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When we're confronting a vexing problem, we often gather a group to brainstorm. We're looking to get the best ideas as quickly as possible. I love seeing it happen—except for one tiny wrinkle. Group brainstorming usually backfires.
In brainstorming meetings, many good ideas are lost— and few are gained. Extensive evidence shows that when we generate ideas together, we fail to maximize collective intelligence. Brainstorming groups fall so far short of their potential that we get more ideas—and better ideas—if we all work alone. As the humorist Dave Barry quipped, "If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be: 'meetings.' " But the problem isn't meetings themselves—it's how we run them.
[...] Collective intelligence begins with individual creativity. But it doesn't end there. Individuals produce a greater volume and variety of novel ideas when they work alone. That means that they come up with more brilliant ideas than groups—but also more terrible ideas than groups. It takes collective judgment to find the signal in the noise and bring the best ideas to fruition.
Source: time.com
From HIDDEN POTENTIAL by Adam Grant
I am sure most of you have spent time "brain storming" ... was it productive or wasted time ?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by r_a_trip on Thursday October 26 2023, @10:27AM (1 child)
I have to put some nuance here. It is a waste of time if you work for a company that doesn't want to tackle necessary and fundamental changes. I happen to work for one of those. Don't get me wrong, this company gets a lot of stuff right, but one of the stumbling blocks they are unable to change is the abysmally outdated state of the ERP system.
Since I work in finance, we have about one or two "brainstorming sessions" a year on how we can "optimize" the ERP system. The confines of those sessions is that we can not change fundamental aspects of the system. So it's becomes the annual throwing glitter on the turd.
The action that really needs to take place is a complete overhaul of the system (first introduced in 2004), which we can't do because reasons. (money?) So it becomes trotting out the low hanging fruit again. Clean up the master data. Simplify processes. Prune the historical data (everything is still in there since 2004). For some reason invoicing also needs to be automated away, which is impossible because our customers are very diverse and have their own demands about invoicing they can enforce. (Programming all that would be a massive undertaking.) Afterwards, only 1 or 2 trivial suggestions are implemented and we keep plodding on with our glorious turd.
My enthusiasm for these sessions is at an absolute zero. Repetitive, ineffective and time you'll never get back.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by pdfernhout on Friday October 27 2023, @12:11AM
https://www.cognexus.org/id41.htm [cognexus.org]
"Dialogue Mapping™ is a radically inclusive facilitation process that creates a diagram or 'map' that captures and connects participants' comments as a meeting conversation unfolds. It is especially effective with highly complex or “Wicked” problems that are wrought with both social and technical complexity, as well as a sometimes maddening inability to move forward in a meaningful and cost effective way.
Dialogue Mapping™ creates forward progress in situations that have been stuck; it clears the way for robust decisions that last. It is effective because it works with the non-linear way humans really think, communicate, and make decisions."
I gave a couple of talks about it myself, linked on my website.
The biggest challenge of the 21st century: the irony of technologies of abundance used by scarcity-minded people.