Big Brain

This article, published in the Harvard Business Review several years ago, suggests that brainstorming doesn’t work. At least not in the way that we often think about it. It reminded me of my first job at big PR agency. The entire account staff spent a day at a loft in an industrial area of Chicago brainstorming.

The loft looked like Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and we had to take off our shoes and walk around in our socks while coloring, throwing Koosh balls around, and brainstorming. At the end of the day, we did karaoke. No big idea came out of it, probably because the session failed to adhere to the rules that this article suggests a good brainstorming session should adhere to. (As a side-note, after that session, our office spent a great deal of money designing and building a room where we could go to have official brainstorm sessions. It also looked liked Pee Wee’s Playhouse.)

As I’ve already blogged, the vast majority of us soon got the can because of the tech bust, which made me wonder if anyone had a brainstorming session about whether it’d be a good idea to invest in brainstorming sessions and a dedicated brainstorming room.

The point of these brainstorming sessions is to pinpoint the moment of innovation. On a semi-related note (not really), here’s a story about another kind of innovation, called tinnovation. It’s cool, check it out.

On an even more unrelated note, this article in The New York Times suggests you become happier the older you get. Who knew?

-Pete