Quartz at Work: Perhaps more than any other category of professionals, creative types are expected to thrive in brainstorms. In the public’s imagination, their offices are filled with fidget toys and Post-it notes in an array of colors, all meant to absorb some of the energy of a group of fast-thinking, well-dressed hipsters deep in ideation mode.
12 comments:
I can agree with this article to a certain extent. I think that brainstorming can be very useful, but not all the time. I think it all depends on the process that a creative is going through, and that can change from project to project. I do like a comment made by the creator of the survey, Alderson. I do agree that sometimes creatives need the time to think on their own and bring better ideas to the table. Brainstorming can be nice expertise for a new group of people but it might not work as well for a group of people that already understand one another (new ideas might not come up as frequently). Personally, I don’t think that brainstorming meeting is very helpful, we did them a lot in high school and once I got into a more senior position, I didn’t find them useful (more of a waste of time) but younger students found might insight useful when they started their creative journey (so I think it really depends on how comfortable you are with your expertise and creative experience). I think that the most creative thoughts come from independent thinking and in meetings, you tend to see a few creatives rule over others (which doesn’t leave a ton of room for expanding on creative ideas) I like the ending that brings up the practice of positivity, openness, and building on others ideas (because I whole heartily agree that it takes practice to be able to do those things)
I am so grateful to whoever came up with the idea to do this survey. Too often people think that once you throw a bunch of creative people in one room, great ideas will be bouncing left, right and center. Granted, for some creative people, this is the case and they thrive in atmospheres like this. But that is not the case for all, and I think it is important to note that you are no less of a creative being if you don't thrive creatively in brainstorming atmospheres. We are all different with different processes and different ways of going about things and that is one hundred percent okay. It just needs to be more acceptable. In the past, I have found that these atmospheres inhibited my creative process because I am not an assertive person, and I am also a very analytical person who likes to take time to process every little detail before I "act" or pitch in. So having a group of people bounce ideas around, and not being able to have my time that I need to work through it all before I can contribute isn't ideal for me. I also feel as though brainstorming meetings create an environment with too much randomness and not enough logical thinking and analyzing. Stepping away is so important. Personally, I enjoy getting together as a group and hearing how everyone feels about a specific piece, then breaking off to brainstorm and analyze before bringing ideas together. I tend to do my best brainstorming at the crack of dawn when I am well rested and had time to consciously and subconsciously let things simmer, and there are no distractions around and nothing else is on my mind. And as I'm getting older, I am realizing that this is okay.
This article adamantly states that brainstorming sessions are not the ideal way for people to operate, but rather problem-solving in solitude is not necessarily more efficient, but find it helpful. Maybe I’ve fallen into believing the stereotype, but brainstorming has always seemed like the ideal process to me. Thinking for a moment about stupid business ideas that you come up with your friends, each person adds their own idea and makes it better. I’d be curious to see the numbers from the study because the article just lays out the findings for the most part with a few percentages sprinkled in periodically. The creative fields that they specifically mention are podcasting, writing, music, and photography, all fields that can be done working alone. Theater is inherently collaborative because it requires so many types of people. I wonder if people who are attracted to the theater work are the creatives that like collaborating, at least that’s the way it seems to me. I personally love the collaborative creative process, and that’s why I’m going into theater professionally, so this article did lay out an interesting counterpoint.
I find this sentiment interesting! I used to be a reporter for my school newspaper. Every month, we had a brainstorming/pitch meeting, and though it was kind of boring, it always got my creative juices flowing! Sometimes I'd have a basic idea, hear someone mention their article idea, and suddenly I had a super interesting amendment to my original idea! Not only did I get better with my pitches, I also learned to respect the creativity of my peers. I think that brainstorming is really beneficial for me in that regard. To me, it's just like rewriting a first draft of an essay. It may be boring, but it's necessary. You think you have a good plan, but it could always be better. Brainstorming does that for me. If I went with my first/original ideas for Susan's projects, they would have ended up a whole lot worse than they did. Then again, this article does say "creatives," and I guess I'm not a creative!
I thought this article was very interesting. For the majority of my life, I have not considered myself a creative type but I feel like one thing I have always heard is that if I need help coming up with no idea, that brainstorming is a good go-to strategy to help generate ideas. I have never really found that this worked for me, mostly I just got really stressed out and self-conscious in brainstorming sessions. This article was pretty reassuring because I always assumed brainstorming didn’t work all the time for me because I wasn’t creative, but it turns out a lot of creative types don’t find brainstorming super helpful either. I did think it was interesting that this article said one of the reasons brainstorming isn’t the most helpful is because a large number of creative professionals trust their own instincts and research. I think this makes sense, but I don’t really understand why brainstorming would be less effective because of this.
