Brainstorm for creative ideas

THE idea of brainstorming is credited to an American advertising executive called Alex F. Osborn who wrote a 1948 bestseller, Your Creative Power, that outlined a system for group brainstorming.

He suggested that you get a group together, and do the following:

> Outline the problem, for example, “We need to figure out a study for our advertising course that looks at consumer behaviour.” > Call for ideas. > Give everyone time to think. > Everyone presents an idea: people take turns so that everyone talks.

> Every single idea is recorded (so you need a group secretary)

> Everyone talks about the ideas presented, and the secretary adds developments or additions.

To get things going, Osborn set out these principles:

> Go for as many ideas as you can.

> Don’t look for quality in ideas; accept everything. > Enjoy weird ideas. > Combine ideas to form new approaches. Osborn thought that the ideal group size was a dozen, and that the leader should start by making sure that nobody judges anything said.

Also, the wilder and wackier the ideas are, the better because creativity often arises from things that appear out of field. So you need a strong group leader who can get things moving and keep them moving.

This should get you lots of good ideas. Then you rank ideas, perhaps according to popularity, or maybe according to some other quality that you think is important, so you have a short-list.

Then you take the shortlist, debate the merits of each and make your decision.

You may choose to debate the merits and then take a pause for a day or two before making a decision, or have a select group debate the merits – that’s up to you.