At Superba College, student surveys indicate that students really dislike the food served at the student union. The Dean decides to create a student panel to brainstorm ideas on how to improve the food without raising costs for the students or the school.How does brainstorming work? What can the dean do to make sure that the brainstorming efforts are effective?
What will be an ideal response?
Brainstorming helps groups generate multiple ideas and alternatives for solving problems. Developed by advertising executive A. F. Osborn, brainstorming can apply in a variety of contexts. They include solving problems, developing creative ideas for new products, removing performance roadblocks, and developing action plans to achieve goals. Brainstorming sessions begin by asking participants to silently generate ideas or solutions, which then are collected either in public or anonymously and summarized in some fashion (such as on a whiteboard or a flip chart).
The dean can follow the seven rules for brainstorming used by IDEO, a product design company:
Defer judgment. Don't criticize during the initial stage of generating ideas. Avoid phrases such as "We've never done it that way," "It won't work," "It's too expensive," and "Our manager will never agree."
Build on the ideas of others. Encourage participants to extend others' ideas by avoiding "buts" and using "ands."
Encourage wild ideas. Encourage out-of-the-box thinking. The wilder and more outrageous the ideas, the better.
Go for quantity over quality. Guide participants to generate and write down as many new ideas as possible. Focusing on quantity encourages people to think beyond their favorite ideas.
Be visual. Use different colored pens (e.g., red, purple, blue) to write on big sheets of flip chart paper, whiteboards, or poster board that is put on the wall.
Stay focused on the topic. Appoint a facilitator to keep the discussion on target.
Keep to one conversation at a time. Set ground rules that no one interrupts another person, dismisses someone's ideas, shows disrespect, or otherwise behaves rudely.
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