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Creativity &

Personal
Development

Brainstorming

Session Outline
Classical Brainstorming
Rules
The Process

Variants

Wildest idea
Stop and go
Round-robin
Trigger method

Structure of Classical
Brainstorming

Criticism not permitted


Evaluate later
Go for quantity
Flexibility
Fluency

Free-wheeling is welcome
Encourage wild ideas

Build on each others ideas


Elaborate, Combine & Improve

The Process
Stages:
State the problem
Redefine the problem in terms of
how to..
Identify one or two relevant
redefinitions
Generate ideas for each redefinition
Select the most appropriate ideas

HOW TO DISPOSE OF
UNSOLD STOCK OF 500,000
OLD FASHIONED BLACK
UMBRELLAS

Publicity carriers for firms


Give away on rainy day
Use material to make hats
Use upside down as
irrigation devices
Sell to UK
Burn down warehouse
and collect insurance
Make giant sculpture
Use struts as bicycle
spokes

WILDEST IDEA
Wild ideas may
not be
productive in
themselves
but they can
Kick others on
to think of more
practical ideas.

STOP AND GO
BRAINSTORMING

The brainstorming session


is divided into segments
with regular rest periods
to enable participants to
gather their thoughts.
GO

ROUND-ROBIN
BRAINSTORMING

Rules the same as in conventional brainstorming

However, each member of the group takes it in


turn to contribute whatever idea he/she may
have at his/her turn

TRIGGER METHOD

Problem statement read out to the group

Each member records ideas in silence for 5


minutes

One member of the group reads out his/her


ideas to the rest of the group

The ideas read out are discussed by


everyone for about 10 minutes with the aim
of developing ideas further

Procedure continues with next member, and


so on, until all ideas have been discussed.

Gordon-Little Method
Problem initially presented in an abstract
form
Progressive redefinition to a less abstract
form
Original problem revealed
Use ides generated as a stimulus for finding
practical solutions
Avoids looking for obvious solutions and
encourages creativity, but limits problem
definition

Successful
Brainstorming

Often relies on the skill and


experience of the moderator
Most useful for conceptually
simple ideas
Not always suitable for highly
technical problems, people
motivation or problems involving
lots of written materials

Exercise
We need for each group:
1 moderator
1 client
1 Scribe/recorder
1 observer

Problem
How to get students to spend more
time at the University.
The problem might need redefining
(5-10 minutes)
The 30-40 minutes of brainstorming
the agreed problem
Followed by reporting back to the
class

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