{"id":539,"date":"2013-01-08T17:16:34","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T17:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=539"},"modified":"2013-01-08T17:16:34","modified_gmt":"2013-01-08T17:16:34","slug":"how-to-conduct-a-successful-brainstorming-session-to-help-your-small-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/how-to-conduct-a-successful-brainstorming-session-to-help-your-small-business\/","title":{"rendered":"How to conduct a successful brainstorming session to help your small business"},"content":{"rendered":"
Brainstorming seems to be getting a bad rap these days. Is it time for large and small businesses to throw out collaborative thinking to generate new ideas?\u00a0 Last year, an article in the New Yorker \u201cGroupthink, The brainstorming myth<\/a>,\u201d by Jonah Lehrer<\/a>, a science journalist and author, sought to debunk the myth about groups working together to solve a creative problem. (The brainstorming concept was originally advanced by the famous ad man Alex Osborne of B.B.D.O. in the 1950s)\u00a0 Lehrer cites studies that suggest individuals generate more quality ideas, even if groups generate a greater volume of them.<\/p>\n Jonathan Becker, chief marketing officer at SAP, takes an even stronger position in \u201cIs Brainstorming Brain Dead.\u201d<\/a> He makes no bones about his belief that \u2018brainstorming is a bad idea that does not work.\u201d He too references studies indicating that individuals perform better than groups and that performance of brainstorming actually gets worse as the size of the group increases.<\/p>\n Unlike Lehrer and Becker, I\u2019m not about to bag the brainstorm. But some may need to change. When they are run right \u2013 and that includes what happens before, during and after — they can be very effective in generating ideas. They miss the mark when one or two people dominate the meeting or the group spends too much time on one idea at the expense of considering all the possibilities.<\/p>\n