Brainwriting the New Brainstorming

In his post Bob Sutton suggests that brainwriting has proven more effective than brainstorming at producing ideas. So of course, I was intrigued what this new technique was all about. After a quick bit of reading here is the summary of the steps for this technique.

1. Members of the group write down ideas on pieces of paper in silence


2. The pieces of paper are passed between each other and then the individuals add to the idea their own thoughts. Different color pens help in this distinction between ideas.


3. Once each piece of paper has been shared with each member then the pieces of paper are placed in the center of the table for all to see.
4. These steps are repeated up to 25 times. depending on time available.


5. Then the group divides up an individuals go away and try to recall as many of the ideas as possible.


6. Finally each individual works alone to generate more ideas

This technique has been shown to be more productive in idea generation and can help reduce group think that can occur from some brainstorming sessions.

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is a fascinating term coined Jeff Howe, journalist at Wired magazine, to describe the use of large groups of people working on a common task in bite sized chunks. His latest book, Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business, is a great overview and summary of the current trend and ideas on group problem solving and content generation. 


Not everyone agrees with the concepts he raises that the group is more potent than the individual creator, but he does raise some interesting talking points around the open source programming model and content sites like iStockPhoto and YouTube. For me the most fascinating aspect of crowdsourcing and what it allows is that someone whom is a professional in one field of work, can lend his skills to another, which has long been recognized as a good way to innovate. Also the concept of people having other interests outside of their chosen career, that can be used and improved by adopting a crowd of interest, seems to fall nicely inline with modern thinking around people being passionate about things that are not necessarily done for money or profitable gain, but more for personal fulfillment and challenge. 


Overall I think crowdsourcing has some very interesting concepts and the examples given in the book are very compelling, whether or not it can be replicated easily across different domains remains to be seen, but at the least I like the ideas of working as a group of passionate like minded individuals to solve bigger problems in smaller pieces. This book is a great introduction to the concepts and is an easy read to get upto speed on the current trend.