posted January 17, 2008 05:50 PM              

Then friends jump in and sides form, and it's a bunch of girlfriends scratching each other's eyes out while trying to claim that they each maintained their composure the best and really "showed" the other side.

(Ok, I didn't say it wasn't entertaining. I'm just saying that it's also stupid.)

Well , I wrote this as a reply on another post..and thought it was worth having its own thread:

I was an engineer for 12 years. As far as I know, this is how you go about determining whether or not there is a problem that might need to be solved. We all ask questions and provide ideas. No one criticizes until all ideas are on the table..then we poke at each idea..firmly but gently.

These are also the first steps to solving any problems that might be found to exist.

As far as I can recall it is the only way involving multiple people talking to one another which produces results more often than not.

When engineering meetings degenerate into debates that produce point-counterpoint argument rather than useful input, we usually break them up, because they are a waste of time. They are also usually harmful to team morale. (And curiously, quite often associated with office politics..not the subject at hand. Oh man if I had a dime for every time. Sheesh.)

For those of you not familiar with the process of people getting together for constructive discussion, we called it brainstorming.

Criticism is usually discouraged during the initial stages of the process, because most people whose ideas aren't criticized, tend to produce more, better ideas.

From the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers:

quote:

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The key to successful brainstorming is to withhold criticism until the group has exhausted its creativity. Criticism can be very difficult to resist.. But criticism at this point will kill creativity. In order to avoid the embarrassment of being criticized in front of a group, people will simply keep their ideas to themselves.

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quote:

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..stress before the brainstorming begins..no criticism of ideas during the brainstorming..

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quote:

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..in most cases, someone will ignore this prohibition a few minutes after the brainstorming begins. As soon as that happens, stop the criticism...or the brainstorming effort will be a waste of time.

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Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers:Rules for Brainstorming

Directing criticism at inviduals involved in a discussion hampers the communication of information by them and is an almost sure way to stop the free exchange of constructive ideas between the parties involved. That's a proven fact.

It's by this very mechanism that STRONG, CONSTANT criticism can become its own form of censorship, breeding apathy far beyond the intent of any critic..you'd think.

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One of these days we really oughta try something like this "brainstorming" thing around here.

posted March 13, 2008 06:05 PM            

They don't, in general. I mean, I don't know them personally, but given the general contribution quality I would suspect this is the case.