Forget Brainstorming, Try Brainswarming Instead

Forget Brainstorming, Try Brainswarming Instead

Brainstorming sessions are common in business — meetings where thoughts fly, all ideas are “good ideas,” and the loudest person in the room often rules the show. But is this system effective?

“Important ideas rarely result from traditional brainstorming sessions,” says business author Kevin Maney, who recently wrote the ebook The New Art of Brainswarming, available as a free download from IdeaPaint, a company that offers paint that turns walls into white boards. Interviewing leaders from companies such as online payment processor PayPal and New York-based strategy consultant SYPartners, Maney found that innovators continually generate new ideas through a more continuous and dynamic process.

“It looks more like swarming than storming,” he says. Individuals come together to work on a problem. Instead of a single session, the swarm shifts and changes and keeps working until the problem is solved. Then it gets to work on the next problem.