Brainstorming sessions can be a very powerful tool to gain deeper understanding of problems and finding solutions but only if they are done in the right way.
Many of the brainstorming sessions I have attended follow a similar format:
- The leader stands up and lays out the agenda and what problems we are going to disucss
- They tell you they have spent time thinking about it
- They voice their opinion on what the issue is and what to do about it but want your opinion as well
- The floor is given to anyone who wants to stand up and raise an issue
- Those issues raised are usually in line with the opinions of the leader
- The leader believes there is consensus in the room as to what needs doing
- Actions are taken based on the leaders original thoughts opinions
There are many issues with this format as it is open to bias in two key areas:
- Extrovert bias
- Extroverts will more readily speak up and share their opinion than introverts
- Speaker seniority bias
- Seniority of those voicing opinions can sway opinions in the room
- The opinion of the leader can have the biggest sway on opinions in the room
Why is it important to remove bias?
Bias in any data set means that the results (and thus how you interpret those results for decision making) are skewed one way or the other.
This is a challenge when collecting any sort of data and efforts must be made to eliminate or reduce bias as much as possible.
Let’s say you wanted to uncover the most important issues faced by people in your country, but you only asked middle-aged, male, white collar workers in leadership positions within food manufacturing companies, then your results would only reflect the opinions of those individuals (who aren’t likely to have a very diverse view of the world).
The same goes for any team or brainstorming discussion, you have to be aware of how the chosen methods can bias the answers and opinions you get towards a subset of the people.
Extrovert bias:
Generally speaking, those with a preference for extraversion will be more comfortable and are more likely to voice their opinions out loud during a brainstorming session. Conversely, those with a preference for introversion are less likely to speak up during a group discussion.
In any group discussion we can only discuss the points that are raised by those in the room. If those who feel comfortable enough to talk aloud are the only ones to raise discussion points (generally those with a preference for extroversion) then your ideas and discussion points will be biased towards their perspective.
What you then have is a situation where those who raised points felt listened to and like their opinions mattered and those who didn’t feel comfortable raising points out loud
Thus to ensure everyone in the session has a voice, it is important to run the session in a way that isn’t biassed towards those who talk the most or the loudest.
Seniority level of any speaker:
Hierarchy plays a significant role in what elements are discussed and ultimately the direction which is taken by the team during a brainstorming session. If the leader voices their opinion before everyone else, then you will generally get consensus around that opinion. This may seem on the surface like everyone is on the same page but in actual fact you won’t be addressing any of the blindspots of the leader.
As much as many businesses say that they don’t have a hierarchical structure, the structure still exists and where you sit on that hierarchy drastically affects how you perceive it. It is easy for the CEO, who has the most control over their time and what others do to believe that there is a flat hierarchical structure, but do you think that the least senior person feels the same way?
Often we believe that there is a good reason why someone was promoted to a leadership position, that they know things and see things that we don’t; so if they haven’t talked about a specific point, it is probably because they thought about it and disregarded it because they know more than we do. So what do we do? We say nothing and miss out on an opportunity to learn and an opportunity to come at the problem from a wider perspective.
It took me a while to learn this but now I will ALWAYS ask the “stupid question”, the thing that seems obvious to me because either way I will learn.
- If my question is very basic and has already been considered, then I can learn more about why it was disregarded.
- If my question was a good one, generally others may have been thinking of it but weren’t comfortable in raising it (for all of the reasons discussed above).
So in any team brainstorming session, it is important to remove the effects of seniority bias.
How to conduct a great brainstorming session:
To recap, we need to run our brainstorming session so that everyone has a voice, feels comfortable to contribute and that eliminates bias from the senior members in the room.
Step 1: Give everyone 5 post-it notes
Step 2: Take 5 to 10 minutes of quiet contemplation for everyone to write one thing on each of their post-it notes
Step 3: Ask one person to read what they have put on one of their post-it notes and then ask them to stick it on the wall (If they aren’t comfortable talking aloud then they can give one post-it note to someone else to read aloud)
Step 4: Everyone who has the same post-it note, gets up and sticks their’s to the original one
Step 5: Move on to the next person and repeat steps 3 & 4 until there are no post-it notes left
Step 6: Senior team members can now stick their post-it notes to those on the wall (they go last to minimise influence on others in the room)
Step 7: Count how many post-its are in each cluster and write this number on a flip chart
It will now be clear to see which are the top issues that most people face and can easily pick the top 3 to put more focus behind.
The next stage depends on the complexity of the things you are facing but one good way forward would be to have small cross-functional teams use a PDCA to solve each of the top problems highlighted by the team.
Alex Devereux 