Andrew Hargadon and Bob Sutton did some research on brainstorming in the 90’s that has been written up in BusinessWeek recently. Bob says it’s a good representation of their work. For each heading I’ve included here there is a paragraph of detail in the BusinessWeek article.

1. Use brainstorming to combine and extend ideas, not just harvest them
2. Don’t bother if people live in fear
3. Do individual brainstorming before and after group sessions
4. Brainstorming sessions are worthless unless ideas lead to action
5. Brainstorming requires skill and experience both to do—and especially—to facilitate
6. Brainstorming requires skill and experience both to do—and especially—to facilitate
7. Brainstorming sessions can be used for more than just generating ideas
8. Follow the rules, or don’t call it a brainstorm

The other article BusinessWeek ran is called The Truth about Brainstorming. Bob Sutton has a go at most academic research on brainstorming suggesting that it rarely reflects what really happens in the workplace and the idea that individual brainstorming if more effective that group efforts is nonsense.

[via Bob Sutton]