Group Creativity and Technology

Despite the popularity of brainstorming, research has shown that verbal brainstorming is not always effective in increasing group creativity. On the other hand, its electronic counterpart, electronic brainstorming, appears to produce much better results. Is technology the panacea for group idea generation? This paper first reviews the theory of group creativity and then examines the characteristics of electronic brainstorming that makes it more effective than verbal brainstorming. From the success of electronic brainstorming, it then argues that the use of technology might be the key to overcome the space and time constraints that are commonly faced by creativity groups.     

Group Judgments in the Fields of Lifted Weights and Visual Discrimination

Six groups of fourth graders (N = 122) from three private schools seated in formal classroom settings were given an unusual-uses problem, and for a 10-minute period they either brainstormed as a total group or brainstormed individually. In the second phase of the experiment, all groups brainstormed individually for five minutes. In two schools (four groups), those who had engaged in group brainstorming in the first phase made significantly more responses and demonstrated a higher level of creativity than those who had brainstormed individually in both phases. Differences for the third school were not significant. Results for these two schools with their traditional classrooms are consistent with the results of experiments with adults showing that brainstorming in small, informal groups tends to facilitate creativity in subsequent problem-solving sessions. Additional research is needed to determine the extent to which such factors as general arousal, normative effect, imitation, or reinforcement contribute to the enhancement of creative responses in group brainstorming situations.     

Nurturing and Enhancing Creativity of Nursing Students in Taiwan: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Creativity and innovation are considered important measures of core competence in Taiwan for students of all levels, including nursing students. Integrating creativity with interdisciplinary teaching modules could increase creativity for nursing students; however, this has not been empirically determined. The purpose of this study was to determine if incorporating interdisciplinary teaching into a teaching for creativity module (TCM) could enhance creative thinking and creative abilities of nursing students. Students enrolled in a capstone nursing course for the development of healthcare-related products were divided into 2 groups. Both groups participated in the 18-week course; however, one group received creativity training with interdisciplinary teaching during the course, which was taught by nursing faculty who completed a TCM workshop. Students who received the interdisciplinary TCM intervention scored significantly higher than controls on measures of creative thinking. Our findings suggest a TCM program, which incorporates interdisciplinary teaching, and instruction in techniques for creativity, such as brainstorming, attribute listing, assessment matrix, and paired comparison, can stimulate divergent thinking abilities of nursing students.     

Information Technology Support For Debiasing Group Judgments: An Empirical Evaluation

Human judgments, made by either individuals or groups, have been found to contain biases. One of the most prevalent biases identified is the availability bias, associated with the phenomenon that events which are more available to human memory are correspondingly judged as occurring more frequently or as being more important. This paper is concerned with how to reduce the availability bias in the group context. It reports an experiment in which two computer-based support facilities, electronic brainstorming and electronic mail, were tested for their contributions to reducing the availability bias. A 2 x 2 experimental design was used: electronic brainstorming (available or not) and communication mode (electronic or verbal). Forty teams of three members each were asked to work on a task involving the rating of the importance of a number of items associated with a secretary's task. Both electronic brainstorming and electronic communication helped reduce the availability bias. In both cases, the reduction in bias was due to increased attention paid to items that were found to have low availability in the absence of these support tools. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

Brainstorming and task performance in groups constrained by evidence

Group brainstorming is usually considered a task of divergent thinking, and the ideas produced in most research on brainstorming are counted and scored for creativity but put to no further use. We studied brainstorming by embedding it in a rule induction task that initially requires divergent thinking but increasingly requires convergent thinking as evidence accumulates across trials. We also tested whether brainstorming facilitated performance on the induction task itself. The experimental design was a 2 (nominal or interacting groups) × 3 (brainstorming early in the task, late in the task, or none) factorial. For brainstorming performance, nominal groups of 4 individuals outperformed face-to-face groups of 4 individuals. But as predicted from an analysis of the effects of constraining hypotheses by evidence, the advantage for nominal groups declined when brainstorming took place late in the task where there was a large amount of accumulated evidence to consider. Brainstorming did not generally affect performance on the induction task, although early group brainstorming resulted in more correct hypotheses than late group brainstorming. Group brainstorming was perceived as more effective than individual brainstorming by both interacting and nominal group members, a finding that extends the illusion of group productivity in brainstorming to tasks of convergent thinking.     

