Individuals generating ideas alone outperform brainstorming groups

While brainstorming in groups is very common, it's not very effective. Research has found that when people generate ideas alone, they generate more ideas, more diverse ideas and more novel ideas, than groups.

This is because groups suffer from dynamics that lead to fewer ideas:

• self-censorship (not sharing in fear of judgement)
• production blocking (you forgetting your idea because someone else shouted theirs)
• too similar ideas based on what we see/hear

This is important for designers to know. Next time you facilitate an ideation session, have people work alone first to generate more ideas. Then share ideas but then generate alone together. This works best.

Tags: design process facilitation

ID: 2022-0118-0710

References:

• Torres – Continuous Discovery Habits, p.136