Practical Analysis of Group Creative Process MAIM 07 5°

According to Divergent Thinking theories, the Creative Process can be divided into two distinct stages: Ideation and Evaluation. (De Bono, 1970)

1. Ideation is the idea generation phase.
2. Evaluation is the analysis and selection of the ideas.

1. Ideation

Is characterised by:

• Cross Stimulation: the ability to trigger other peoples ideas and to generate own ideas from others stimulation.

• Suspended Judgement: the ability to suspend ones own judgement and avoid comment, analysis or evaluation of ideas,ie..
‘Thats been done before..’
‘That would never work because…’
‘No one would accept that…’
2. Evaluation

The purpose of the Evaluation phase is to select ideas that are:

• Immediately useful
• Need further development
• Provide a new approach
• Can be easily tested

Process Format

1. Roles
There are two main roles needed to conduct the process: the Chairman and the Notetaker.

The Chairman is in charged of :
• Clearly defining the question (including context)
• Stopping people from evaluating during the ideation stage
• Filling in silences by suggesting new ideas or alternative perspectives
• Ending the session
• Organizing the evaluation session and idea listing

The Notetaker is in charged of:
• Recording the groups input
• Asses if an idea has been repeated

2.Timing
30 to 60 minutes is a reasonable duration for the process.

Computer Aided Creative Process

Its been proven (Paulus & Nijstad, 2003) that contrary to common opinion individuals generate fewer ideas in group environments than individually.
However computer aided Ideation has been proved to generate more ideas due to:

• Simultaneous/parallel communication eliminates turn waiting and competition.
• Virtual teams not attached temporally or geographically.
• Anonymity avoids communication problems with peer evaluation.
• Automatic recording eliminates the Notetaker and facilitates review and analysis

The research states that the size of the group has a critical influence on the success of computer aided creative process, as it increases cross stimulation of ideas and encourages participation.

Sources

• De Bono, E. (1970). Lateral Thinking. London: Penguin Books
• Paulus, B. P.,& Nijstad, A. B. (2003) Group Creativity, Innovation Through Collaboration. New York: Oxford University Press.