5 Idea Generation
5.1 STRUCTURED BRAINSTORMING
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tructured Brainstorming is one of several different forms of brainstorming described in this chapter.People sometimes say they are brainstorming when they sit with a few colleagues or even by themselves and try to come up with relevant ideas. That is not what Structured Brainstorming is about. It is a group process that follows specific rules and procedures designed for maximum productivity. The advent of collaborative tools such as wikis has helped bring structure to the
brainstorming process. Whether brainstorming begins with a face-to-face session or is done entirely online, the collaborative features of wikis can facilitate the analytic process by obliging analysts to capture results in a sharable format that can be posted, understood by others, and refined for future use. In addition, wikis amplify and extend the brainstorming process—potentially improving the results—because each edit and the reasoning for it is tracked, and disagreements or refinements can be openly discussed and explicitly summarized on the wiki.
When to Use It
Structured Brainstorming is one of the most widely used analytic techniques. It is often used at the beginning of a project to identify a list of relevant variables, driving forces, a full range of
hypotheses, key players or stakeholders, available evidence or sources of information, potential
solutions to a problem, potential outcomes or scenarios, or, for law enforcement, potential suspects or avenues of investigation.
It is often appropriate to follow a brainstorming session with Cross-Impact Analysis to examine the relationship between each of the variables, players, or other factors identified by the
brainstorming. Later in the analytic process, brainstorming can be used again, if needed, to pull the team out of an analytic rut or to stimulate new investigative leads.
Value Added
The stimulus for creativity comes from two or more analysts bouncing ideas off each other. A
brainstorming session usually exposes an analyst to a greater range of ideas and perspectives than the analyst could generate alone, and this broadening of views typically results in a better analytic
product.
The Method
There are seven general rules to follow, and then a twelve-step process for Structured Brainstorming.
Here are the rules:
* Be specific about the purpose and the topic of the brainstorming session. Announce the topic beforehand, and ask participants to come to the session with some ideas or to forward them to the facilitator before the session.
* New ideas are always encouraged. Never criticize an idea during the divergent (creative) phase of the process no matter how weird or unconventional or improbable it might sound. Instead, try to figure out how the idea might be applied to the task at hand.
* Allow only one conversation at a time, and ensure that everyone has an opportunity to speak.
* Allocate enough time to do the brainstorming correctly. It often takes one hour to set the rules of the game, get the group comfortable, and exhaust the conventional wisdom on the topic. Only then do truly creative ideas begin to emerge.
* To avoid groupthink and stimulate divergent thinking, include one or more “outsiders” in the group—that is, astute thinkers who do not share the same body of knowledge or perspective as the other group members but do have some familiarity with the topic.
* Write it down! Track the discussion by using a whiteboard, an easel, or sticky notes (see Figure 5.1).
* Summarize the key findings at the end of the session. Ask the participants to write down the most important thing they learned on a 3 x 5 card as they depart the session. Then prepare a short summary and distribute the list to the participants (who may add items to the list) and to others
interested in the topic (including supervisors and those who could not attend). Capture these findings and disseminate them to attendees and other interested parties either by e-mail or, preferably, a wiki.
If there is a need to capture the initial brainstorming results as a “snapshot in time,” simply upload the results as a .pdf or other word processing document, but still allow the brainstorming discussion to continue on the wiki.
The facilitator or group leader should present the focal question, explain and enforce the ground rules, keep the meeting on track, stimulate discussion by asking questions, record the ideas, and summarize the key findings. Participants should be encouraged to express every idea that pops into their heads. Even ideas that are outside the realm of the possible may stimulate other ideas that are more feasible. The group should have at least four and no more than twelve participants. Five to seven is an optimal number; if there are more than twelve people, divide into two groups.
Figure 5.1 Picture of Brainstorming
Source: 2009 Pherson Associates, LLC.
There are several different forms of brainstorming. The following twelve-step process was developed for the CIA’s Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis and has worked well for a number of years. The process is divided into two phases: a divergent thinking (creative) phase when ideas are presented and a convergent thinking phase when these ideas are evaluated.
Pass out Post-it or “sticky” notes and Sharpie-type pens or markers to all participants.
Pose the problem or topic in terms of a “focal question.” Display this question in one sentence for all to see on a large easel or whiteboard.
Ask the group to write down responses to the question with a few key words that will fit on a Post-it. When a response is written down, the participant is asked to read it out loud or to give it to the facilitator who will read it out loud. Sharpie-type pens are used so that people can easily see what is written on the Post-it notes later in the exercise.
Stick all the Post-its on a wall in the order in which they are called out. Treat all ideas the same.
Encourage participants to build on one another’s ideas.
Usually there is an initial spurt of ideas followed by pauses as participants contemplate the question. After five or ten minutes there is often a long pause of a minute or so. This slowing down suggests that the group has “emptied the barrel of the obvious” and is now on the verge of coming up with some fresh insights and ideas. Do not talk during this pause even if the silence is uncomfortable.
After two or three long pauses, conclude this divergent thinking phase of the brainstorming session.
Ask all participants as a group to go up to the wall and rearrange the Post-its in some organized manner. This arrangement might be by affinity groups (groups that have some common characteristic), scenarios, a predetermined priority scale, or a time sequence. Participants are not allowed to talk during this process. Some Post-its may be moved several times, but they will gradually be clustered into logical groupings. Post-its may be copied if necessary to fit one idea into more than one group.
When all Post-its have been arranged, ask the group to select a word or phrase that best describes each grouping.
Look for Post-its that do not fit neatly into any of the groups. Consider whether such an outlier is
useless noise or the germ of an idea that deserves further attention.
Assess what the group has accomplished. Have new ideas or concepts been identified, have key issues emerged, or are there areas that need more work or further brainstorming?
To identify the potentially most useful ideas, the facilitator or group leader should establish up to five criteria for judging the value or importance of the ideas. If so desired, then use the Ranking, Scoring, Prioritizing technique, described in chapter 4, for voting on or ranking or prioritizing ideas.
Set the analytic priorities accordingly, and decide on a work plan for the next steps in the analysis.
Relationship to Other Techniques
As discussed under “When to Use It,” some form of brainstorming is commonly combined with a wide variety of other techniques. It is often an early step in many analytic projects used to identify ideas, variables, evidence, possible outcomes, suspects, or hypotheses that are then processed by using other structured techniques.
Structured Brainstorming is also called Divergent/Convergent Thinking. Other forms of
brainstorming described in this chapter include Nominal Group Technique and Virtual Brainstorming.
If there is any concern that a brainstorming session may be dominated by a senior officer or that junior personnel may be reluctant to speak up, Nominal Group Technique may be the best choice.
Origins of This Technique
Brainstorming was a creativity technique used by advertising agencies in the 1940s. It was
popularized in a book by advertising manager Alex Osborn, Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Problem Solving (New York: Scribner’s, 1953). There are many versions of brainstorming. The description here is a combination of information from Randy Pherson, “Structured Brainstorming,” in Handbook of Analytic Tools and Techniques (Reston, Va.: Pherson Associates, LLC, 2008), and training materials from the CIA’s Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis.