So When Do You Stop The Ideas - WorkAwesome

So you’re about to launch. You’ve done a great job planning and executing this project. And you’re almost ready to unveil your baby to the world. And this is when people start coming up with new ideas and suggestions. Often it’s a major decision maker such as your boss who thinks a new feature or two is needed. Do you rework everything? How do you consider everyone’s feedback and respectfully decline the advice? That all depends on many factors. In the end, you need to decide what’s the gain. And some of that advice comes from someone you can’t ignore.

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Eight reasons why brainstorming doesn’t work, and what you can do about it.- Linda Naiman, Creativity At Work

Why do people hate brainstorming so much? If the same people who work with the same problems everyday meet and discuss these problems using the same language and procedures the outcome is always predictable. Sameness breeds more sameness. Seeing the world with old eyes only helps produce old ideas. —Arthur VanGundy, PhD Sounds tedious doesn’t it? Here are seven more reasons why brainstorming doesn’t work:

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The Creative Process Gone Wrong - Great Video and Article - Bob Sutton

One of my students, Rob, just sent me a link to this video on how the design of the stop sign is ruined by a bad creative process -- unfortunately, this parody resembles the process in far too many organizations and teams that try to do creative work in real organizations. It is funny but disturbing. He saw this in Tina Seelig's class, who teaches a fantastic class on the creative process. This video brought to mind three things:

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The Heart of Innovation: 23 Reasons Why Nothing Happens After a Brainstorming Session

How many times have you participated in a brainstorming session, only to be underwhelmed by the utter lack of follow up?

Unfortunately, in most businesses, this is often the norm.

Here's why:

1. The output of the session is underwhelming.

2. No one has taken the time, pre-brainstorm, to consider follow-up.

3. No criteria is established to evaluate the output.

4. No next steps are established at the end of the session.
5. No champions (i.e. process owners) are identified.
6. The champions are not really committed.
7. The champions are committed, but under-estimate the effort.

8. The ideas are too threatening to key stakeholders.
9. No one is accountable for results.

10. The project leader doesn't stay in contact with key players and "out of sight, out of mind" takes over.

11. The "steering committee" takes their hands off the wheel.

12. The next brainstorming session is scheduled too quickly.

13. The output of the session is not documented.

14. No sponsors are on board.

15. Participants' managers are not supportive of the effort

16. It takes too long to document the output of the session.

17. The output is not distributed to stakeholders in a timely way.

18. Participants and stakeholders do not read the output.

19. Bureaucracy and company politics rule the day.

20. Somebody, in the session, is disengaged and sabotages the effort.

21. Teamwork and collaboration is in short supply.

22. Small wins are not celebrated. People lose heart.

23. Participants perceive follow-up as "more work to do" instead of a great opportunity to really make a difference.

Is there anything else we should add?

From Idea Champions blog

The Pope and the Brainstorming Blunder - Tudor Rickards

So the bright young things at the Foreign Office have been getting ideas. Worse, as Sir Humphrey used to say in “Yes Minister”, they have been getting new ideas, which are, well, dangerous. This time was no exception. Someone had called for a few ideas around the Pope’s visit. Maybe it was part of a wider security exercise to protect The Pope. Anyway, a group of people was assembled and (we are told) a brainstorming took place. From time to time I have offered help to Government departments about creativity and brainstorming. I offer the following as a plausible explanation of what happened. First, and critically, it is unlikely that the group could be considered a trained group, and more likely to have comprised those available and deemed to have some competence and availability

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