Preparation Can Save Brainstorming Sessions

Some brainstorming sessions get off to a shaky start because the participants subscribe to a tenet that is provably false: "There’s no such thing as a bad idea."

But there are plenty of other reasons why such sessions, intended to harvest good ideas, are often the source of bad ones. For starters, there’s self-consciousness. "We sit there looking embarrassed like we’re all new to a nudist colony," says Joe Polidoro, who has worked for a variety of banks. There’s also the problem that creativity and its mulish muse can’t be scheduled between, say, 9:15 and 9:45. Says Kate Lee, who used to work for General Electric: "I’m more mercurial than that."

By Jared Sandberg

From The Wall Street Journal Online

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