Brainstorming sessions have gotten a lot of bad press lately, but there are way around the problems.
A study at Texas A & M University suggests that brainstorming in a group may limit the diversity of ideas that come up. According to lead researcher Nicholas Kohn, "Fixation to other people's ideas can occur unconsciously and lead you to suggesting ideas that mimic your brainstorming partners. Thus, you potentially become less creative."
I've found it useful to encourage as many "crazy" ideas as possible up front, to get people over their instinct to judge every idea immediately and to widen the scope of thinking.
You can do the same thing when you're brainstorming by yourself - start with the most outlandish ideas you can think of and it'll help the flow of ideas that later turn out to be useful.
When's the last time you had a solo or group brainstorming session to come up with new ideas? Would today be a good time?
(You'll find lots more methods for coming up with bright ideas in my book, Creativity Now, published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
