Chapter 5 From Brainstorming to Structuring to Evaluation and Choice Brainstorming

Brainstorming Abandoning the bogsat for compensatory2 decision-making with AHP is sometimes too big a first step for some organizations. Instead, a series of small steps might be easier to implement. An easy and prductive first step is to encourage the seeking out of several alternative solutions to a problem or opportunity rather than settling on the first one that seems feasible. Since most people don’t like problems, they usually react by taking the first way out they can find. Having only one idea or course of action open to you is quite risky in a world where flexibility is a requirement for survival. If you have only one idea, you have nothing to compare it to. The French philosopher Emile Chartier said “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it’s the only one you have.” Nobel Prize winning chemist Linus Pauling expressed a similar thought – “The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.” Brainstorming is a technique that is useful in identifying alternative solutions to a problem. The main point of the initial phase of brainstorming is to generate as many alternatives as possible. Criticism of people’s contributions must be avoided as should intimidation of some group members by the more competitive, verbal members of the group. The following are some typical brainstorming ‘rules’ and techniques: