Brainstorming: is brainstorming really effective?

The limitations of brainstorming, despite its popularity.

You may have heard or read the following phrase: "no one is as smart as all of us put together". This Japanese saying, which is very popular nowadays, is often used in environments where the creativity must be combined with group work.

Specifically, it is usually uttered by the brave person in charge of energizing a brainstorming session. brainstorming o brainstormingbrainstorming, a very popular work tool both in companies and in educational environments. In brainstorming, the person in charge of energizing these work groups will try to keep all team members motivated for the sake of collective productivity, while ensuring that none of the ideas of its members are ridiculed.

A collective brain

Many brainstorming advocates are accustomed to thinking of brainstorming as a kind of collective braina prodigy capable of offering the best possible answer to any problem thanks to the teachings of each participant. These people think: "Surely, despite all the effort invested in it, the experience is worthwhile and we can all come up with the best possible idea? can't we?

The truth is that, despite the fact that some people embellish the concept of brainstorming ("a source of wisdom generated organically by the commons", etc.) it seems that group work is not necessarily conducive to creativity. In fact, there is reason to believe that we come up with more ideas when we work alone than when we work in a group, even if we misleadingly believe that the method followed in brainstorming enhances our creative side.

Why does this happen? Basically, because our brain is not prepared to work like this.

Brainstorming, or questionable group creativity.

The relative ineffectiveness of brainstorming brainstorming seems to be explained by a bottleneck phenomenon, i.e., each contribution made by each member of the group "slows down" the others in their elaboration of plans: this means, on the one hand, that people do not Excel at coordinating very well when thinking together about a solution, and on the other hand, that thinking about a solution and at the same time listening to colleagues is costly in terms of productivity. In a group, ideas are presented sequentially, which forces us to constantly readapt our discourse, while a single person is able to shuffle several ideas in an orderly fashion, discard from the beginning those that seem unimportant, and give a clear answer.

In addition, it has also been proposed that the anxiety produced by the presence of others, who judge both us and our interventions, can act as a brake on a task that should be characterized precisely by encouraging disinhibition and creativity. The creation of a relaxed atmosphere, one of the premises of the method, is compromised by our propensity to direct attention to aspects of the social that are totally venal or, at least, unrelated to the work to be done.

In spite of all this, we still continue to believe that group exposition of ideas enhances our inventiveness and, in general, makes it possible to arrive at good solutions. Some psychologists refer to this under the concept of the illusion of group efficacy. This delusion may be due to three possibilities. The first is a memory failure in which people attribute to themselves ideas that have been contributed by other participants (source), which could be good for self-esteem.

The second reason is that during group work, each participant has the opportunity to rest while someone else is talking, which decreases the likelihood of getting stuck, without necessarily leading to a better final result (source). The third component of this illusion could be the fact that, when comparing our performance with the average performance of the group, we are likely to believe that we feel we are at the same level as the rest even if we make little effort (in terms of creativity or productivity) and that this generates well-being (source).

Not all buts

Of course, all this does not detract from the fact that brainstorming can be an interesting option in some cases. The effectiveness of this type of method is difficult to measure, and statistical analyses are blind to the subjective appreciation of the ideas that are born with brainstorming. Brainstorming may not be the right way to generate a lot of ideas in a group setting, but it may have an impact on the quality of the ideas generated. quality of ideas.

It may even have a therapeutic effect on the members of a group or, who knows, it may even improve the work environment at a given moment by breaking the routine and promoting mutual understanding. In this type of matter, as always, one's own experience must count.

A small mental trap

The illusion of group effectiveness is another example of the fact that, in organizational psychology, rationality does not always prevail. rationality. Brainstorming, despite not being much more effective than other modalities of group work, has in this kind of mental trap a help that makes it come to organizations to stay.

So you know: if you've ever wondered why several people with different interests, different ways of thinking and different responsibilities can come to appreciate a method like brainstorming despite its questionable effectiveness, the answer could be that, quite simply, they love to do it.