Brainstorming… a storm of brains positively clashing together

Today, during Knowledge Management Global Network’s "Leveraging the Value Creation of Tacit Knowledge" course, Rudolf DSouza led an insightful session on brainstorming.

Brainstorming is undoubtedly an activity aimed at tapping into our tacit knowledge to create new shared, tacit, and eventually explicit knowledge. Rudolf shared a definition of brainstorming, explaining that it is a group or individual creativity technique used to find a conclusion to a specific problem by gathering a spontaneous list of ideas from its members.

This was the first surprise – the brainstorming technique can and should also be used by individuals.

Here are some additional AHA moments from the session:

• Documenting Tacit Knowledge: A lot of tacit knowledge lies between the main ideas that emerge. By recording and later reviewing meetings for hidden gems, we can uncover valuable insights. These pearls of wisdom can be relevant not only to the initial problem but also to other contexts.

• Brainwriting Technique: Allowing team members to think alone and write down their thoughts before sharing and brainstorming significantly increases ideas' quantity and diversity. Writing is critical to success, as Dan Ariely explains in his book "Predictably Irrational."

• Staying with the Question: It’s crucial to stay with the question and resist jumping into solutions too quickly. Pausing (yes, welcoming silence!) and asking more questions can lead to better outcomes.

• Brainstorming Alone: A helpful technique includes: 1) Identifying an inconsistency, 2) Rebuilding the story using a weak anchor, 3) Adding a new anchor based on connections, coincidence, and curiosity, and 4) Discarding the weak link.

Harnessing new technologies, such as Generative AI, pushes brainstorming forward. Don’t ignore these new opportunities; continue evolving our methods as we did yesterday.