Newsweek is the latest publication to question the creative virtues of “brainstorming.” I’ve seen brainstorming work incredibly well, and I’ve also seen it misused. To use it effectively, I think we need to rename it—a little creative naming might shift our understanding of what we now call brainstorming, and reposition it as a tool that really works.
First let’s look at what makes brainstorming effective—“piggy backing” on someone else’s idea. Time and time again I have seen a participant propose a hopelessly uninspired idea (I’ll break with brainstorming etiquette and call that a “bad idea”); then a second participant sees something in the bad idea, proposes a brilliant follow up idea, and boom!, a “good idea” is born. Often the good idea has none of the family characteristics of the bad one, it’s just a distant cousin. But without the bad idea, the good one would not have emerged.
So let’s rename these creative gatherings with a name that speaks to the notion of seeing something in someone else’s idea.
How about…Evokation? Snowballing? Piggybacking? Group Grope? Germination Sessions?
What’s your idea for the new brainstorming name?
