6.9 Group Techniques for Increasing Creativity

6.9.1 Brainstorming (continued)

C) The Four Rules

The two basic principles just described deferment of judgment and quantity breeds' quality, give rise to four essential rules for a brainstorming session.

1.    Criticism Is Ruled Out: All criticism and evaluation are put off until some future date. This key rule is the means of implementing the principle of deferred judgment. It is so critical that when brainstorming is conducted in a group, some chairmen or leaders ring a bell whenever any member of the group criticizes another's ideas or is self‑critical or apologetic for that which he has himself suggested.

2.    Freewheeling Is Welcomed: Participants are to feel free to offer any idea; as a matter of fact, the wilder the idea the better, for "it is easier to tame down [an ideal than to think [it] up." The intent of this rule is to help the individual feel more relaxed and less inhibited than he might in ordinary circumstances by encouraging him to and implicitly rewarding him for using his imagination. It relieves him of responsibility for evaluation.

3.    Quantity Is Wanted: This rule is a restatement of the second principle of brainstorming, that the more ideas suggested the greater the probability that an original one will come up.

4.    Combination and Improvement are Sought: The intent of this rule is to motivate participants to build on others' ideas by showing how already offered ideas might be improved or combined in various ways with other ideas. This rule not only encourages the development of additional ideas, but also offsets any feeling of embarrassment individuals might experience at not having been the first to think of an idea.

To summarize, these two principles and four rules constitute brainstorming fundamental orientation to the generation of ideas irrespective of whether this orientation is practiced by an individual or by a group of individuals; to achieve a creative solution the idea‑generation stage is separated from and is followed by idea‑evaluation. There are no specific guidelines on how to evaluate a list of ideas developed through brainstorming, probably because Osborn, brainstorming originator, assumed that people are more practised in idea evaluation than idea generation. Nevertheless, should an obstacle be encountered in the process of idea evaluation and should more ideas be needed, the brainstorming process following the two principles and four rules can be reinstituted.