Alex F. Osborn, an advertising executive, popularized the term “brainstorming” in the 1950s. Christian Madsbjerg and Mikkel B. Rasmussen, authors of “The Moment of Clarity: Using the Human Sciences to Solve Your Toughest Business Problems” explain that Osborn was frustrated with the lack of imagination in his employers’ ideas for ad campaigns.
In experimenting with creating ideas in groups rather than relying on individual ideas, he found that group creativity dramatically increased both the quantity and the quality of advertising ideas. “Osborn was a firm believer in the idea that every single person is creative and that personal creativity can be brought out in any person through the use of a procedure. He saw it as his call in life: to take his discovery from Madison Avenue and bring it to Western civilization,” Madsbjerg and Rasmussen state.
In 1953, Osborn published, “Your Creative Power,” a book in which he coined the term “brainstorming” and introduced it as a technique that produced new ideas on command. “Brainstorming means using the brain to storm a creative problem and to do so in commando fashion, each stormer audaciously attacking the same objective,” Osborn wrote.
Madsbjerg and Rasmussen say Osborn devised a detailed procedure on how a brainstorm session was to be conducted. His most important rule was that the problem be clearly defined before beginning. “You can’t solve two problems in one session.” Once the problem is clearly defined, a brainstorming session should follow four rules:
1. Criticism is not allowed. Avoid judgment on ideas.
2. Produce as wild a group of ideas as possible. It is acceptable and even desirable to share really unusual ideas.
3. Quantity breeds quality. The greater the volume of ideas, the greater the likelihood of useful ideas.
4. Combine and improve ideas. Participants should improve each other’s ideas and deliberately try to combine each other’s ideas in interesting and surprising ways.
The brainstorm panacea
“Brainstorming quickly became known as a sensational new approach that could be used to solve all sorts of business problems,” Madsbjerg and Rasmussen state. “Even though Osborn clearly stated that brainstorming was only designed for a very specific purpose — group sessions with one narrowly defined problem — over time, brainstorming became the most popular metaphor for the creative process in business.”
Interestingly, driving creativity — and ultimately business success — from group think sessions is a big part of another new book co-written by Ed Catmull, a co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios. “Creativity, Inc.” (co-written with Amy Wallace) is a look at the art of running creative companies.
In the book, Catmull clearly agrees with Osborn’s theory that a group of talented individuals can collectively produce far more inventive ideas than the same individuals acting independently. However, he states in no uncertain terms that the Pixar’s group’s regular brainstorming sessions — they call it the Braintrust — turn Osborn’s first rule barring criticism on its head.
“Candor is the key to collaborating effectively,” he states in the book. “Lack of candor leads to dysfunctional environments. The fear of saying something stupid and looking bad, of offending someone or being intimidated, of retaliating or being retaliated against — they all have a way of reasserting themselves. And when they do, you must address them squarely.”
Candor suits every profession
The original Brainstorming team at Pixar consisted of Catmull and five colleagues who led and edited the production of “Toy Story” — John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Peter Docter, Lee Unkrich and Joe Ranft. Over the years, the group was opened up to directors, writers and heads of story. “The one thing that has never changed is the demand for candor,” Catmull says.
His explanation of the importance of the Braintrust within the Pixar environment — and the moviemaking industry — is suitable to sales and marketing teams and the processes they generate daily. “People who take on complicated creative projects become lost at some point in the process. It is the nature of things — in order to create, you must internalize and almost become the project for a while, and that near-fusing with the project is an essential part of its emergence. But it is also confusing. Where once a movie’s writer/director had perspective, he or she loses it. Where once he or she could see a forest, now there are only trees.”
How do you get a director to address a problem he or she cannot see, Catmull asks. “Maybe he doesn’t realize that much of what he thinks is visible on screen is only visible in his own head. Or maybe the ideas presented in the reels he shows the Braintrust won’t ever work, and the only path forward is to blow something up or start over. No matter what, the process of coming to clarity takes patience and candor.”
The critical component of making candor in the workplace most effective, Catmull emphasizes, is that everyone on the team is ready to hear the truth. “Candor is only valuable if the person on the receiving end is open and willing, if necessary, to let go of things that don’t work. In Pixar’s Braintrust, the film — not the filmmaker — is under the microscope. “This principle eludes most people, but it is critical: You are not your idea, and if you identify too closely with your ideas, you will take offense when challenged.”
Indeed, the Pixar Braintrust is not there to solve a director’s problem, Catmull says. The owner of the project and his or her team are there because they are talented, creative and full of ideas. The others in the Braintrust believe that their solution wouldn’t be as good as the one the director and his or her creative team will come up with.
It’s difficult to embrace criticism, even when it’s constructive. But the alternative is worse, Catmull says. “Believe me, you don’t want to be at a company where there is more candor in the hallways than in the rooms where the fundamental ideas or policy are being hashed out. The best inoculation against this fate? Seek out people who are willing to level with you, and when you find them, hold them close.”
