Smart Brain Storming
Published on 15 Jun 2006 at 8:52 am |
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Filed under The Cargo Cults of Business, Business and Corporation Related.
This story about brainstorming (which I noticed through Boing Boing) is pretty interesting at least for the questions it raises if not for the ones it answers…
It seems to me that much of what’s being criticised here is poor corporate culture and poor brainstorming practice rather than the brainstorming itself. I’ve seen this done well and I’ve seen it done poorly and in both cases the quality of the brainstorming is an outgrowth of the health of the corporate culture. In some especially egregious cases, it’s a matter of "cargo cult brainstorming" in which the process is pro forma and the participants are going through the motions.
One of the problems with brainstorming as a corporate practice hovers in the background of this article. It is noticeable in this quote for example:
"If you stand back and think about (brainstorming), it’s plainly inefficient," says Prof. Perkins…
Brainstorming is akin to the practices of venture capitalists. The idea is that many ideas are tried and discarded, which *is* very inefficient, but it is done in an effort to pick up the few percent which have very large pay-offs. In order to do this successfully a company must have a culture in which those participating can realistically expect to participate without fear of consequences of dead ends and with some share in the successes of good ideas. Many managers (or peers for that matter) simply cannot stomache the "waste" asssociated with so many bad ideas hitting the floor. This leads to several problems. In some cases dead end ideas begin to be punished either institutionally or socially (it takes remarkably little eye rolling to chill the process). In other cases, people will attempt to stem the flow of "waste" by rushing into a bad idea, or by tenaciously defending one. The latter case is very like the tendency to defend sunk costs. "We can’t quit now, we have too much invested."
The trick to this, in my opinion, is to learn some lessons from VCs, miners, and casino operators.
From VCs, invest a little in anything with any plausible merit whatsoever, but have a plan for cutting off the losers and letting the winners run. Also, be sure to provide support and oversight for your investment. (Also, be aware of the overall business climate and your own resource levels, so that you can be more experimental when appropriate and more conservative when appropriate.)
From miners, learn to tolerate dross and tailings. Understand that they cannot be eliminated; they are intrinsic to the process. Instead, put your efforts into building more and more efficient systems for separation and disposal.
From casino operators, learn that you are going to lose sometimes. Imagine the disaster their business would be if they insisted on winning every time. Instead of eliminating any loss ever, play the odds, win in the long run.
In all three cases, bias your results by recruiting especially lucrative prospects: The high-roller, the most promising geology, or the serial entreprenuer. At the same time, be mindful that finding value in unlikely places is especially profitable, and that a consistent small payoff accumulates over time. To take up the mining analogy; if you want to find a gold nugget the size of a baseball you’ll have to look where no one else is looking, but fortunes have been made mining gravel and other low value materials too.
In summary, brainstorming is too good an idea to throw away, but like many business practices, it takes effort, thought, and investment to be effective.
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