Brainstorming for best results
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:
1) Outline the problem, for example, “We need to figure out a study for our advertising course that looks at consumer behaviour.” 2) Call for ideas.
3) Give everyone time to think. 4) Everyone presents an idea: people take turns so that everyone gets to talk.
5) Every single idea is recorded (so you need a group secretary).
6) Everyone talks about the ideas presented and the secretary adds developments or additions.
To get things going, Osborn sets out these principles:
> Go for as many ideas as you can.
> Don’t look for quality in ideas, accept everything.
> 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.