article in the New Yorker (January 20, 2012), "Groupthink: The Brainstorming Myth," cites research which as early as 1958, proved that the technique did not increase the quantity of creative ideas generated.

The first refutation came from Yale researchers who in 1958 set up 12 groups of four undergraduates each and 48 students working by themselves. The groups and individuals were given a series of creative puzzles, and the solo students came up with twice as many ideas as the brainstorming groups. The conclusion was: "Brainstorming didn't unleash the power of the group, but rather made each individual less creative." In a more ambitious research project in 2003 at UC Berkeley, students in groups where criticism and debate were encouraged produced twenty percent more ideas than groups where negativity was not permitted.

 







Stroller Extravaganza - Foundations

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