Can Brainstorming and creativity go together?

For managerial people various tools are available to solve problems. Such as Brain Storming, Fish Bone Analysis, Cause Effect Analysis, Failure Mode Effect Analysis, Fault Tree Analysis etc. It's a creative attempt to find a practicable solution. The technique applied may differ a bit from one another. Each Analysis is trying to find a practical solution acceptable to the Group. Brain Storming attempts to storm the mind with various ideas from all corners of the participants to arrive at an acceptable & practical solution. These are, none other than called a Creative ideas. So from my point of view, Brain storming goes hand in hand.

Brain storming is a very usefull tool for generating new ideas/product ideas / product improvement s/ service requairements - Value Engineering. Products/ service requirements without involving all the people involved in the Value chain results in failures. Take for example You want to reduce the cost of manufacture of an electric motor, reduce its weight, improve quality, sleek design for accomodating in a limited space and so on. A brain storm invoving Marketing people to know what the customer/user look for, Material/Supply chain managers/Vendors/R and Managers to suggest alternate materials which are light in weight, lower in cost, availability, quality and property, Finance managers to suggest financing costs and funds availability, AN ordinary worker in the shop Floor and production managers to suggest shop floor requirements. possibilities, constraints machine availability for new material etc, Customer of the product to suggest what he will look for in a product and how much premium he can pay or price reduction he expects for using the product / repeat orders etc and so on.

Brainstorming is a usefull tool for creating the new product or ideas

1. it happens the IIM calcutta way ....
2.  (pl. just read and forget )

when in a fix ...sit ... unlock your guitar ..a few puffs of grass freely available outside the joka gate ..

and you call ideas ... a gush of ideas just flow out ..and the tiger runs ferociously like a porsche on the autobahn at 300 kmph..

and   \  lo the problem ....itself arrives at the end objective i.e solution ..

Ask a simple question to your self. 

Is there any thing common in Mango and Mango Shake ?

....

You got the answer to the debate question.

I would say creativity is the Mango here and brain storming is Mango shake.

You can always do some thing else with the mango. Who needs the mango shake.

But its your taste and requirement that decide what to do.

If you think Mango loses its goodness when it comes with milk and sugar, you may be right ... you are not a team player. 

On other hand if Mango shake is what brings the real taste of mango to life ... you may be appreciate that the creativity of one is enriched by the creative thinking of others.

Brainstorming is just a process which facilitates a group to seek ideas, solutions, answers etc. to a challenge facing the group. It can be used for both a creative build up or a critical breakdown of the challenge.Two quick definitions will clarify. Critical thinking: is a process of analysis and is associated with the breaking down of ideas where as Creative Thinking (aka design Thinking) is a creative process of analysis that is associated with the building up of ideas. Brainstorming can facilitate both.

DURING ANY BRAINSTORMING SESSION MANY NEW IDEAS EMERGE.THERE IS EVEN A SAYING,WHEN 4 ECONOMISTS JOIN TOGETHER 5 IDEAS EMERGE.EVERY PARTICIPANT STARTS THINKING ALOUD TO BRING OUT THE BEST IDEA,(BETTER THAN THE OTHERS)BRAINSTORMING IS BASICALLY DONE TO FIND THE BEST SOLUTION FOR ANY PROBLEM OR ISSUE.SO UNDOUBTEDLY CREATIVE IDEAS CROP IN.IN A NUTSHELL BRAINSTORMING HELPS BRING OUT BETTER CREATIVITY AND WILL NATURALLY GO TOGETHER. 

Done correctly brainstorming is a creative process.  There needs to be some strong ground rules, a collection of people with different backgrounds, and honest and caring relationships between the participants.  When those come together, brainstorming is one of the greatest creative activities I have ever participated in.  If you are moderating or putting together a brainstorming assign some prework and identify if you have personality conflicts beforehand. Creativity doesn't just happen because you call everyone into a conference room and say.  "give me some ideas."

in brainstorming people come up creative ideas which may be tangible or non tangible depending on that particular scenario.

Brainstorming is an Integral part of Creative Process, if u do not brain storm you wont get the desired output.

Creativity in business could mean thinking out of the box, innovating on a process or marketing startegy.

Brainstorming would involve a wider input, more views.... an idea once put intosuch a group has the possiblity to be developed, polished and even can evolve into a whole new idea.

individual cooking up of creative ideas may lack in the polish required and can be restricted to ones own limits.

But a controlled brainstorming session would be the best way to bring the best creative work. Let the group know previously what they are going to discuss about, give them tiome to think... give opportunity to each to put in ideas, Polish each up... and at the end of the day... choose what u think is the best....

Yes. Why not. We should see the purpose behind both the activities. The purpose in both the cases is to create a new product. It is only the technique that we are following. The technique might be different but the purpose or the goal is the same to a larger extent. In the Brainstorming we are getting inputs from different individuals whereas in creativity we might not get inputs from as many individuals. The question and answer session on the toostep is one such session which can be called brainstorming where as writing an article on the toostep can be called creativity. The comments on the article can result in creating a marvelous article.

those stupid ideas only many a times work, thats why no crticism only a dialogue

like the idea of the guy who just put a mirror in an elevator to make the journey in an elevator from boring and tense to relaxed and easy anybody else would have considered it stupid, but it worked

criticise a non no in a brainstrorming session

they both go hand in hand, if you are not creative while brainstorming, what´s the point

Brainstorming will improve creativity. It is a tool to make a bunch of people to work on a problem by thinking through different situations.  

I feel, brainstorming works on the principle of "constructive conflict" to stimulate brain for thinking creatively. Everyone in the group will come up with a different point as they feel their participation should be felt and add value.  The psychology is "they are together on one side and the problem is on another side" 

I used this tool many a times and found to be a best tool in two way..

1. Brings in creative thinking among the people

2. Makes decisions democratic and empowers the participants to own outcomes

Yes, the best creativity comes out of the group which is  open to discussons and only creativity of a type which is lone-ranger's forte like Writing, Painting, Dancing, etc. such brain-storming may not be necessary, theoretically.

Even then Creative Artists of all types do discuss their upcoming works with their trusted friends, peers, etc. to gain greater insights into their own thought processes to improvise their Art, continually.

I have often found myself responding quite quickly in a group.  It is not always, that I go very deeply in thought to find a solution.  However, I have the practice of going deep into a topic to find a solution.  Look at toostep, it is not often that we go deeply into a topic and then respond on the platform.  We do generate quite a lot of creative contributions on this platform.  If toostep is considered a brainstorming platform, and when creative ideas are coming up, why not say Yes to the topic?

There is no substitute, however to depth of knowledge.  Especially, when we go deeper into a topic and actually bisect it, our own depth of knowledge will acquire many dimensions which helps us find creative solutions.  

Look at a chess game.  It is said that to a spectator, board sight is better.  The player on many occasions can not recognize certain simple continuations and makes mistakes, however good he may be.  This does not mean, however that the spectator is better than a player.  For the player, there is an urge to win and a responsibility.  The spectator does not have a responsibility and his mind flows freely.  Contributors in a brain storming session have varied degree of decision making and responsibility.

Both ideas are possible and there is no single side one can take on this topic.

Brainstorming and creativity may well be using similar mental processes. In brainstorming people in groups may ideate furiously drawing upon their mental capabilities to come up with new or even weird ideas. Isn't creativity involved in coming up with new ideas? Creativity may be misconceived as a process done in isolation in deep thought. That might be true often but not always. So brainstorming and creativity can go together, sometimes.