The term brainstorming refers to the process in which the most varied ideas are enunciated for the achievement of a certain purpose and that avoids any kind of negative presence on the issue. This process is intended to exercise creativity and take maximum advantage of the situation, avoiding repressions that limit thought processes . In fact, it may be that some of the ideas or proposals are of little viability, but this critical element will take place later on, once all existing possibilities are on the table.
Brainstorming is a procedure designed by Alex Faickney Osborn in the year 1938 as a quest to find better ideas from an unstructured climate. In this sense, Osborn came to the conclusion that carrying out a process of this nature could add value to different work groups , especially creative ones.
The brainstorming can be done by just one person , but it is more effective when carried out in a group, by a large number of people participating and suggesting new ideas, some of which are even bizarre. Often, one person is the moderator and responsible for recording ideas, preferably on a whiteboard for all to see. Once achieved an important number of possibilities, what must be done is to relate them and arrive at a combination that can bring solutions that were previously impossible when carried out in a particular way.
According to Osborn, brainstorming should focus on answering a specific question, as too many questions can often be detrimental to the process. In the first experiments, the established groups used to be of twelve participants and were composed of both experts and beginners. Some ideas were ridiculous, but this was not seen as a problem but as a virtue, because that way you got to disbind and unleash your imagination.
Despite the proposed procedure, there are many variants of this process called brainstorming. Some of them involve writing an idea on a piece of paper and passing it on to a partner who evaluates and adds new thoughts, others make use of software that speeds up the process and, in some variants, questions are issued rather than answers, thus forming a “rain of questions”. Despite all these variants and popularity of the process, there are skeptical views regarding these possibilities. However, it is a reality that the excessive judgment of others and self-judgment nullify the possibilities of adding value to others and to oneself.