The liberating role of conflict in group creativity: A study in two countries

Researchers of group creativity have noted problems such as social loafing, production blocking, and especially, evaluation apprehension. Thus, brainstorming techniques have specifically admonished people ‘not to criticize’ their own and others' ideas, a tenet that has gone unexamined. In contrast, there is research showing that dissent, debate and competing views have positive value, stimulating divergent and creative thought. Perhaps more importantly, we suggest that the permission to criticize and debate may encourage an atmosphere conducive to idea generation. In this experimental study, traditional brainstorming instructions, including the advice of not criticizing, were compared with instructions encouraging people to debate—even criticize. A third condition served as a control. This study was conducted both in the United States and in France. Results show the value of both types of instruction, but, in general, debate instructions were superior to traditional brainstorming instructions. Further, these findings hold across both cultures. Results are discussed in terms of the potential positive value of encouraging debate and controversy for idea generation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

CULTIVATING IMAGINATION: FACTORS THAT ENHANCE AND INHIBIT CREATIVITY IN BRAINSTORMING GROUPS

The great majority of researchers and theorists agree that in order for organizations and societies to adapt to their rapidly changing environments they must have creative approaches to problem solving. One technique that continues to have promise as a method for generating creative alternatives to complex problems is brainstorming. Yet, despite almost 30 years of research on the process, controversies still exist concerning its approach and methods for stimulating creativity. This study was designed to explore a number of inconsistent findings present in earlier brainstorming research. Results provide clarification for some incongruities, but for others suggest the need for additional research. In particular, analyses indicate that group composition affects member productivity, perceptions of status differentiation, and satisfaction with the group.     

Performance and Perceptions of Brainstormers in an Organizational Setting

Employees of a corporation who had undergone considerable training for effective teamwork were asked to brainstorm about a job-relevant issue in groups of four or alone. One half of the groups brainstormed alone first, and the other half brainstormed as a group before brainstorming alone. Participants were also asked to rate their performance and indicate whether they would perform better in groups or alone on a brainstorming task. Consistent with past laboratory research, groups generated only about half as many ideas as a similar number of individuals (nominal group), and group brainstorming led to more favorable perceptions of individual performance. Participants also believed that they would brainstorm more effectively in a group than alone. These results indicate that productivity losses in brainstorming groups are not restricted to laboratory groups. Such losses occur even in groups who work together on a daily basis, have considerable training in group dynamics, and are dealing with a job-relevant issue. The sequence of alone to group brainstorming did not influence overall productivity. The relation of this research to that of facilitated and electronic brainstorming is discussed.     

Cognitive stimulation in brainstorming

Research on group brainstorming has demonstrated that it is less effective for generating large numbers of ideas than individual brainstorming, yet various scholars have presumed that group idea sharing should enhance cognitive stimulation and idea production. Three experiments examined the potential of cognitive stimulation in brainstorming. Experiments 1 and 2 used a paradigm in which individuals were exposed to ideas on audiotape as they were brainstorming, and Experiment 3 used the electronic brainstorming paradigm. Evidence was obtained for enhanced idea generation both during and after idea exposure. The attentional set of the participant and the content of the exposure manipulation (number of ideas, presence of irrelevant information) influenced this effect. These results are consistent with a cognitive perspective on group brainstorming.     

Toward More Creative and Innovative Group Idea Generation: A Cognitive-Social-Motivational Perspective of Brainstorming

In many meetings and work sessions, group members exchange ideas in order to come up with novel, creative solutions for problems and to generate ideas for future innovations. This type of group idea generation or brainstorming process has been studied in detail, and we have discovered much about the cognitive and social processes that underlie group idea generation. It appears that the brainstorming performance of groups is often hindered by various social and cognitive influences, but under the appropriate conditions, group idea exchange can be quite effective. In this article, we summarize the present state of knowledge, point out some significant gaps in our knowledge, and suggest a cognitive-social-motivational perspective to integrate the major findings and to guide future research in the area of group creativity and group idea generation.     

