A colleague asked me to share a response I sent to Jonah Lehrer’s New Yorker Groupthink article- see below for my reactions…
Glad this article is being passed around/discussed! I’ve been
chatting with a lot of colleagues about it, and have some strong
feelings about the current backlash against groupthink and
brainstorming. In short, here are my counter points 🙂
1.The solo students came up with roughly twice as many solutions as
the brainstorming groups, and a panel of judges deemed their solutions
more “feasible” and “effective.” Brainstorming didn’t unleash the
potential of the group, but rather made each individual less creative”
There is no data about the kinds of solutions generated here,
specifically how unique or diverse from existing solutions the ideas
were. If the brainstorming groups were homogenous (i.e. all
engineers, or all poetry students) I might buy this argument. But the
secret of good brainstorming groups is the ‘radical collaboration’
element- when you combine developers, designers, MBAs, etc together in
a group, the diverse perspectives and backgrounds of the group allow
them to build on ideas and collectively generate new solutions that
are developed through multiple perspectives on the problem. This is
highly unlikely to happen solo. Note the example given- “They are
divided into 12 specialized groups—one for each major phase of
chemistry, one for each major phase of physics, and so on.” What they
SHOULD be doing is creating groups with representatives from each of
the different disciplines who are going to have different problem
solving methods and expertise.
2. “Osborn thought that imagination is inhibited by the merest hint
demonstrated that it can thrive on conflict”
There is a HUGE difference between criticism and debate that comes in
the format of critical “No, but..” responses to brainstormed ideas,
and being able to lose attachment to ideas and question the solutions
through different lenses and constraints (” A Jetpack powered by
bubble gum? Yes, and what if the jetpack was being made by Leonardo Da
Vinci? How would he approach it? What if we had $5 to achieve the same
goal as the jetpack?”)
3. “When the Q was low—less than 1.7 on Uzzi’s five-point scale—the
musicals were likely to fail. Because the artists didn’t know one
another, they struggled to work together and exchange ideas. “This
wasn’t so surprising,” Uzzi says. “It takes time to develop a
successful collaboration.” But, when the Q was too high (above 3.2),
the work also suffered. The artists all thought in similar ways, which
crushed innovation.”
YES. The key to brainstorming is the radical collaboration combined
with a “Yes, and..” safe environment where people feel encouraged and
supported in throwing out and generating outlandish ideas without fear
of judgement.
4.”Building 20 as an example of a “Low Road” structure, a type of
space that is unusually creative because it is so unwanted and
underdesigned. (Another example is the Silicon Valley garage.) As a
result, scientists in Building 20 felt free to remake their rooms,
customizing the structure to fit their needs. Walls were torn down
without permission; equipment was stored in the courtyards and bolted
to the roof.”
An awesome lesson to take to heart both when thinking of our space as
well as our ideas and prototypes- the less blood, sweat and tears that
have gone into prototypes and ideas, the easier it is for us to remake
or scrap them.
5. Chomsky’s work drew from disparate fields—biology, psychology, and
computer science. At the time, the fields seemed to have nothing in
common—except the hallways of Building 20. “Building 20 was a
fantastic environment,” Chomsky says. “It looked like it was going to
fall apart. But it was extremely interactive.” He went on, “There was
a mixture of people who later became separate departments interacting
informally all the time. You would walk down the corridor and meet
people and have a discussion.
How might we design ways to foster casual, unforced interactions and
engagement with folks from multiple departments and teams?
Imagine Create Share 