RETIRE THE CREATIVITY KILLER

THE GROUP BRAINSTORM

Born in the madmen era with scant evidence of success, group brainstorms have been a mainstay tool of agencies and marketing departments for decades. But a meta-analysis of over 800 teams published in HBR revealed this: individuals are much better than groups at generating high numbers of original ideas. What's more, the larger the group, the worse the outcome. The number of ideas declines with each additional participant in a group brainstorm. Researchers had several explanations. For one, groups enable individuals to avoid engaging and ride on the creators' coattails. Second, idea generation in groups makes people anxious, so they're less likely to submit their most original ideas for fear of being secretly ridiculed. Third, there's a reversion to the mean effect by which talented participants adjust downward to match the average creativity of the group. READ THE STUDY

WHAT ABOUT ZOOM BRAINSTORMS? They're worse! In research recently published in Nature, scientists compared the results of video conference brainstorms vs. in-person groups. Using various techniques, including eye-gaze and recall measures, they demonstrated that videoconference brainstorms thwart idea generation because participants focus on the screen, which narrows their cognitive focus. Hat tip to Katy Milkman for unearthing this research. READ THE STUDY.

SO WHY DO WE STILL HAVE THEM? They are a quick way to check the boxes to ensure everyone has had input. But there are other ways to democratize input without settling for mediocre ideas and lifeless meetings.

TRY THIS INSTEAD -- PAIRED BRAINSTORMING (DYADS)

Conduct brainstorming using dyads (2 people in a group). In one study, overall creativity skyrocketed for pairs who had previously tested low on standard creativity tests.  READ THE STUDY.

Another study looked at outcomes as well as preferences for brainstorming. Researchers found that dyads produced more original ideas than groups but on par with individuals. However, dyads were considered more FUN than individual brainstorms. It turns out, 2 heads are not only better than 1, they're also more fun. READ THE STUDY

MY OWN EXPERIENCE with paired brainstorming (dyads): people love them. I suspect it's because paired brainstorms are one of the few times your teams will experience that elusive FLOW, a term coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He described it as a "state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it." Paired brainstorms are not just a recipe for productivity and creativity; they could just be a recipe for a happier workplace. 

WATCH HIS TED TALK

I spent 5 years with an innovation lab founded by the most prolific inventor in history, Kia Silverbrook, and here's what I experienced: innovation can't be a one-off event because the only way to get a great idea is to have more of them. And the best way to have more ideas is to habituate idea generation in your organization. Innovation is like exercise: you need to make it a habit to derive value from it.