When it comes to developing new ideas as a group, the classic brainstorming method usually comes to mind first: The group members simply share every thought, no matter how useless it may initially seem. At some point, the hope is that "the brilliant idea" will emerge. But is group brainstorming really the most effective method for finding meaningful and original ideas? Not necessarily!

Learning researchers have examined brainstorming groups in numerous studies and found that study participants who worked alone achieved better results than those who generated ideas in groups—both in terms of the quantity and quality of their ideas. Three reasons are given for this:

1. Fear of negative feedback. It's not always easy to share your wildest ideas in a group, even though these are often the ones with the greatest potential. You don't want to be seen as crazy or out of touch with reality, so you'd rather keep your brilliant idea to yourself.

2. Clash of personalities. Brainstorming sessions can quickly become unproductive and even uncomfortable, especially when particularly assertive individuals completely direct the group's focus and, instead of moderating, dominate the session. They are often also stubborn. Passive and shy participants are thus denied a chance to speak. The creative flow that one hoped for from the brainstorming session never even develops.

3. Idea Jam: In a traditional brainstorming session, only one participant can speak at a time. The result: While one brainstormer presents their idea, the others unconsciously begin to revise, modify, or even forget their ideas. This is because our brains have difficulty paying attention to several ideas simultaneously. Overall, this results in fewer ideas being produced than when brainstorming alone.

So, if it's true that traditional brainstorming works better alone than in a group, should we abandon group brainstorming altogether? Or is there a way to leverage the obvious advantages of group dynamics while avoiding the disadvantages just mentioned?

Brainwriting as a solution

This is where so-called brainwriting comes in. Unlike brainstorming, during brainwriting each participant thinks and writes independently; no verbal communication takes place during the idea generation phase. Brainwriting works like this: The brainwriting participants sit together at a table, and each receives a piece of paper. At the top of this sheet, each participant has the same question or problem written on it. The brainwriting moderator gives each participant three minutes to write three ideas on the sheet. When the time is up, the sheets are passed to the person sitting to their left. A new brainwriting round begins. Everyone writes three new ideas underneath their neighbor's, which can be used as inspiration or simply ignored. This process can continue until the brainwriting participants feel they have collected enough ideas. After the idea generation phase, all ideas are read out, discussed, and summarized by the brainwriting moderator.

Benefits of Brainwriting

The advantages of brainwriting over traditional brainstorming are obvious:

• Brainwriting generates many more ideas. To illustrate: With the brainwriting method, with six participants and three ideas every three minutes, you can generate a whopping 90 ideas in 15 minutes.

• Ideas are captured immediately during brainwriting. They don't get lost while other participants present theirs.

• All participants have the opportunity to speak during brainwriting and all contributions are given equal opportunities.

• The ideas can be presented anonymously, so everyone can feel free to contribute crazy ideas during brainwriting.

• The time limit during brainwriting puts a slight pressure on participants to provide ideas and therefore leads to increased productivity.

So, if you need to brainstorm ideas for a particular question, sit down with a few people who are somewhat familiar with the question and start a brainwriting session with them.