IDEA - Tools

This is one of the best known and most used in the business world group based creativity process for problem solving. It is a method of getting a large number of ideas from a group of people in a short time. It can be used for generating a large number of ideas or solutions for well-defined strategic or operational problems, such as for engineering design processes. It forms also a basic framework or constitutes the initial phase for the implementation of many other groups based on creative techniques.

The four basic rules of brainstorming are:

a) No criticism and no prior judgement of any idea,

b) All ideas, even the absurd, are welcome,

c) Quantity has value, the more ideas the better, if a large quantity of ideas is generated, then the idea pool very likely would contain high-quality ideas,

d) Sharing and combining ideas, and constructing ideas based on those developed by other members of the group for producing new ideas.

1. Brainstorming sessions take place in a group of 6-10 people.

2. The presence of a leader is necessary to stimulate the generation of ideas, as well as a preparation phase to gather the necessary data and information to approach the problem. 3. A recorder writes the problem statement and the idea generated by the group on a white board. Several guidelines for brainstorming are available, such as suspend judgement, free wheel, quantity, and cross- fertilise.

4. The whole process takes normally one hour and can be conducted through several stages. The session begins with stating the problem and calling for solutions by the leader.

An evaluation method is additionally used for to identify the ideas that have a value for implementation.

Source: Managing Innovation and R&D Processes in EU Environment, 2007