101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

Chapter 9

Brainstorming with

Related Stimuli

B

rainstorming with related activities is classic brainstorming as developed and popu-

larized by Alex Osborn. It’s idea generation that focuses on the problem and uses the

ideas of other group members as stimuli. The key to successful brainstorming is adher-

ence to the following brainstorming principles.

1. Defer Judgment
   Withhold all evaluation of ideas during idea generation. That is, separate generation from
   evaluation. Once you have listed all possible ideas, then go back and evaluate them.
   There’s a lot of logic behind this principle. First, most groups don’t follow it and, as a
   result, are less than productive. Second, deferring judgment increases the odds of finding
   at least one good idea. If you spend a lot of time evaluating each idea as you think of it,
   you may run out of time before you can list all possible ideas. It’s a matter of probability.
   Finally, separating evaluation from generation helps you avoid creating a negative
   group climate. Idea generation generally is a fun, positive experience. If you stop to criti-
   cize each idea as it is proposed, you’re interjecting a negative process that disrupts the
   more positive aspects. Thus, you may never produce a climate healthy enough for effec-
   tive idea generation. Separate the processes and you’ll be amazed at how productive your
   group can be.


2. Quantity Breeds Quality
   The more ideas you list, the more high-quality ideas you’ll get. Again, it’s all a matter of
   probability. Let’s assume there is a potential pool of five hundred ideas. That’s how many
   ideas you could generate hypothetically if you had all the brains and time in the world.
   Of these five hundred ideas, assume there are twenty-five you would consider as high
   quality. If you use the sequential generate-evaluate, generate-evaluate-generate-evaluate
   cycle, you may get “lucky” and produce a total of twenty-five ideas during a one-hour
   brainstorming session. Now, just what are the odds that a majority of these would be the

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