New Ways to Find New Ideas

THE U.S. businessman has always been dependent on new ideas for survival and growth, but never has he been more determined in his search for new ways of doing things than today. To spur "creativity," businessmen will try anything, from the venerable suggestion box to such freewheeling idea-association techniques as "group thinks," "buzz sessions," "imagineering," and the most popular device of all, the "brainstorm." Originator of the brainstorm* is Alex F. Osborn of Manhattan's Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, who defines it as a method in which groups of people "use their brains to storm a creative problem and do so in Commando fashion, with each stormer audaciously attacking the same objective."

Originated some 15 years ago, brain-storming was extended by BBDO to its clients in 1953, has since spread throughout industry. The advertising agency now has a Vice President in Charge of Brainstorming, whose major function is to hold about three brainstorm sessions a week, see to it that his charges sound off loud and clear. The panel of thinkers is made up of admen and (at nonconfidential sessions) outside guests and friends (including housewives). They sit around in a comfortable, yellow-painted (yellow is considered conducive to thought) brainstorm room furnished in homey knotty pine, have plenty of pads, pencils and cigarettes. Lunch is served, then the session begins. A central problem (how to cut down absenteeism, how to improve highway signs) is presented, and everyone storms ahead. No idea is too fantastic; a cardinal rule is that no one laughs at an idea. If anyone is thoughtless enough to say "It won't work," he is sternly reminded that such remarks are taboo by the chief brainstormer. who clangs a schoolmarm's bell at him. Anyone is free to "hitchhike" on an idea, i.e., pick it up and improve on it. The result is usually that anywhere from 60 to 150 rapid-fire ideas are suggested. The vast majority are usually as impractical as the suggestion by one woman that autos have locomotive-type cowcatchers to nudge pedestrians out of the way. But if later evaluation shows that half a dozen of the ideas are potential solutions to the problem, the brainstorm session is considered a howling success. Says Brainstormer Osborn: "People come to realize that they do have this thing called creative imagination, and that they can be good at it."

To date, more than 75 U.S. companies have asked BBDO to train their staffs in the techniques of brainstorming. Corning Glass came looking for new ways to use glass in autos; General Electric wanted to improve its company newspaper; Armstrong Cork Co. was at a loss over how to celebrate Inventors' Night for 104 employees who had won patents for new processes. In the same way, hundreds of other companies have set up their own brainstorm sessions for plant personnel, modified the idea for their own use. B. F. Goodrich Co., for example, likes to use nontechnical workers to help solve tough engineering problems. At its first "creative workshop" session eight months ago, a white-collar office worker sparked the answer to the problem of how to design a new tire machine; he had attacked the problem without any preconceived technical notion that it was impossible. Motorola's President Robert Galvin has set up a special "idea clinic" along much the same lines. Motorola's ticket of admission to the clinic is a list of 10-25 ideas on a company problem. Then the lucky thinkers spend a free weekend at a luxurious hotel or country club chewing over their ideas, looking for the best solution. Says Galvin: "What we have accomplished is to create an atmosphere where people don't mind making unusual suggestions in conferences. We've found that we can sometimes get through certain problems more quickly. A rash idea may prompt a useful one."

Through its own training program, General Electric discovered that the flow of ideas from its middle-echelon executives increased 300%. International Business Machines is a brainstorm booster; Chrysler Corp. has tried it, and so have Union Carbide & Carbon, Celanese Corp., American Oil Co., U.S. Steel, Radio Corp. of America, Boeing Airplane Co. Even if the ideas themselves are unworkable, the discussion shakes up workers and bosses alike. Says Chrysler's William D. Merrifield, boss of the company's industrial education program: "The main thing is 'to develop a climate among your executives that is favorable to new ideas."

While solidly behind the objectives of brainstorming, many businessmen nevertheless see plenty of faults in the plan itself, think that it may be getting out of hand. They object to all the hoopla and gobbledygook about "creative ideation," "buzz sessions," "idearamas," "imagineering," etc. One thing they fear is that the emphasis on group thinking may produce the very regimentation it seeks to avoid. Another problem is the difficulty of screening out 59 or even 149 wildly impossible ideas to get to work on one good one.

To avoid such flaws, many companies are trying the "incident process" developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Paul Pigors, which trains people in creative thought much like the case system in law schools. The discussion group gets an outline of the problem, fires out its ideas, then judges each one to select the best solutions. So far the process has been tried by some 1,000 companies and organizations (among them: General Mills, General Foods, United Aircraft, Trans-Canada Air Lines, the U.S. Treasury and Bell Telephone).

Still another approach to problem solving is that developed by Boston's Arthur D. Little Co., which uses a panel of seven thinkers from widely different professions--artists, engineers, social scientists, biologists, physicists, etc.--brings them together to hammer away at everything from improving paint to making easy-open cans. To date, 40 companies have gone to Little for help, and more than two dozen have asked it to set up similar panels in their own plants.

Even when companies shy away from formal creativity sessions, they try to foster a relaxed, understanding atmosphere that will help people unlock their mental storehouses. Some 40 colleges currently have courses in creative thought, and thousands of companies are sending their young men back to school. American Telephone & Telegraph Co. has even gone so far as to send a group of executives t.o the University of Pennsylvania to study literature, thus broaden their minds. Dozens of others such as General Motors AC Spark Plug division, General Electric and Boeing Airplane Co. have set up informal courses within the company to educate workers and help them think more effectively.

* A word first popularized during the 1907 trial of Harry K. Thaw for the murder of Architect Stanford White, meaning a temporary fit of insanity.

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