Brainstorming is messy
Ah brainstorming. Like Amy says in her Artistic Aside post, brainstorming is often challenging and uncomfortable. I think the irony is for me that great ideas very often come from brainstorming sessions, but often the sessions are tortuous or worse, the great ideas are lost in the sea of corporate bureaucracy.
Amy has two great posts on this subject. The first lists some interesting resources for having brainstorming sessions and the second is most important for this quote:
'However, I think that to move forward in any effort we must learn to be comfortable with discomfort. This is different from “expanding your comfort zone.” I mean truly learning to welcome, sit with, and learn from discomfort, chaos, and dissonance. Ideas are messy things. They rarely fit together neatly ? especially in the midst of a creative flurry, such as individual or group brainstorming.'
This is really it isn't it? Brainstorming can only really be effective if you are open to and welcome ideas that challenge the status quo. Not easy for me, I know, but it is important. You can't invent the “next big thing” if you don't expand beyond what is the now into the what could be.
Special Grab Bag- Brainstorming & Creativity- Contentious Weblog–Links to sites on Brainstorming.
Artistic Aside- Brainstorming, KM, and Dada- Contentious Weblog–A great read. Challenge your thinking and “take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!'-Miss Frizzle.