Directing idea generation using brainstorming with specific novelty goals

In a field experiment with students, we show that a specific, difficult novelty goal, whether presented alone or in conjunction with brainstorming rules, improves novelty and creativity in individuals’ idea generation relative to brainstorming rules alone when goal commitment is high. Because creativity is often correlated with idea quantity in brainstorming studies, we controlled for idea quantity in order to demonstrate that the improvement is not due to changes in the number of ideas generated. These findings suggest that specific, difficult goals beyond quantity can improve idea generation. We also separately measured practicality and effectiveness of participants’ ideas. The results of these analyses suggest that goal commitment might be an important determinant of usefulness, and deserves additional attention in studies of idea generation.     

Internet,World Wide Web,and Creativity

The growth of the Internet has been the most astonishing technological and social phenomenon of the last decade of this century. In 1990 only a few academics had heard of it; now, more than 50 million people use it. By the turn of the century, that figure could be 100–200 million. So far, the network's only constant has been that the number of new users has doubled almost every 12–18 months. Most organizations have or will soon have Internet access. The popularity of Internet provides a tremendous opportunity for individuals and organizations to explore its features and services for electronic brainstorming. This paper presents the services available on the Internet for creativity. Because of the rapidly changing technologies in this area, the treatment of the topic in this paper is broad and general rather than technically detailed and tools dependent. The technologies in existence now may become obsolete in a few months time, but the principles of using them for creativity will remain.     

When paying attention pays off: the mindfulness skill act with awareness promotes creative idea generation in groups

ABSTRACT

Past work has linked mindfulness to improved individual-level creativity, but remained silent about group-level creativity. Of all mindfulness skills, the ability to observe and attend to various stimuli (Observation) is the most powerful predictor of individual-level creativity. Studies examining effects of specific mindfulness skills on factors pertinent to group creativity suggest that for group-level creativity, the ability to focus attention with full awareness (Act with awareness), may be equally, or even more, important. We tested the relation between mindfulness and group-level creative idea generation using two brainstorming studies: one exploratory and one confirmatory. Mindfulness skills were either measured (Study 1; N = 88 groups) or the Act with awareness skill was targeted with a short, incidental guided meditation session (Study 2; N = 68 groups). Results from both studies showed differential relations between mindfulness and group creative idea generation: Only Act with awareness positively predicted the originality of ideas (Study 1 and 2) and the number of creative ideas in groups (Study 2). How mindfulness skills relate to creativity thus depends on the particular mindfulness skill involved and whether creativity happens at the individual or group level.     

Industrial and Biological Analogies Used Creatively by Business Professionals

The objective of this study was to test the effect of far-field industrial (i.e., man-made) versus biological analogies on creativity of business professionals from two organizations engaged in the idea generation phase of new product development. Psychological effects, as reflected in language use, were measured via computerized text analysis of transcribed audio recordings of ideation sessions. Effects on quality of product concepts generated by participants were measured via analysis of 15 judges’ multidimensional creativity ratings. Though psychological effects were undetectable, results suggest presenting new product development professionals with biological analogies as ideation stimulus increases novelty and may increase elegance of solutions generated. Presenting far-field industrial analogies increases relevance and effectiveness of solutions generated. This study serves as a source of evidence that biomimicry (design by analogy to biology) is an effective approach to product innovation. It also shows that there is an important role for far-field industrial analogies in stimulating ideas during new product development. A strategically designed brainstorming session should prime innovators with both far-field industrial and biological analogies to generate maximally creative ideas.     

