The Human Factor: The Trouble with Group Brainstorming

People love to gettogether for group brainstorming sessions. At the end of the sessions, participantsoften report their collective sense of accomplishment and enjoyment of theexperience. And although customer satisfaction rests, in part, on an enjoyableexperience, if you stop asking questions there, you’re not getting the wholestory.

Even though groupsgenerally enjoy their brainstorming efforts, it turns out that people in groupsactually tend to generate fewer ideas than they would if they were tobrainstorm individually and then submit their ideas to be compiled later. Thiscounter-intuitive finding rests on several factors, some related to groupdynamics issues, and some with their roots in the cognitive resources of theindividuals in the group.

Brainstorming pitfalls

On the groupdynamics side, social matching and social loafing seem to play a part. Socialmatching means that, consciously or not, people like to be like their peers, andthey’ll modify their own behavior to match the behavior of their group. In thecontext of a group formed for the purpose of brainstorming, members of thegroup tend to come up with about the same number of ideas as their peers. Socialloafing, on the other hand, is a term that describes the tendency for people toexpend less individual effort when working in a group than they would if theywere working on their own.

The cognitivecosts to the individuals in the group can also undermine the efforts of the group.Most brainstorming session designs, for example, presuppose that participantswill announce their thoughts to the group as they occur, and that someone willrecord the ideas generated by the group. It’s a good idea in theory, but thepractice creates a bottleneck: people have to wait for others to finish beforethey can contribute their own ideas. While they’re waiting, they may forget oreven second-guess what they were planning to say. In addition, if the sessiongenerates a lot of discussion, the participants are following the discussion atthe same time they’re supposed to be generating ideas. As a result, they can’tgive their full attention to either task, and are probably slower to performeach one.

What to do about it

Individualbrainstorming may generate more ideas than collective brainstorming, but theenthusiasm group brainstorming participants bring to the task is itself adesirable outcome. By combining the right strategies and the right technologies,a good moderator can foster both efficiency and enthusiasm. Here are threethings you can do:

1. Make sure the group understands theimportance of the session. One of the best ways to prevent social loafingis to make sure the participants understand the value of their contributionsand of the task itself. If the session has importance for your project or yourorganization, that’s information the participants should have.
2. Add a synchronous meeting tool. Yourgroup may be meeting in person, but one of the quickest ways to boost theefficiency of a brainstorming session is to eliminate the bottleneck of havinga single record-keeper. Any tool that includes a group chat feature will do. Youcan begin the discussion as you normally would, and even start off as therecord keeper. Once the group gets on a roll, though, step out of the way, andask the participants to enter their ideas directly into the group chat. They’llstill have the momentum from meeting together in a group, but because they’reentering their own ideas directly, they won’t have to wait before they addtheir ideas to the pot.
           In this format,(digital, but in the same room), social matching can become a productivityboost. As long as the group members nearby are busy typing ideas into thesystem, individuals will have to continue typing their ideas into the system ifthey want to match their peers. Making each person his or her own record-keeperhelps combat social loafing, too. Even though everyone is sitting together in agroup, each person in the group now has his or her own task — writing downideas.
3. Keep the intervals short. Finally, it’simportant to remember that adding technology to the process can remove some ofthe spontaneity that many of the group members enjoyed in the first place. Toguard against that, try to keep the intervals where the group is typingrelatively short. Ten minutes is a good rule of thumb, but if the groups’energy seems to be flagging before that, it’s fine to take a break early. Stoppingfor a while to talk about other things and then returning to the brainstormingtask can actually help stimulate some new ideas, as well as keeping the groupinterested and involved.

Groupbrainstorming can be a great way to mine the best ideas of the group, and to focusa team on a common goal. With the right strategies and a little technology,your group brainstorming session can help you get the most from the team.

References

Kohn,N.W. and Smith, S.M. (2010) Collaborative Fixation: Effects of Others’ Ideas onBrainstorming. Applied CognitivePsychology. (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI:10.1002/acp.1699