Personally, brainstorming meetings are incredibly difficult to get through. In many ways, it comes down to the competition of quick, forced idea creation in a group setting. There will always be one or two people who are incredibly performative during these meetings, causing others to feel too intimidated or uncomfortable to share. There is the problem of structuring the discussion and then eventually meeting a conclusion in a timely manner, and when you’re blindly throwing ideas around this can often go awry. I agree with the survey results that say “send people off with the time and space to think properly” because it allows people to really truly get into their ‘zone.’ Everyone’s ‘zone’ is different, and they do not necessarily mesh well together, so allowing people personal time to discover ideas is helpful in this manner. This also allows people to come into a meeting to present ideas feeling prepared and equipped for a discussion, and still allows others to jump in with possible improvements. It also allows a way to ensure that everyone who wants to share has a chance to. Much better all around.
I'm not sure whether I agree with this article or not. In high school, we would often have brainstorming meetings in order to discuss designs and concepts for whatever production we were putting on at the time. I can say that the suddenness and stress of having to meet a close deadline and have something to bring to the meeting did, I feel, hinder my creativeness when it came to design ideas. However, I did often find them very useful after the fact. Being able to discuss concepts with the creative team would implant an idea in my head that I was able to turn into a design I was proud of. Brainstorming meetings would always help me get my thoughts and ideas flowing after each meeting. I won't say that these meetings are completely useless, however I also would say that giving short deadlines for people to meet in order to approach a brainstorming meetings does often hinder the creativity in ideas based off of my personal experience.
I found this article very interesting as I am someone who isn't sold on the idea of a group brainstorm. The main reason I have issues with group brainstorms is that I am not the most outgoing person and often find it hard to share ideas in a setting like that. I often find myself catching up with what is going on in the meeting rather than thinking about what I want to say. For this reason, large group brainstorms are the best places for me to be able to share ideas I may have. That being said, a brainstorm with, lets say 4-5 people, I feel can be very useful. In sessions like these, I often find myself using other peoples comments and ideas to enhance mine. In the end, I feel the group comes up with an idea that has components of many other ideas that were thrown out during the meetings, thus creating a new idea that is better than any single person's ideas.
I agree and disagree with the contents of the article. As someone who’s generally terrified of talking to other people and speaking, I tent to not want to brainstorm and prefer to want to be sent off into time and space to think. I’m not very assertive or loud with my ideas, so very often in these kinds of meetings I get lost in the sea of louder personalities. However, think that in some instances, brainstorming can be pretty helpful in at least getting your mind to start thinking about the given project more. I think a short brainstorming meeting could be helpful in getting some ideas flowing, but not necessarily just have that to figure out the thing in its entirety in that one seating. I also think the effectiveness of brainstorming largely depends on who is on the team and how many people are there. I’ve found that brainstorming with one to four other people can actually be helpful and somewhat enjoyable, but larger than maybe six or seven it starts getting more difficult. People can add onto someone else's idea and help find the flaws in it so I don't necessarily think it can always be written off as a complete waste of time.
I’ve learned recently that I don’t do very well with public brainstorming. Once I’ve developed an idea or two to build upon, of course I can come up with solutions and creative thoughts on the spot, but starting the process in a such a public environment does, in fact, stunt my abilities. I think it’s slightly unfair to stick a bunch of different creatives in a room and tell them to pitch ideas and brainstorm, especially because everyone has a different creative process and takes a different amount of time to come up with said ideas. I think it’s great that WeTransfer conducted a survey of this scale, with representation from creatives across many different disciplines. I agree with the statement that there is still collaboration involved (especially in theatre, it is inevitable), but it doesn’t mean that’s the best way to go about approaching the absolute beginning of a process. I hope the important results of this survey pose potential for change in creative fields where this brainstorming meetings take place frequently.
I don't hate brainstorming meetings, but I think they can be problematic for creatives. I've been in many brainstorming meetings where I felt very overshadowed, especially if I'm the youngest person in the room, or the only woman in the room. I do like bouncing ideas off of others, if that's the environment of the group. But, these meetings can get rough if there's not enough respect among those in the room. People can feel shut down really easily if the environment is even slightly hostile. I think a lot of the time, the ideas that come out of brainstorming meetings are kind of forced. There's just such a huge pressure to deliver immediately and meaningfully that makes it so difficult for the meetings to create anything actually good. For me, a mix of isolated creation and collaboration really help me to get something meaningful done. I like input from others, but I don't like the pressure and competition of a brainstorming meeting. I think the important thing is to come up with what is best for that individual project and group, then go with that. That's why gauging what everyone's working and learning style is is so important. You cannot work as a group without a mutual respect and understanding.
This article makes some big claims, not all of which I agree with. I think I and the author of this article have different ideas for brainstorming. The author mentions that you can make brainstorming better by promoting “positivity, openness, building on other’s ideas.” To me, it is impossible to have a brainstorm without those things. I wonder if they were to re-do the survey only using brainstorms with positivity, openness, and building on other’s ideas if the results would be the same. I personally like brainstorming that allows for preparation. For instance, telling your team “we are planning to brainstorm about how to solve x problem on Monday” and then having each team member bring in 5+ ideas. Then there is a place to start as well as an opportunity to look at a large number of ideas and see what could possibly be combined or improved upon. This method is still brainstorming in my book and is quite effective for my own learning style.
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