The Institute for the Future’s blog has a post with a link to a British Psychological Association blurb about the ineffectiveness of group brainstorming. The post notes that groups fail to come up with new ideas. Quote: "Time and again research has shown that people think of more new ideas on their own than they do in a group." Hmmm….I’d like to see more links to the research. And maybe a good definition of "new ideas". Does this mean a new concept? A solution to a problem? The article argues that an individual working alone on a problem will find an innovative solution because they bear the brunt of failure alone. Maybe. They do bear the brunt of failure, but does each person generate an innovative idea?
A side of me wants to focus on the creative individual. Yet I just listened to a good podcast interview with the author of The Ape in the Corner Office. His thesis is that humans are social primates and individualism is limited. But he also confirms that humans tend to mimic popular ideas and go with the flow. I’m also thinking of James Surowiecki’s book The Wisdom of Crowds and its argument that the knowledge found in a group is greater than any individual. So what’s the answer?
I think the IFTF post gets on the right track when the author discusses the importance of a facilitator. Every year I become more convinced that an experienced and trained facilitator can help a group pull out information from itself that it does not even recognize. It is also important to determine the objective of the group process. Is it simply to generate ideas or to also build teams, share information, or identify potential problems? See the posts on Wikipedia about brainstorming and facilitation for more ideas.
I don’t have a complete answer about group versus individual brainstorming. I do have this to say: Many folks (especially in the physical sciences) think that facilitation is an easy, soft skill. The deeper you look at stuff like this, the more convinced I am that it is a genuine specialization. This is one reason Extension Professionals are often called upon to organize and run meetings. Smart Extension Professionals will work hard to keep their skill levels honed and adapt new skill and techniques.