[Sigia-l] "Team work" not what's cracked up to be?

[Ziya Oz]

Christopher Fahey:

> I think it's important to note that "brainstorming" is not the same as
> "teamwork" at all. They are apples and oranges.
 
They don't have to be. The point was, as you mentioned, that they quickly
degenerate into groupthink. And that's not an accident.

> People are afraid to look dumb, so they don't take risks.
 
People learn by trial and error. They were probably burned many times before
and paid the price of being considered "not part of the team." In corporate
environments that's usually nothing but a noose.

> In short, it does indeed become "groupthink", but not because brainstorming
> itself is a flawed methodology, but because it ceased to be really
> brainstorming at all because the leader of the session wasn't running the game
> correctly.

My objection and derision is about what "teamwork" has come to mean. I don't
think there is "a correct way" to run brainstorming.

> A good brainstorming session needs to be run by a leader whose job it is to
> encourage as many ideas as possible as quickly as possible, to record them in
> detail, and to silence all judgements until the session is over.

If that works for you, great. But if you are suggesting it as "best
practice," no way. 

Brainstorming in no way should be considered a quantitative and aggregating
process. It shouldn't be literal or linear. In fact, I'd argue that the real
value of brainstorming is the very promise of connecting nodes of thinking
and POVs of individuals of a sufficiently differentiated group, and thereby
enhancing the individual value of contributions towards a greater sum. There
isn't a whole lot of point to brainstorming with homogenous groups, which is
indeed what (corporate) teamwork often (but not always) ends up becoming.

So to the extent that brainstorming conforms and coagulates towards the
perceived expectations of likeminded people it intersects with the adverse
affects of teamwork. It becomes more normative than illuminating, to say
nothing of its drain in productivity.

---- 
Ziya

Usability >  Simplify the Solution
Design >  Simplify the Problem