ABSTRACT

The brainstorming technique is a meeting for up to 12 people, conducted under special rules designed to delay the judgement of individuals’ ideas as they appear, to a later stage. Brainstorming can be conducted in waves, each wave of ideas generated acting as ‘triggers’ for individuals to generate yet further ideas in succeeding waves. The first wave is the most important and will tend to determine the shape of later waves of ideas. There are two prevalent assumptions about brainstorming. One is that creative thinking depends upon divergent or lateral thinking. The other is that brainstorming eliminates judgement and combination in groups. The chief advantage of the Nominal Group Technique is that it permits the team to meet formally, without restricting independent thinking, as tends to occur through the personal dynamics of an interacting group where status prevents brainstorming. The Delphi technique has the advantage of facilitating consultation among a geographically disparate population of managers across several continents.