It's been my experience that the best "brainstorming" isn't about the "big idea" but about how to bring the "big idea" to fruition. Brain storming should be what happens after the initial idea, because that's when it normally takes multiple teams from within the same organization to implement and enact. -it has it's place.
...but the fundamental tenets of brainstorming - "no criticism" and "maximize quantity" - are anathema to implementation. "After the initial idea" there is a limited solution set governing "how to do it" or else you failed your due diligence in the first place. "Let's figure out how to tell Janice we're taking the christmas party planning away from her" does not have nearly as many possible solutions as "let's pick a theme for the Christmas party" and the solutions to the first problem have consequences, while the solutions to the second do not. Thus my point - brainstorming works best when it really doesn't fucking matter what the answer is. As I tend not to worry about problems whose solutions are irrelevant and hold a dim view of those who do, I've yet to encounter a brainstorming session that was worth the time.
Isn't it essentially crowd-sourcing answers? Why does it have to mean "no criticism" and "maximize" quantity? Who says so? I guarantee that some of the best ideas have come from "spit-balling".As I tend not to worry about problems whose solutions are irrelevant and hold a dim view of those who do, I've yet to encounter a brainstorming session that was worth the time.
-agreed, count me out of that session. That's when I'm secretly checking my email below the table and making comments on Hubski while on a "team call" for work... .like right now.
"Spitballing" and "brainstorming" are two very different things. "Spitballing" means "I'm throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks, some of them may be terrible, we'll evaluate them as they come." "Brainstorming" EXPLICITLY means "we're all going to come up with ideas without any criticism or evaluation, then we're all going to sit in a circle and evaluate them after we're completely out of ideas."
I do agree but at that point it's really no longer "brainstorming" it's more about who is taking on what roles in order to implement the big idea.
No, it's still brainstorming. For example, the programmer/coder has an idea about how to approach media or the marketing person has some CSS ideas etc. all geared towards bringing the big-idea to market. These examples exist in traditional brick and mortar businesses too.