How Do I Get People To Speak Up In
Brainstorming Meetings?
"Anybody have any ideas?"
. . . Anybody? . . . We tackle how to get people talking.
We've all been in that brainstorming
meeting: the one where you could hear a pin drop, and the white board of
"great ideas" remains blank. It's awkward for participants and
downright excruciating for the person leading the meeting.
Psychologist Art Markman helps us
figure out how to get people talking.
Hi,
I manage around 50 employees in a
creative industry. The people I work with are very hardworking, smart, and
creative. Yet whenever I try to get them to brainstorm in meetings: crickets.
Any suggestions for methods to get the conversation and ideas flowing?
I sympathize. Nothing is more frustrating
than wanting to get your group to generate great ideas and ending up with a
room full of people staring at their shoes.
I want to address this question in
two parts. First, let's try to figure out some of the things that might keep
people from speaking up. Once you figure that out, you can try some methods to
get people talking.
How Are You Defining The Problem?
Generating ideas is all about allowing the statement of the problem to remind
you of things you know about that might help you to solve that problem.
Your problem statement might be too
general. You might say, "We need to find a way to fix brainstorming."
Without identifying what is wrong with brainstorming, though, it is hard to
find creative solutions.
There might also be a lot of disagreement
about what the problem really is. At a general level, people might agree that
brainstorming needs to be fixed, for example, but they might disagree about why
there is a problem in the first place.
That means that before you can even
begin to generate ideas, you need to make sure that you have a specific problem
statement, and that there is general agreement about what problem you are
trying to solve.
People Are Afraid Of Criticism. One
of the reasons why it is hard to generate new ideas is that there is a general
mistrust of anything new. We prefer the devil known to the devil unknown. At
some point, of course, it is important to explore potential creative solutions
carefully to ensure that they will be of value. But if the criticism of new
ideas starts too early, people start to clam up. If past brainstorming sessions
have attacked every new idea, people eventually give up.
Decades of research demonstrates
that groups that brainstorm come up with fewer ideas than the individuals would
have come up with had they worked alone.
If your group tends to be
hypercritical (or if a few individuals tend to criticize every new idea), it is
important to remind everyone to think about new ideas and build on them before
tearing them down.
Lack Of Past Follow-Through. Another
problem with brainstorming is that generating ideas for solving a problem is
often the easy part. Taking the best idea or ideas and implementing them takes
time, energy, and resources. In many situations, a group spends time generating
ideas, and then those ideas are not implemented. When that happens often
enough, groups stop putting much energy into generating new creative solutions,
because they know those ideas will not be pushed forward.
If the creative ideas you generate
tend not to survive until they are implemented, it is important to end
brainstorming sessions with a clear assignment of responsibilities and
resources to make sure that the ideas ultimately see the light of day.
Lack Of Credit. Another problem with
group idea generation is that the group’s ideas are often presented more widely
in an organization by the group’s leader. The group leader may then get most of
the credit for that idea, even though it was a group effort. People respond to
the rewards around them, so if they feel like you have taken credit for their
ideas in the past, they will be reluctant to share new ideas with you in the
future. That means that it is important for the entire group to get credit and
reward for successful solutions to problems that the group generates.
I should point out that the typical
method for brainstorming is actually a lousy way to generate ideas. The term
"brainstorming" was coined by Alex Osborn in the 1950s and refers to
a set of rules he suggested in which people in groups should generate as many
ideas as possible without constraints or criticism, and that people should
build on each other’s ideas. Unfortunately, decades of research demonstrates
that groups that brainstorm come up with fewer ideas (and fewer good ideas)
than the individuals would have come up with had they worked alone.
To understand why this happens, it
is first important to describe the two phases of creative idea generation.
First, there is a divergent phase in which you try to come up with as many different
approaches to a problem as possible. Then, there is a convergent phase in which
you try to settle on one (or a small number) of solutions you are going to
pursue. A given idea generation session may have many divergent and convergent
phases.
The problem with brainstorming is
that when groups work together, they tend to promote convergent thinking. The
first person in the group who says something contaminates the memories of
everyone else in the room, and makes everyone think about the problem more
similarly.
That means that whenever you want
divergent thinking, you need to get the people in the group to work alone. The
individuals working by themselves will generate a wider range of ideas than
they would if they worked together. When you are ready for the group to build
on ideas and to evaluate them, then you want the group working together. The
group dynamic will ultimately settle on one or a few good candidates.
Have the group work individually to
describe the problem to be solved, and then get the group together to agree on
what the problem really is.
A simple way to structure an idea
generation session is to have the group work individually to describe the
problem to be solved, and then get the group together to agree on what the
problem really is. Then, have the group work alone again to generate ideas and
have people get together to talk about the ideas that people came up with.
Finally, end every idea generation session with a plan for who carries the idea
forward, and a commitment of the resources to make sure the idea can be
implemented.
By Art
Markman
http://www.fastcompany.com/3047303/ask-the-experts/how-do-i-get-people-to-speak-up
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