Brainswarming is a new process featured in a video at the Harvard Business Review.
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/why-you-should-stop-brainstorming/
Let's see how it upholds Osborn's original goals by keeping the good of brainstorming and getting rid of those things that hinder the achievement of those goals.
Keeps the Good of Brainstorming. Brainswarming upholds Osborn's original goals:
Basically, Brainswarming achieves all of Osborn's goals that he envisioned; but, as seen below, Brainswarming gets rid of the problems that hinder reaching Osborn's goals.
Gets Rid of the Bad That Hinders Osborn's Goals from Being Achieved
When to start talking again...
After the idea generation wanes, people can then return to their talking ways. Perhaps, small groups will form as people gather around their favorite ideas to flesh them out as small groups. Perhaps, the group ranks the ideas by placing small Post-Its next to their favorite ones. Perhaps, the entire group re-assembles to discuss the ideas as a whole group. The choice is up to you.
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/why-you-should-stop-brainstorming/
Let's see how it upholds Osborn's original goals by keeping the good of brainstorming and getting rid of those things that hinder the achievement of those goals.
Keeps the Good of Brainstorming. Brainswarming upholds Osborn's original goals:
- People can work together: You can combine and build upon each other's ideas.
- No judgement is possible because no talking takes place.
- People can go for quantity of ideas. They reach a greater quantity faster than in brainstorming because they work in parallel.
- People can easily submit unusual ideas. Again no talking takes place so there is less fear of judgment. Also, making the contributions anonymous encourages more risk taking, honesty, and wildness.
Basically, Brainswarming achieves all of Osborn's goals that he envisioned; but, as seen below, Brainswarming gets rid of the problems that hinder reaching Osborn's goals.
Gets Rid of the Bad That Hinders Osborn's Goals from Being Achieved
- No more talkative few dominating the session. There is no talking.
- No need for a facilitator to keep people from dominating or judging. The Brainswarming process itself keeps people in line because there is no talking.
- No more sharing one at a time. People work in parallel so the work goes much faster.
- No one needs to be a scribe, because everyone is writing and placing their ideas at the correct place on the master graph.
- No one needs to interpret and summarize the results because the master graph holds all the results--and everyone built it together.
- No one needs to create a summary of the session. Take a picture of the graph and send that out or just keep the graph up on the wall for later use.
- No one needs to read through a textual summary of the session. The graph contains short phrases and places all the ideas in their relationship to each other.
- No one needs to later group the similar ideas together because the grouping is already done as the graph is built.
- No more "wordy" ideas. All contributions are brief as they must fit on a Post-It note.
- No more remembering what people said. It is all visible on the master graph throughout the session.
- No more having your train of thought interrupted. The silence allows you to fluctuate between thinking quietly, writing your ideas, placing them on the master graph, looking at other people's ideas, and building on other's ideas.
- No more struggles between top-down (big picture) thinkers and bottom-up (detail oriented) thinkers. The master graph integrates both seamlessly.
- No more fear of the boss and colleagues. Silence and anonymous postings on the graph encourages honesty, risk taking, and wildness of ideas.
- No more forcing everyone to be present for the session. The master graph remains on the wall so people can contribute at different times. (Online Brainswarming will allow remote groups from around the world to work together.)
When to start talking again...
After the idea generation wanes, people can then return to their talking ways. Perhaps, small groups will form as people gather around their favorite ideas to flesh them out as small groups. Perhaps, the group ranks the ideas by placing small Post-Its next to their favorite ones. Perhaps, the entire group re-assembles to discuss the ideas as a whole group. The choice is up to you.