Brainwriting Techniques

During brainstorming, many people hold back because ideas lack anonymity. By 1970, research showed that people who privately wrote their own ideas generated more ideas as a group than a comparable team using brainstorming. An explosion of new brainwriting techniques followed.

Basically, people write their ideas anonymously. Because no one knows who originated an idea, status differences matter less and people hold back less. The ideas are often numerous but may lack breadth. Using brainstorming and brainwriting in sequence can provide multiple benefits.

A True Story

During a workshop, one participant told me that even after I requested non-evaluation and freewheeling idea generation, she still evaluated and held back ideas. She did this even during a brainwriting session when no one would see or judge her ideas. An internal gauntlet.

Here are several brainwriting approaches that yield exciting ideas. They can be used by groups or by people working alone.

Idea Gallery Brainwriting

Write six to ten problem statements at the top of flip chart papers, one problem statement per sheet. Attach the papers to the wall for an idea gallery.

People walk around and write ideas and solutions directly on the papers. The ideas that accumulate often trigger new ideas in other people as they move around the room.

Variation: Hang a paper with a problem statement at the top outside your office door and invite people to write their ideas. Some useful ideas will appear.

Idea Card Brainwriting

Sit quietly for about 30 to 40 minutes and write one idea per card on 5 x 8-inch colored index cards with a dark marker. Do not evaluate your ideas. Use non-evaluative listing and automatic writing principles. Write an absurd, bizarre, or exotic idea to trigger others.

Exchange cards with other people and allow someone else's idea to spark new ideas. Record the first idea that comes to mind when you look at each card.

Variation: Everyone writes an absurd, bizarre, or exotic idea on an index card and passes it to the person on the right. Read the card you receive and write the first idea that comes to mind. Use that idea as a trigger for something better.

Another variation: Use Idea Card to create an outline for a report or talk. Non-evaluatively list the ideas you want to include on 3 x 5-inch index cards, one idea per card. Sort the cards in the order you want them to appear, then prepare your report or talk.

A True Story

I led a four-day creative problem-solving meeting for managers, supervisors, and key professionals from five plant sites of a large Fortune-500 company. They were working on problems associated with “world class manufacturing.” By the end of the meeting, they had made action plans for five major new approaches and several smaller ones.

The following week, a small team from three plants met to consider hundreds of ideas they had overlooked. They mainly sorted ideas written on index cards and used those ideas as triggers for better ideas. The process worked. A meeting scheduled for two hours lasted until 3 a.m. They identified many new paradigm shifts and developed ten major new proposals.

Idea sorting to find trigger-ideas after Idea Card makes a powerful procedure.

Clustering Brainwriting

Write a nucleus word representing your problem in the center of a piece of paper or flip chart. Circle it. Rapidly write whatever comes to mind in a cluster of words or short phrases around the nucleus. Circle each thought and link it to the previous circle. Continue until you have a flow of linked ideas.

Do not think about what you write. Use free, intuitive writing. Do not seek connectedness. You want randomness in the early stages. Go off on wild tangents. Shift paradigms. Look for different mind funnels. Seek the bizarre. Stay non-evaluative.

Continue clustering words and phrases around interesting thoughts as long as ideas flow. When you run out, stop for a while before adding more.

Study the completed cluster. Non-evaluatively list ideas you might want to try. Draw lines between word clusters to form new, synergistic approaches. Show the clusters to someone else to trigger new ideas.

Set a quota for a minimum number of ideas. Settling for fewer than five new ideas accepts the obvious, the quick fix.

Force combinations: Place two or more unrelated word-nuclei at opposite corners of the same page. As you fill the page, force a combination or create a usable metaphor between the concepts.

Brainwriting Circles

Brainwriting Circles is a useful variation of clustering.

Write a word or phrase that captures the spirit of the problem in a small circle at the center of a blank sheet of paper. You can also write an entire problem statement.

Write nearby words that you associate with the central concept. Use non-evaluative listing and automatic writing principles in a process of progressive free association.

When no more room exists next to the circle, move outward and begin a new circular layer of words. Continue filling the page with concentric layers triggered by the original word, phrase, or any word you have written.

Stay creative. Use both linear and nonlinear thinking. Do not evaluate. Go off on tangents. The words do not have to connect or make sense.

When the page is full, look for connections and remote associations. Circle words or phrases that reveal patterns, new paradigms, or useful ideas. Draw lines between them. Use different colored pencils or pens to make creative associations.

Stay patient. Allow the process to work. It can seem fragile, shattering into a useless jumble if you force the words and phrases to make sense too soon. Stay with it. This procedure can help your creative thinking in marvelous ways.