The Random-Map Technique: Enhancing Mind-Mapping with a Conceptual Combination Technique to Foster Creative Potential

Although creativity techniques are highly recommended in working environments, their effects have been scarcely investigated. Two cognitive processes are often considered to foster creative potential and are, therefore, taken as a basis for creativity techniques: knowledge activation and conceptual combination. In this study, both processes were enhanced individually and jointly with an appropriate technique. Knowledge activation was fostered by the mind-map technique and conceptual combination by the random-input technique. The random-map technique evolved from merging these two techniques together. The two different techniques were tested in a 2 × 2 factorial experimental design with 80 participants. It was assumed that (a) both individual techniques would enhance creative potential when compared to the control group, and (b) the combined technique would lead to more creative potential than implementing the techniques individually. Results showed an increased creativity level of each of the individual techniques when compared to the control group. The combined creativity technique resulted in even higher creativity level when compared to both individual techniques. Thus, fostering different creativity processes jointly had an additive effect on creative potential.     

Creative Problem Solving in Small Groups: The Effects of Creativity Training on Idea Generation,Solution Creativity,and Leadership Effectiveness

This investigation evaluated the degree to which creativity training, idea generation instruction, and creative process impacted idea production, creativeness of solutions, and leadership effectiveness. Three sets of hypotheses were tested with a 114 groups of adults. First, groups whose members had some (i.e., one CPS course) or advanced training (i.e., graduate-level study in creativity or creativity professionals) were significantly more effective at idea generation than groups without training. Furthermore, leaders with some and advanced training were perceived to be significantly more effective than those with no creativity training. With respect to creativeness of solutions, the advanced training groups outperformed all others. The second set of hypotheses focused on the effectiveness of idea generation instruction (i.e., instructions without brainstorming, brainstorming, and brainstorming with criticism). Analysis revealed no significant difference for idea generation instruction relative to idea production or creativeness of solutions. The final set of hypotheses examined the use of a simple process structure for groups without prior creativity training (i.e., distinct phases for idea generation and solution development). Analysis revealed that those meetings that followed a simple process structure out performed groups that did not follow a process for both idea generation and creativeness of solutions. Further results are presented and implications discussed.     

Evaluating Creativity Through the Degrees of Solidity of Its Assessment: A Relational Approach

In this paper, we introduce a new approach to creativity assessment. Arguably, one of the main obstacles to creativity assessment is that creativity criteria are likely to change depending on what is assessed and who is making the assessment. We argue that we might be able to solve this problem by adopting a relational ontology, i.e., an ontology according to which beings of the world acquire their properties by relating to other beings. First, we present the main consequences of this ontological approach for creativity assessment: (a) Accounting for the creativity of a given object involves retracing the beings (including criteria) that relate it to its alleged creativity; (b) One can assess the creativity of this object by looking at the number of beings that substantiate this relation, i.e., by looking at what we call the “degree of solidity” of the relation; (c) One can thus account for the specificity of various forms of creativity and, at the same time, compare them in terms of solidity. Building on these ontological assumptions, we then present a new assessment technique, the Objection Counting Technique, before putting it to the test using an excerpt taken from a naturally occurring brainstorming session.     

Letter to the editor,Schools on Islands,a journal as a Ferry

In an electronic brainstorming session, experts and users of methods for multi-criteria decision analysis discussed editorial policies for a journal which is confronted with the conflicts between isolated schools of thought. The present paper describes the session and highlights how experts in multi-criteria decision analysis view the applications of their own methods on their own decision problems.     

A new dynamical model of brainstorming: Linear, nonlinear, continuous (simultaneous) and impulsive (sequential) cases

In this paper, we extended the linear dynamical model of [Brown, V., Paulus, P. B. (1996). A simple dynamic model of social factors in group brainstorming. Small Group Research, 27, 91-114] on two accounts. First, we modelled the sequential type brainstorming using impulsive differential equations by treating each category as an impulse and tested its validity in the two experiments that investigated and demonstrated the beneficial effects of sequential priming and memory in individual brainstorming. Finally, we considered the nonlinear case of brainstorming in writing or brainwriting where dyads exchanged their ideas in a written format and that eliminated negative factors occurring in oral brainstorming (e.g., evaluation apprehension, free-riding, production blocking) and enhanced the upward performance matching, and conducted the second experiment in order to test its validity in this paradigm with the effects of sequential priming and memory. Comparisons showed good agreement between results of experiments and those of the mathematical model.