Who wants to kill brainstorming? (Susan Cain agrees)

credit: andymangold

I always hated brainstorming and finally more than somebody** agrees with me. Come on! Brainstorming doesn’t work at all. I saw the worst ideas coming out from brainstorming.

People (yes, also creative ones) need time to think. They need to focus. They need concentration. And how can they do that in a meeting full of people? “Creative meeting” is a paradox, it doesn’t mean anything: at the end it’s just a useless, stupid, huge time loss.

Do you know what really happens (I saw that with my own eyes for almost 15 years) in that situation? Great minds don’t speak, because they need time to consider, to ponder, to think. The others open their mouths (often too much) and just say…craps!

Let’s clarify: craps and creative ideas are not the same. On the contrary they are two really really different things. Otherwise everyone could be a creative and that’s not the case.

Well… brainstorming is the homeland of the fake creatives. The real ones just want to stay in their office thinking. Alone.

*Susan Cain (author of “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking“) wrote:

“40 years of research has repeatedly demonstrated that our performance gets worse when group size increases. So, if you have talented or motivated people, encourage them to work alone.”

**Jena McGregor on “The Washington Post” wrote:

“We’ve all been there. The boardrooms with flip charts at the front of the room and candy on the table. The all-hands emergency meetings to come up with ideas to fix the latest mess. And of course, the offsites in drab hotel ballrooms that are supposed to somehow spark creativity. Such efforts at brainstorming are well intended, of course. The problem? They rarely work…”