Information, Education and Communication: Brain Storming


Brain Storming:

Brain storming is a type of small group interaction designed to encourage the free introduction of ideas on a restricted basis and without any limitations as to feasibility. Participants are encouraged to list for a period of time all the ideas that come to their minds regarding some problem and are asked not to judge these ideas during the session. Judgement of the ideas will come at a later period in which all contributions will be sorted, evaluated and perhaps later adopted.

Advantages:

It is informal. It allows for maximum creativity and inter stimulation, It makes certain that no aspects of a problem has been over looked.

Limitations:

  1. The process is time-consuming, particularly where less than 10 percent of the ideas are ultimately usable.
  2. Like any discussion group, the productivity to the brain-storming session is dependent upon the abilities and quality of orientation of the participants.
  3. Its ultimate value might come more in what it does to participants rather than in what productivity occurs immediately in the brain-storming session, and this value cannot be measured with any degree of accuracy.


How to Organize Brain-storming:

There are many ways of organizing brain-storming groups. It must be remembered that the process of brain-storming is most important experience for the individual, than the end results. The ground rules should be thoroughly understood and observed participants.
They are:

  1. Judgement of ideas must be deferred to a later time.
  2. Each person should be encouraged to free wheel even though his ideas may be wild. Ideas can be tamed down much easier than they can be thought up in the first place.
  3. Hitchhiking and/or riding piggyback on others ideas should be encouraged, especially if the new slant on the original idea adds to creativity of the group thought process.
  4. Positive, dynamic ideas only should be accepted. Yes, but it wont work thoughts are ruled out entirely.
  5. Perhaps less than 10 percent of the ideas will probably be usable in the final analysis so this means quantity of ideas must be stressed.
  6. Brainstorming is most effective in a relatively small group of people, perhaps not more than 12 to 15.
  7. A time limit of not more than about one hour is most effective for groups. Mental fatigue, ridiculous as posses and uneasiness on the part of participants because of an urgency to get things done, all tend to set in if brainstorming is prolonged indefinitely. Many participants will go home still engaging in brainstorming individually all of which is very good.
  8. The leader of the session should see to it that:
    1. The group members fully understand the brainstorming process.
    2. Likewise, they fully understand what the problem is that the brainstorming will revolve around.
    3. Negative phrases should be kept to a minimum.
    4. Intermittent ideas be thrown in to trigger thinking so as to avoid pauses in discussion.
    5. He as a leader stays in the background as much as possible.
    6. The recorder is keeping a record of all ideas so that sorting and sifting can be done in the subsequent evaluation.
    7. Both the immediate opening remarks and those given in the closing few minutes be carefully recorded. Authorities do not agree completely as to what intervals of time are best for the production of ideas to be most fruitful; some say at the beginning, others believe after the leader has suggested there are only so many minutes left for the discussion.
  9. If possible, one might wish to contact the discussion members a may or two later to see if any other ideas have come to their minds.
  10. In sifting and evaluating the ideas, those which are unusable should be eliminated, but only after an attempt has been made to identify those which can be used immediately and those which need further study.