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Please write your favourite joke on a piece of paper and put it in the

box provided

Achtung! We’ll read some of these out so try not to be too offensive

What’s Your Favourite Joke?

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Notebooks

For the continuous assessment aspect of this course I would like you all to get a notebook in which to record the exercises we do in class, and other bits and pieces

It has to last 12 weeks so try to get something sturdier thana refill pad

I will ask you to hand these up at the end of the semester for marking

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Brainstorming Topics

We will be doing some brainstorming in this session so have a think about these topics as we go through the lecture

– Working for a large search engine company we have collected huge amounts of data on peoples’ search terms – what can we do with this data?

– Easily distributed digital music is now a fact of life. As workers in a large music publishing company how can we turn this to our advantage?

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Brainstorming Topics (cont…)

– As facilitators of an M.Sc. level course in problem solving what methods of continuous assessment can we use to evaluate students?

– E-mail spam is now a huge problem. As developers in a security applications development company what can we do to solve this?

Course Website: http://www.comp.dit.ie/bmacnamee

Problem Solving, Communication

& Innovation:Brainstorming

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What Do We Know Already?

What do you know about brainstorming already?

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Contents

In today’s lecture we will take a look at the following

– Koinonia – ancient brainstorming– Origins of brainstorming– Brainstorming rules– Warming up for brainstorming– Practicalities of brainstorming– Post brainstorming– Problems with brainstorming

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Koinonia

In ancient Greece Socrates and his contemporaries spent years freely meeting and conversing

These dialogues helped shape Western civilisation!

In these dialogues participants exchanged ideas freely without bitter argument

This was done through the spirit of Koinonia which means spirit of fellowship

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Principles of Koinonia

Koinonia binds participants together through the following principles:

– Establish dialogue• The Greek origin of the word dialogue means

talking through• On the other hand the Latin origin of the word

discussion means dash to pieces

– Be collegial• Everybody is equal• Everybody’s ideas are equal

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Principles of Koinonia (cont…)

– Clarify your thinking• Suspend all assumptions – about ideas and about

people

– Be honest• Never hold back information• The notion of collective intelligence

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Relative Koinonia

The physics giants Einstein, Heisenberg, Pauli and Bohr did the same thing

For years they exchanged and dialogued about ideas which later became the foundations of modern physics

Most physicists of the time argued over petty nuances of opinion and promoted their own ideas at the expense of others

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The Geese And The V

Why do geese fly in a V?– As each goose flaps its wings it creates an

uplift for the bird immediately behind it– The V formation adds at least 70% greater

flying range than if each bird flew alone

Working together is a good idea!

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Brainstorming

Brainstorming (formalised in the early 1940s) carries on the spirit of Koinonia

Brainstorming is a group technique for generating ideas in order to solve a problem

It is not a full problem solving system, but can be a part of many such systems

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Alex Osborne – Father of Brainstorming

Alex F. Osborne was, amongst other things, an advertising executive in Buffalo, New York in the 1930s/1940s for the BBDO company

Also a lecturer and writer on imagination and creative thinking

“"It is easier to tone down a wild idea than to think up a new one."- Alex Osborne

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Origins of Brainstorming

While working for the advertising company BBDO, Osborne felt that conventional business meetings inhibited the creation of new ideas

He proposed some rules designed to help stimulate idea creation in meetings:

– No criticism of ideas – Go for large quantities of ideas – Build on each other’s ideas – Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas

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Origins of Brainstorming (cont…)

To think up was originally the term Osborne used to describe the process but in time it came to be known as brainstorming – using the brain to storm a problem

“A conference technique by which a group attempts to find a solution for a specific

problem by amassing all the ideas spontaneously by its members”- Alex Osborn

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Origins of Brainstorming (cont…)

The rules of brainstorming give people freedom from the inhibitions, nervousness and other negative feelings which usually accompany meetings

Surprisingly, it has been found that quantity of ideas usually produces quality of ideas

QuantityQuality

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What Is Brainstorming Used For?

Brainstorming has been used to develop the following:

– Advertising campaigns – Marketing strategy and methods – Research and development procedures – Physical products – Written documents and articles – Government policies – Investment decisions – New industries

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Brainstorming Rules

We will use a slightly altered set of Osborne’s original brainstorming rules:

– No judgement of ideas – Go for large quantities of ideas – Build on each other’s ideas – Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas – Every person and every idea is equal

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Brainstorming Rules (cont…)

Don’t say anything about ideas – neither complement nor criticise

There is no such thing as a bad idea!

Even seemingly stupid ideas can spark off really good ones

No Judgement Of Ideas

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Brainstorming Rules (cont…)

The more ideas at this stage the better

Keep ideas short – forget about details, just capture the essence

Go For Large Quantities Of Ideas

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Brainstorming Rules (cont…)

Turn “yes, but…” into “yes, and…”

Try to add extra thoughts to each idea (be careful not to comment though)

Maybe combine several suggested ideas to generate a new one

Build On Each Other’s Ideas

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Brainstorming Rules (cont…)

No idea is too ridiculous

Wild ideas often spark really practical ones

Exaggerate ideas to the extreme

Encourage Wild And Exaggerated Ideas

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Brainstorming Rules (cont…)

Everybody’s perspective is unique and so is useful

Nobody owns their ideas once they are out on the table

Every Person And Every Idea Is Equal

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Which Problems To Brainstorm About?

Brainstorming is not ideal for all problems

Remember the purpose of brainstorming is to generate ideas – nothing else

Use it for problems for which you need a lot of ideas

– New product development– New market discovery– Others?

