Brainstorming elicitation techniques

Brainstorming Techniques


Brainstorming is used in a wide variety of ways, whether it’s one person on their own or many people working together it can always be of some help. It’s a cheap and easy way of getting ideas on how to solve problems. It is the most widely used and creative tool around at the moment as it helps to get your mind on the right track by sharing all the information you know either for yourself, or to the rest of the group. It is the newest problem solving concept. It was made popular in 1953 by Alex Osborn who described brainstorming as “a conference technique by which a group attempts to find a solution for a specific problem by amassing all the ideas spontaneously by its members”. It is a special technique that makes you think about different answers and questions you hadn’t thought about before. There are a few rules for brainstorming techniques, otherwise there might not be a solution to the problem is people get too out of control.

Advantages of Brainstorming:
• Cheap: Brainstorming costs little to nothing to work.
• You don’t have to be highly qualified to use it.
• Not a very hard technique to understand.
• Helps to generate new ideas and get answers to old ones.
• Helps provide widespread involvement throughout the group.
• Doesn’t require much resources
• Good way to get over obstacles that are slowing the development of the problem solving.
• No one is judged on their opinions.


Disadvantages of Brainstorming:
• Can take a long time to work out the kinks if the group is not organized properly.
• Can be hectic, leading to people being afraid to speak their opinion.
• Can go into too much detail that some things may not be used.
• Some people who are more outgoing then others may end up taking over the session with all their ideas. This form of leadership may lead to people being afraid to talk themselves.
• Not recommended for larger groups of people, as there could be too many trying to have their say at the same time.
• Can have repeats of opinions if people aren’t paying close enough attention.
• May not end up with usable solutions.