Everyone in! The water is Productive!
Everyone in! The water is Productive!
April 9, 2015 by Taylor Studios
The scope of work has been defined; the contract has been negotiated and signed; the Project Manager has been designated; the Design Team has been assembled. And now, the brainstorm meeting has been scheduled! You will often find project brainstorm meetings on the Taylor Studios calendar and you are probably not surprised by that. After all, a “brainstorm” seems right at home on the meeting calendar of a . But a brainstorm is more than just a meeting on the calendar of a creative company. It is a communication tool designed to ensure a productive and efficient exchange of information focused on the predictable outcome of generating, refining and prioritizing a set of options. Despite the creative application, hard research backs up its success.
Crucial Conversations
Years ago, the authors of : Tools for Talking When Stakes are High noted that organizational productivity and performance was not so much a function of policies, processes and procedures, but had more to do with employee behavior and, specifically, the behavior surrounding how employees communicated. It is a given that each person has their own ideas, theories and perspectives when entering any conversation on any topic. This is good news in a brainstorm! The authors’ describe each person’s input as adding information to a “shared pool of meaning” and have observed that, “The larger the shared pool, the smarter the decisions.” A brainstorm meeting relies on the fact that not everyone shares the same pool of meaning. The entire purpose is to add as many individual thoughts to the pool as possible, and then to transform these individual thoughts into a “shared pool of meaning” from which a set of options emerges. The challenges of this communication tool include crafting a safe atmosphere where active participation is both encouraged and expected, criticism is absent, and every thought or idea is recorded. The authors’ research shows that strong organizations (as well as strong relationships, careers, and communities) are ones that actively work towards the free flow of relevant information in both one-on-one and group settings.
What’s the Payoff?
The payoff for getting it right? Not only smarter decisions and happier clients, but also greater unity and conviction on the part of participants when working on the resulting action items. These are the payoffs that Taylor Studios looks for in the free flow of a brainstorm; they are in line with our business model. But can there be other payoffs from the free flow of relevant information? The research of Kevin Dunbar in the 1990’s suggests that despite all our technology, “the most productive tool for generating good ideas remains a circle of humans at a table.” Dunbar’s research is outlined in a book by that explores the history of innovation and invention. Johnson dubs this circumstance the “liquid network” and describes it as an important component of how innovation happens. Meetings that feature a free flow of information allow new combinations of ideas and thoughts to occur where one person’s unique perspective or reasoning can become the input to another person’s perspective and reasoning. In fact, Dunbar’s study showed that “isolated eureka moments” are rare; most important and innovative ideas occur in a “liquid network” where many people add to the “shared pool of meaning.”
Brainstorms, and meetings of all kinds, are communication tools that can generate ideas, mutual purpose and even the “Next Big Thing.” Why? Because of all those different thoughts, perspectives, and theories swimming around. Communication tools used in group settings can also prove effective in one-on-one conversations. A group of two still brings separate and unique ideas to a conversation, and research suggests that adding all of them can lead to more successful conversations in any setting. So, Everyone in!
Do you add input in a non-threatening way and encourage others to add theirs? Check out “” for more insight.
Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler; 2nd edition, The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Crucial Conversations, Patterson/Grenny/McMillan/Switzler; 2nd edition, page 24
Johnson, Steve; Where Good Ideas Come From – The Natural History of Innovation, 2010, Penguin Group: Riverhead Books.