One way to classify group activities is according to whether they are brainstorming or brainwriting methods. Brainstorming, of course, refers to traditional verbal idea generation in a group. Brainwriting is a term coined in Germany that refers to the silent, written generation of ideas in a group setting. Brainstorming and Brainwriting
All things being equal, brainwriting groups generate more ideas than brainstorming groups. One reason is that when we interact verbally, we are often not as productive as we might otherwise be. We criticize ideas when we should not, we feel inhibited, we worry about what other people will think of our ideas, and we become sidetracked with various issues and hidden agendas. More important, research suggests that the superiority of brainwriting over brainstorming is due primarily to the fact that only one person can speak at a time in
brainstorming groups (Diehl & Stroebe, 1991; VanGundy, 1993). Brainwriting groups, in contrast, may have four or five people generating ideas simultaneously.
If brainwriting yields more ideas than brainstorming, why even use brainstorming groups? The answer is that we are social creatures. Most of us would have trouble not talking for a long time. We clearly can satisfy more social needs in brainstorming groups. Moreover, some brainstorming activities provide a structure that offsets some disadvantages. Thus, if a group follows a technique’s procedures as written, it should be more successful than a traditional brainstorming group with no structure.
To test these notions, I once conducted an experiment using six different types of idea generation procedures (VanGundy, 1993). Each procedure was tested using six categories of four-person groups:
• Groups using procedure 1 generated ideas without any formal instructions.
• Groups using procedure 2 generated ideas but were instructed to follow brainstorming rules and defer judgment (as were all subsequent groups).
• Groups using procedure 3 generated ideas using one brainstorming technique (PICLed Brains [16]).
• Groups using procedure 4 generated ideas using a brainwriting procedure in which the group members did not see one another’s ideas.
• Groups using procedure 5 generated ideas using a brainwriting procedure in which the participants did see each other’s ideas (Brain Purge [82]).
• Groups using procedure 6 generated ideas using combinations of brainstorming and brainwriting activities. In addition, each group using procedure 6 contained two skilled idea generation facilitators.
All the groups had 45 minutes to generate new snack food product ideas (which were evaluated later by a food products company). When ideas were counted, the groups using procedures 1 through 5 collectively generated about 1,400 ideas, and the groups using procedure 6 generated about 1,200 ideas. In fact, groups using procedure 6 generated more than ten times as many ideas as groups using procedure 1!
The results also suggested that groups using procedure 5 (brainwriting while seeing one another’s ideas) generated almost four times as many ideas as groups using brainstorming without instructions. There clearly are advantages to both using brainstorming and brainwriting procedures (as well as using skilled facilitators).
Taken From : Pfeiffer 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving
