Re: UKNM: Brainstorming - PC's Next Victim

[Ray Taylor]

Ashley Pomeroy <

arptermisoc [dot] org

> said:


> I hate the word 'brainstorm'. It conjures up a mental image of

> poorly-educated middle-managers in ill-fitting suits, promoted purely

> because they fit in and buy drinks during office parties, sitting before a

> sheet of paper on which is sketched a circle with 'What do you associate

> with Bovril?'. Mediocrity multiplies - ten mediocre people working in a

> team produce ideas which are ten times as mediocre.


I think I have been in that meeting a long time ago...


But of course, if you went to a posh school (University of Plymouth???), if

you know everything, can't learn any more, have no need of input from

colleagues (besuited or otherwise) and dread working as part of a team,

forget brainstorming or any other collaborative exercise - you don't need

it. You can solve the world's problems all on your own.


In my experience, far from producing mediocre ideas, ten mediocre people

working in a team with the right approach can produce far more meaningful

and useful ideas than any number of prima donnas working alone.


The thing about ideas is that they cost nothing and exist in

super-abundance. Anyone with half a brain can produce them. Indeed, brains

are so powerful that, even when more than 50% of the organ in question is

dead, the rest (if healthy and alive) can still do a reasonable job of

producing meaningful output. The problem is that we teach them to be lazy

and do as little as possible. During the latter half of the last century,

people such as Edward DeBono developed all sorts of techniques for making

the grey wet stuff work a bit harder. Very useful for management consultants

working on a team of sleepy middle managers.


As a general rule, I would say that if you want to produce a good idea,

start off with 100+ ideas of unknown quality and work on them. This works on

the principle of 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. Which is why

brainstorming can be useful. Spend 10 mins throwing a bunch of ideas up on

to a big bit of paper and then examine the results.


And once you have a working idea, you need to bake it. No good doing it in

half measures.


One of the biggest problems with the dotcom boom of yesteryear is that too

many young hopefuls worked on the principle that it is the big idea (often

no more than a silly domain name) that get's you there. Ideas, without the

means to (a) judge their worth and (b) realise them, are worthless.


Ray Taylor



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