lecture 5: personal brainstorming - kthdubrova/phdcourse/lectures/... · 2018. 10. 23. · p. 3 -...

Lecture 5: Personal Brainstorming

Elena Dubrova

ELE/EECS/KTH

p. 2 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research

Problems of group brainstorming

• Group brainstorming often faces problems such as

– distraction

– social loafing: peoples make less effort to

achieve a goal when they work in a group than

when they work alone

– evaluation apprehension

– production blocking: tendency for one individual

to block or inhibit other people during a group

discussion


Personal brainstorming

• Many believe that personal brainstorming is more

efficient than group brainstorming

• Many problems of group brainstorming are avoided

– In a group, one may not have time to think of an

idea, or may be distracted or forget about his/her

own idea before having an opportunity to share it

– Each thinks with his/her own speed

– No danger of criticism


Problem statement and analysis

1. State your problem clearly in one sentence

– Remember that the problem clearly defined is half

solved

2. Write down any supporting information you know

about this problem

– Use “free writing style”: produce a lot of raw material

– Your mental activity may be blocked by apathy, self-

criticism, resentment, anxiety about deadlines, fear

of failure or censure, or other forms of resistance


What may help to ”free” you

• Tell yourself that nobody else will see what you

write

• Pay no attention to grammar, spelling,

punctuation, neatness, or style

• Imagine yourself explaining the problem to

someone. Some people are “speakers” rather

than “writers”. They need an audience. If you are

such a person, use a dictaphone


Problem analysis, cont.

• When you have finished the “first draft”, review

your notes

– Mark passages that contain ideas or phrases that

might be worth elaborating further

• Try see connections, relationships, and

implications in the information you have

collected

– This is usually easier to do once the information is

written on paper compared to if you would just kept

all of this information in your head


Problem analysis, cont.

• By writing down everything you know abot the

problem, you are collecting pieces of puzzle

necessary for your brain to produce a complete

picture and find a solution


Finding solution

3. Brainstorm on your problem using rules similar to

group brainstorming:

– Don't censor yourself

– Write down every idea

– Try generate a large number of ideas (› 10)

– Most creative ideas often come last


Finding solution, cont.

• It may help if you persuade yourself with

absolute conviction that a solution to your

problem already exists

– Your job is to find it

• Think about people who have faced problems

similar to the one you are facing

– What strategies or solutions did they use?

– Can any elements of their solutions can be

adapted to your case?


Brainstorming retreat

• It has been demonstrated that rhythmic activity of

a brain is enhanced by reducing input signals

• Try going for a week to some quite inspirational

place disconnecting completely from email,

mobile phone, and everyday problems

– think, invent and make notes

• You will be amazed at how clear you brain have

became and the kind of ideas you are capable to

generate


Bill Gates’s example

• Several times a year, Bill Gates used to take a

stack of books on the latest business trends to a

remote cabin in the woods where he would

spends a week of uninterrupted reading and

thinking


Other useful techniques

• There are many other techniques which may

help you thinking creatively

• For example, lotus blossom technique is

intended to make you to look for a multiplicity of

ways to approach a problem

• The willingness to consider different perspectives

and alternative approaches may broaden your

thinking and open you up to the new possibilities


Example

• Add together these 4 numbers in your head:

398, 395, 396, 399

• It is not easy in the conventional way

• But if you notice that they can be rewritten as:

400-2, 400-5, 400-4 and 400-1

then it is easy to get 1600 – 12 = 1588

• By taking a slightly different view of the problem,

it may find an easier way to solve it


Lotus blossom technique

• One starts with a central problem and expands it

into themes and sub-themes, each with separate

entry points

• The “petals” around the core of the lotus blossom

are figuratively "peeled back" one at a time,

revealing a key component or theme

• This approach is pursued in widening circles until

the problem is comprehensively explored


6 steps of Lotus blossom technique

1. Draw up a lotus blossom diagram made up of a

square in the center of the diagram (the pistil)

and eight circles (petals) surrounding the

square


Steps 2 - 3

2. Write the central idea or problem in the center of

the diagram (yellow square)

3. Look for solutions to the central problem. Then

write them in the flower petals (pink circles)

– The solutions should be as different from one

another as possible


Step 4

4. Unfold the lotus blossom: Each idea written in

the circles becomes the central theme of a new

lotus blossom


Steps 5 - 6

5. Follow step 3 with all newly created problems

– This should result in ideas which are further

removed from the original problem

6. Continue the process until all ideas have been

exhausted


Epstain’s example

• Einstein was once asked what the difference was

between him and the average person

• He said that if you asked the average person to

find a needle in a haystack, the person would

stop when he/she found a needle

• He, on the other hand, would tear through the

entire haystack looking for all possible needles


Darwin’s example

• When Charles Darwin first set to solve the

problem of evolution, he did not analytically settle

on the most promising approach to natural

selection and then process the information in a

way that would exclude all other approaches

• Instead, he initially organized his thinking around

8 significant themes of the problem, which gave

his thinking some order but with the themes

connected loosely enough so that he could easily

alter them


Darwin’s example, cont.

• Multiple themes allowed him to reach out in

many alternative directions and to pull seemingly

unrelated information together

• Darwin expanded his thinking by inventing

alternative possibilities and explanations that,

otherwise, may have been ignored


There are many other approaches

• For example, check the link

http://creatingminds.org/tools/tools_ideation.htm

for a long list of different creative thinking

techniques


Task for training at home

• Brainstorm on the problem of your choice

– Remember to clearly formulate the probelm

• Use lotus blossom to explore your problem

comprehensively

– Don't censor yourself

– Try generate a large number of ideas = many

“petals”

– Continue unfolding the lotus blossom untill all

ideas are exhausted

lecture 5: personal brainstorming - kthdubrova/phdcourse/lectures/... · 2018. 10. 23. · p. 3 -...

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