We all “brainstorm” individually or in small groups to toss ideas around and talk through various challenges. Ad hoc idea generation is helpful and a great way to “throw around” ideas – to free associate and warm-up prior to using creative thinking tools. This warm-up is often a great way to pull “top-of-mind” information from coworkers before digging deeper to develop new ideas, options, or alternatives.

However, formal brainstorming is not very effective to generate new ideas. Most brainstorms are just a group of people haphazardly sharing ideas and rarely solving real problems. Sorry to burst your bubble, but brainstorming is not effective for developing new ideas. Most research on idea generation has shown that brainstorming typically does not result in valuable ideas.