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Running A Brainstorming Session

Brainstorming sessions have three phases:– Warm-up– Brainstorming– Post-brainstorming work

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Warming Up For Brainstorming

Before tackling the main problem in question a warm-up should be used to relax people and get creative juices flowing

Some suggestions are:– One + One = One– Walking in someone else’s shoes– Are you a hammer or a nail?– Impossible hybrids– Brainstorm about unrelated tasks

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One + One = One

Sometimes two disjoint concepts when put together form a readily understandable third concept

– “Conference call”, “home page”, “party girl”, “religious right”

Have everybody think up a word with the same first letter as their last name

Participants each paste their word to the their forehead and mingle freely in the room trying to create something new out of their word combined with other participants’ words

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Walking In Someone Else’s Shoes

Ask all participants to take off their shoes and put them on the table in front of them

Allow everybody to look at each other shoes

Have people swap shoes – try them on

Have a competition to build the tallest shoe structure possible

The artificial uncomfortableness of this situation can help to break down nervousness and bond a team

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Are You A Hammer Or A Nail?

Go around the room asking each person to describe themselves as either an X or a Y

For example:– Are you a hammer or a nail?– Are you a cloud or a rock?– At work are you a tree or the wind?– At meetings are you a handshake or a

sandwich?– At home are you a rug or a toaster?

The more bizarre the pairings the better

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Impossible Hybrids

Pick random words from a collection and combine them to form impossible hybrids using

“An X that is also a Y ”

For example:– A piece of furniture that is also a fruit– A lampshade that is a book– A food that is also a rock

Try to describe each hybrid – maybe even draw pictures of them

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Crossbreeding

Provide four boxes containing slips of paper with random names of plants, objects, animals and job descriptions

Ask participants to draw slips and then make hybrids out of them

For example:– Bird + Supervisor– Paperwork + Key

Try to describe what each hybrid would look like or do

– Customer + Door– Pony + Photocopier

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Brainstorming About Unrelated Tasks

Simply brainstorm about tasks unrelated to the main focus of the session

Nice general examples include:– How can we improve shoes?– How can we combat the problems of graffiti?– What if everybody had two thumbs – how

would that change the world?– What if we had no cars?

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Practicalities Of Brainstorming

The following is a list of the practical points to keep in mind when running a brain-storming session:

– A a central person (the facilitator) will coordinate the proceedings, introduce the purpose of the brainstorming session and outline the rules

– Try to ensure everyone is familiar with the problem to be discussed before the session

– Gather a group of between four and ten people together in one room

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Practicalities Of Brainstorming (cont…)

– Arrange participants around a circular table– Have plenty of easily accessible pens, paper…– Ensure everybody is familiar with the rules -

put them on posters on the walls of the room– Try to have one person record all ideas, but

participants should also record ideas to ensure nothing is lost

– Perform some warm-up exercises to relax participants and get the energy flowing

– Open the session proper by asking for as many ideas and suggestions as possible

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Practicalities Of Brainstorming (cont…)

– When the session hits natural lulls try to spark it again by suggesting people throw out outlandish ideas or build on an existing idea

– Don’t be afraid to take breaks– Eventually the session will fizzle out of its

own accord – try not to force sessions to last longer than it should

– When the session comes to a close thank everybody for taking part

– Gather up the notes of all participants – these belong to the session

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Post-Brainstorming Work

The purpose of brainstorming is to generate ideas to solve a particular problem

What should you do with all of these ideas?

An easy scheme is to arrange ideas into three lists

The next step is to implement the excellent ideas and investigate the interesting ones

Excellent

Definitely will work and can be easily

implemented

Interesting

Will possibly work require further

analysis/ investigation

Useless

Will not work

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When Brainstorming Goes Bad

Brainstorming can go wrong

Some common problems are:– People fail to follow the rules

• Have the facilitators enforce the rules

– People do not come up with a good flow of ideas

• Facilitators should prompt participants with questions, springboard ideas etc

• Try using simple creative techniques within brainstorming

• Ensure to warm up fully

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When Brainstorming Goes Bad (cont…)

– Nothing appears to happen after brainstorming

• Bad managers use brainstorming to pretend• Make sure to follow up brainstorming

– Brainstorming is unfocused• Try to brainstorm about specific problems• Facilitators should try to keep the session on track

The most difficult part of brainstorming is creating the correct atmosphere

Don’t be afraid to try creative things like playing music, brainstorming outside etc

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Summary

The purpose of brainstorming is to generate new ideas around a problem

The brainstorming rules are:– No judgement of ideas – Go for large quantities of ideas – Build on each other’s ideas – Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas – Every person and every idea is equal

Brainstorming should follow three phases warm-up | brainstorm | post-brainstorm

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Let’s Give It A Try

We will try a brain storming session about one of the following topics

– Working for a large search engine company we have collected huge amounts of data on peoples’ search terms – what can we do with this data?

– Easily distributed digital music is now a fact of life. As workers in a large music publishing company how can we turn this to our advantage?

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Let’s Give It A Try (cont…)

– As facilitators of an M.Sc. level course in problem solving what methods of continuous assessment can we use to evaluate students?

– E-mail spam is now a huge problem. As developers in a security applications development company what can we do to solve this?

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Process

Warm-ups– Jokes– Are you a hammer or a nail?

Brainstorm

Post-brainstorm work– Organise ideas

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So?

What did you think of it?

45of46 No Judgement Of Ideas

Go For Large Quantities Of Ideas

Build On Each Other’s Ideas

Encourage Wild And Exaggerated Ideas

Every Person And Every Idea Is Equal

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Clarify Your Thinking