6.9.1 Brainstorming (continued)

M) Brainstorming in Action

The following is an excerpt of an idea‑generating brainstorming session quoted from De Bono's book, Lateral thinking: Creativity Step by Step. It was to redesign a teaspoon.

… A rubber spoon

… I feel that the secondary function of a spoon which is that of transferring sugar from the basin to the cup has largely disappeared and that a teaspoon in the shape of an egg whisk would be much more efficient.

... (Put down egg‑whisk.)

... And make it electrically driven.

... Incorporate a musical box for the aesthetic function.

... Have something like a pipette tube which you dip in the sugar with your finger over the top and transfer sugar in that way. Then the sugar would be provided with a dispersing agent so that you would entirely lose the pleasure of stirring.

... Going back to the egg whisk 1 think one ought to have a sort of screw thing, rather like an electrical swizzle stick. The axle would be hollow...

... (Can I interrupt here? You are beginning to tell us how you would make it and that are not the function of this session.)

... No, I am just describing what it looks like.

... (Could you describe it more simply?)

... A rotating spoon?

... No it's got a screw. You know a propeller type screw. ... You push it up and down?

... No it's electric; you just press the button on the top.

… It seems to me this is too complicated. Now you have an ordinary sugar tongs and each individual would have his own sugar tongs and would pick up a couple of lumps of sugar. The tongs have two ends and you could create turbulence just as easily as with a spoon.

... Doesn't this restrict you to lump sugar?

… Yes, small lumps. But you can still get the quantity of sugar you want.

... (What shall we put down there?)

... Tongs.

... What about something like those ashtrays which spin as you press them?

… Feasible, etc.

Those ideas that are selected are reported back to the idea generation group so members of that group can still maintain a sense of participation in arriving at a creative solution to the problem.

It will also very likely be necessary to persuade others in the organization to accept an idea or a tentative working model of an idea. This may require knowledge and experience in marshalling arguments and being persuasive. Finally appropriate techniques need to be used in introducing the final work to the audience at large.

At each step in the total process there may be the need for additional new ideas. Under such circumstances, a brainstorming session and the process, as described previously, can be begun again.