Martha Pedalino

When I’m confronting a vexing problem, I often gather a group to brainstorm. We’re looking to get the best ideas as quickly as possible. I love seeing it happen.

In brainstorming meetings, many good ideias are lost — and few are gained. extensive evidence shows that when generate ideas together, we fail to maximize collective intelligence. Brainstorming groups fall so far of their potential that we get more ideias — and better ideas- if we work alone.

The problem isn’t meetings themselves- it’s how we run them. Think about the brainstorming session you’ve attended. You’ve probably seen people bite their tongues due to ego threat ( I don’t want to look stupid), noise ( we can’t all talk at once), and conformity pressure. These challenges are amplified for people who lack power or status: the most junior person in the room, the sole woman of color in a team of bearded white dudes.

To unearth the hidden potencial in team, instead of brainstorming, we’re better of shifting to a process called brainswriting. The initial steps are solo. You start by asking everyone to generate ideas separately. Next, you pool them and share them anonymously among the group. To preserve independent judgment, each member evaluates them on their own. Only then does the team come together to select and refine the most promising options. By developing and assessing ideas individually before choosing and elaborating them, teams can surface and advance possibilities that might not get attention otherwise. The key to collective intelligence is balanced participation. In brainstorming meeting, it’s too easy for participation to became lopsided in favor of the biggest egos, the loudest voices, and the most powerful people. The brainwriting process makes sure that all ideas are brought to the table and all voices are brought into the conversation.

Collective intelligence begins with individual creativity. But it doesn’t end there. Individuals produce a greater volume and variety of novel ideas when they work alone. That means that they come up with more brilliant ideas than groups- but also more terrible ideas than groups. It takes collective judgment to find the signal in the noise.