Sleep On It
In a recent article, Timothy Johnson describes a great technique for voting on ideas that came up in a brainstorming session. His article made me think about recent brainstorming sessions I was part of. Each of them had a different nature, but there was one thing common to all of them. The people who took part in all these meetings felt they have to come up with a definitive conclusion by the end of the session.
Now, I don’t know about you, but my best thinking happens when I take a walk, when I’m driving, and often when I’m in the shower. It’s not that I don’t think when I’m in the office. But when I manage to clear my head, something else happens. It is as if I make room for myself to see what ever it is I’m thinking about differently — sometimes even more clearly.
Brainstorming sessions are all about gathering as many ideas as possible. Participants are encouraged to bring up ideas, no matter how wild. Criticizing is not allowed. That’s a great technique for coming up with innovative ideas. But can you seriously analyze these ideas within the scope of the same session?
Not every innovative idea is a good idea. That’s why you are expected to consider the ideas that came up in the meeting and vote for them. In order to do that effectively, you have to absorb the ideas, to think about them, to challenge them. This process requires quite a different mindset than the one required for coming up with crazy ideas. Changing your thinking mode so radically in a short time is not trivial.
Only five minutes ago you were supposed to come up with innovative ideas, and criticizing was not allowed. Now, you are expected to carefully analyze all those ideas, and choose the best ones. Can you really do that? Can you really break free from your own ideas and seriously consider other ones?
To be effective, the brainstorming process must include taking some time to absorb the ideas that came up. Each brainstorming session should be divided into two separate meetings. Use the first meeting only for bringing up ideas and making sure everyone understands them. Then, give every participant a printout of the list of ideas, and send him to sleep on it.
The decision-making meeting should take place the next day, after all the participants had the proper time to consider the ideas, and to come up with difficult questions. Only after conducting a serious discussion should you vote to select the best ideas.
You would be amazed to learn how a good night’s sleep (or taking a shower) can improve the quality of the discussion.
September 24th, 2006 at 9:47 am
Yes, sleeping on it is always a good idea.
I notice, by the way, that you’ve introduced two additional conditions beyond the main point of your post (sleeping on it to change gears):
1. “proper time to consider the ideas” and
2. “[proper time to] come up with difficult questions.”
If the only thing the participants are doing at their job is working on the topic which was being brainstormed, then “the next day”, at least in the afternoon, might be just enough time to do both.
But if, as with most people, they are multi-tasking and have other things to do at work besides the brainstormed topic, they probably need more than 1/2 a work day plus freewheeling off-work thought of one evening (where they might also be busy with family obligations that require their full attention).
September 24th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
Brilliant build to my post, Lidor. “Sleeping on it” is always a great idea if (as Tom pointed out) the luxury is there to do so. Great post!