So That's Life?

When I was working for 3M many years ago, I was first introduced to the MBTI personality test. When I first took it and was presented with the results, it reminded me of astrology and I pretty much ignored it. Twenty years later, I was exposed to it once again in graduate school where I learned that it could be a useful tool for understanding the diversity of a group. All class members took the assessment and the results showed that (as expected) people were represented as expected in each type. I also came to see that there was some validity in the personality description of each type as a way of seeing more of the angles that make up complex personalities. It might have helped that I tested as the same type as I had previously.

One of the characteristics of that type that I could never reconcile myself to was that I was supposed to be good at brainstorming. I’ve worked for several large organizations who insisted on conducting large group sessions where a facilitator wrote down on a huge sheet of paper whatever someone in the group shouted out. You know, the “no such thing as a bad idea” strategy. They claimed that this was the best way to find great ideas. I would sit there subdued because I never had enough time to give serious consideration to the “problem” and anything that came out of my mouth sounded like word-picture-association.

I was reading an article the other day that confirms for me the futility of brainstorming:  seems that it leads to groupthink which actually produces deficient results.  I may not be good at it but at least I haven’t been part of the problem all these years! But that got me to thinking about what is the best way to generate good ideas?

Taking into consideration the 16 MBTI personality types, I came up with the following steps:

1. Give as much advance notice to the people you will be asking for input.
2. Gather all the facts and listen to as much input as possible.
3. Analyze and look for connections to previous situations.
4. Get all the people in the group together, thank them for their input, and explain that weʻre all going to do this together…. my way.

Any questions?