BNET Business Dictionary
Business Definition for: Brainstorming
- a technique for generating ideas, developing creativity, or problem solving in small groups, through the free-flowing contributions of participants. The concept of brainstorming was originated by A. F. Osborn and described in his book Applied Imagination: Principles and Practices of Creative Thinking (1957). To encourage the free flow of ideas, brainstorming sessions operate according to a set of guidelines, and the production and evaluation of ideas are kept separate. Several variations of brainstorming and related techniques have emerged such as brainwriting, where ideas are written down by individuals, and buzz groups.
Wiktionary Definition for: Brainstorming
- a method of problem solving in which members of a group contribute ideas spontaneously
Additional Resources
- The Case Against Brainstorming
- The Find: Brainstorming stirs up strong reactions â€" both positive and negative â€" and one blog dedicated to creative thinking is rounding up the case for and against the use of the idea generating technique. The Source: A post by Mark McGuinness on the blog, Lateral Action....
- Blog posts 2009-01-30
- Chairing a Brainstorming Meeting
- Sometimes meetings are held in order to pool knowledge and ensure that everyone is on the same page; but at other times meetings call for more creative input. Such meetings may be held to come up with:the idea behind a new product or servicea namea soundbitea marketing campaignpotential project partnersIn...
- Articles 2007-07-03
- Chairing a Brainstorming Meeting
- Chairing a Brainstorming MeetingBrainstormingI am a university professor and organizational trainer. I have facilitating many brainstorming meetings over the years. I like your suggestions, and just want to add one point I have found helpful. When writing the participants' ideas up on the flip chart or white board, use their...
- Discussion threads 2007-07-10
- Brainstorming Your Way to a Winning Case Strategy
- Complexity obstructs effective thinking. They involve dozens of witnesses and organizations, hundreds of critical facts, and hundreds, if not thousands, of documents. Brainstorming sessions can help one deal with case complexity problems. Early in case preparation, brainstorming helps one flesh out the critical factual disputes and set goals for discovery....
- White papers 2003-01-01
- What's Better Than Brainstorming?
- The Find: Thanks to one business psychologist, brainstorming's many detractors now have an alternative â€" "brainwriting." The Source: A post on the work of business psychologist Peter Heslin on the BPS Research Digest. The Takeaway: Recently BNET1 laid out the case against brainstorming and...
- Blog posts 2009-02-10
- New "Brainstorming" Principles
- This paper presents six new principles emerging from four decades of academic and industry research on the generation of high-quality creative ideas by "Brainstorming". The principles are: brainstorming instructions are essential and should emphasize, paradoxically, number and not quality of ideas; a specific, difficult target should be set for the...
- White papers 2008-01-18
- Improve Brainstorming by Getting the Mix Right
- Brainstorming sessions often fail. BNET bloggers over the last year have identified many reasons why, and offered ways to improve the results. But my new favorite tip for better brainstorming comes from Julie Gilbert, writing on Harvard Business Publishing. Her post How to Lead Better Brainstorming Sessions...
- Blog posts 2009-05-06
- Brainstorming
- Brainstorming is a group technique for generating new, useful ideas and promoting creative thinking. It can be used to help 1) define what project or problem to work on, 2) to diagnose problems, 3) remediate a project by coming up with possible solutions and to identify possible resistance to proposed...
- White papers 2003-01-01
- Brainstorming. . .
- Creativity is the trait that evolves new and unique ideas. For creative ideas to germinate, free discussion scenario and smooth flow of ideas are necessary. The activity of brainstorming provides the aforesaid forum and, therefore, is an effective tool towards evolution of creative ideas. The brainstorming session facilitates in processing...
- Presentations 2003-01-01
- It's Time For Plan B: Brainstorming!
- Brainstorming is a special type of meeting, with its own ground rules, tempo and ethos. It's also an invaluable tool for idea generation, problem solving, innovation, teambuilding and creativity. Whether tasked with creating new sales contests, new strategic initiatives or simply trying to break the doldrums of day-to-day routines, brainstorming...
- White papers 2007-05-22
- Eight Rules To Brilliant Brainstorming
- The power of group brainstorming comes from creating a safe place where people with different ideas can share, blend, and expand their diverse knowledge. Brainstorming is just one of many techniques that make a company creative. It is of little value if it's not combined with observing consumers, talking to...
- White papers 2006-09-25
- Tools@work: Two ways to better brainstorming
- MOST OF US HAVE PARTICIPATED IN brainstorming sessions-getting a lot of people in a room to come up with as many ideas as they can. But brainstorming as a way to develop truly new ideas often seems...well...disappointing. Surprisingly fresh ideas just don't seem to hit the easel chart. But new...
- Research articles 1999-01-01
- Brainstorming Doesn't Work -- Here's What Does
- How many times have you been called into a brainstorming session and encouraged to "think outside the box!" Or maybe your manager assigned you to come up with ideas for improving an existing product. Do these practices work? Not well. "The problem with the...
- Blog posts 2007-12-03
- Brainstorming Tips for Better Time Management
- The major bottleneck in any planning or problem solving process is brainstorming or generating new ideas and options for specific actions and solutions. The resulting outcome of a person's solution or plan is only as good as his best options and ideas he puts in it. It is also important...
- White papers
- Brainstorming: A Creative Problem-Solving Method
- Techniques such as brainstorming, brainwriting and mind mapping can offer companies and organizations new ways of encouraging staff to think creatively in order to solve problems and improve company operations. Staff welcome the opportunity to contribute their ideas and find brainstorming sessions fun and productive. Once these techniques have been...
- White papers 2003-09-19
- Brainstorming Doesn't Work -- Here's What Does
- Brainstorming Doesn't Work -- Here's What Doesthinking creativelyHow does a right-brained creative employee who thinks out of the box manage an extremely left-brained narrowly focused office director?RE: Brainstorming Doesn't Work -- Here's What DoesIf you could add a new feature to our current service/product, what would it be?
- Discussion threads 2007-12-05
- Microsoft's nod nudges collaboration: adoption of software tool moves teamwork further into mainstream. (Brainstorming Online).(hopes to streamline engineering process with CoCreate's OneSpace software)
- Adoption of software tool moves teamwork further into mainstream. Brainstorming online NEWTON, MA--Who said Bill Gates is not a team player! Microsoft recently announced that it has adopted collaboration software that should make it ea ...
- Research articles 2003-01-13
- B-School Profs on Students as Customers, the Trouble With Brainstorming, and More
- This week, we take a look at blogs written by business school professors: "Student as customer" metaphor chaps his hide -- Dr. Gad Saad, associate professor of marketing at the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University, offers a rant on the Psychology Today blog about...
- Blog posts 2009-02-02
- You Didn't Use Brainstorming to Select Your Measures, Did You?
- Almost every meeting employs some kind of brainstorming event, but there's one meeting that really should leave it off the agenda: the performance measure selection meeting. There are 5 common ways people select performance measures. The selection of performance measures has never really been treated as anything more than a...
- White papers 2005-07-11
- Brainstorming to Identify and Manage Tax Risks
- Risk management is critical for CPA firms and their clients today, due to an increased focus on corporate governance, greater Federal and state regulation and intensive scrutiny by the media and the general public. While most CPA firms are aware of the importance of managing the risks of financial statement...
- White papers 2006-03-01
