(this is a work in progress and may be prone to change)

BrainSwarming - a new model for problem solving and innovation

"BrainSwarming is a silent method of group ideation, in which participants contribute their ideas through short notes in a structured graphic." – Dr. Tony McCaffrey, cognitive psychologist

“When one person is talking, you’re not thinking of your own ideas. Subconsciously, you’re already assimilating to my ideas.” - Leigh Thompson, a management professor at the Kellogg School

·       A bit of history

BrainSwarming was developed in by 2010 by dr. Tony McCaffrey, innovation researcher and expert cognitive psychologist in the field of the science of innovation . Similar in name to brainstorming, BrainSwarming keeps the good aspects of brainstorming while getting rid of the ineffective ones.

Dr. Tony McCaffrey, when interviewed by the Harvard Business Review, stated that brainstorming can be inefficient and incredibly time consuming. It also can be uncomfortable for more reserved employees, inhibiting creativity. There hasn't been one study that proves that brainstorming is more effective than people working alone for a while and then coming together to build upon each other’s ideas. Through his research, McCaffrey has created a new idea-generating technique he calls "BrainSwarming, that consists of a method based on the life of the ants, what he calls "Swarm of Ideas".

"Why do we need to talk in the first place?" - McCaffrey asked during Harvard Business Review interview. BrainSwarming is based on observations how ants solve problems, e.g. when looking for food. Ants leave a trail of pheronomes for other ants to follow, which is an efficient way to lead the colony to resources such as food, in a time efficient way. In the same way we can say that the act of adding ideas to the BrainSwarming graph resembles how insect swarm intelligence work.

·       BrainSwarming technique

“BrainSwarming can solve any problem that has a goal.”

– Dr. Tony McCaffrey

In the course of this technique you’ll create a graph with mapped interactions between objectives (at the top of the graph area) and resources (at the bottom of the area). Interactions between objectives and resources are called solution paths. In the course of the session participants may map potential solution paths.

At start of BrainSwarming write on a post it note the objective that you want to accomplish, goal that you'd like to achieve or a problem that you must solve on the top of the graph area, that may be a big piece of paper or a wall. At the top there is a goal, whereas at the bottom you place resources, tools, etc., available. Refinements of the goal are put under the goal, connected by lines. Interactions between resources are put one step above resources. When refined goals and interactions between resources converge together there is a possible solution path. It doesn't matter whether you prefer to start working from the top or the bottom as ultimately some solution paths will come out of the session.

Have participants sit silently and write down different approaches to the problem, goal or a challenge and note what resources they have available to achieve the goal. By connecting resources to refined steps on a way to achieve the objective or solve a problem you'll come up with a solution path or even some of them.

You need to specify what's your objective (at the top of the graph) and what are your available resources to achieve this objective (at the bottom of the graph). Put those on sticky notes and place them in the right spots.

 Participants work in silence in a given timebox or until the flow of ideas slow down.

It’s important to focus on generating ideas thus contributing to the graph, not trying to find the “right solution”.

In the course of BrainSwarming participants will add new resources, refine objective/s and map interactions between objectives and resources. It may turn out, that the objective is not the true goal, just a milestone to achieve a bigger objective.

After the timebox is over or the flow of ideas slowed down, participants may want to end the silence and discuss identified solution paths, further analyze them, prioritize them or do whatever works for them best. Collect feedback on the session and work on what can be improved next time.

·       Preparation

Be sure to have enough writing utensils and sticky notes for everyone and make sure that the area where you want to conduct the session is quiet enough. You can use an optional facilitator, though BrainSwarming is built in a way that participants facilitate themselves.

State an objective that requires completion and resources that are available. Don’t worry if you don’t grasp them all now, participants will add rest of them. If the objective is not good enough try to paraphrase and consult your language thesaurus. Search for hypernymous words.

Remember that objective and resources are hypernymous themselves. Instead of “objectives” you can say â€œproblems”,” challenges”, “goals”, etc.. Instead of resources you can say “tools”, “features”, “options”, any particular people with skills related to reaching an objective.

You can also use digital tools such as online whiteboards to conduct a session online. Sessions can be asynchronous.

Example of an objective:

 "Stuck truck problem" - how can a driver of a truck go through being stuck under an underpass with minimal damage to the truck and the underpass.

·       Tips

- after the session is finished – you can dot vote solution paths, have small groups or all participants discuss viable solution paths, analyze them by cost, time to implement, advantages, disadvantages, opportunities, risks, etc., get feedback from participants, work together on improving the BrainSwarming session.

- brain-warming - when faced with a complex challenge that requires particular people attendance you may want to do some warming up. Send invitations, briefly describe the objective, give participants time to think about it.

- collective intelligence - let each participant work according to his or her style. Some people prefer to work alone, some in pairs. Some participants like to add one note at a time seeing how the graph unfolds, some prefer to create many ideas and post them all at once. Some are top-down thinkers, starting from refining the objective, others are bottom-up thinkers, preferring to analyze resources first.

- concise idea descriptions – they should fit on one post it note. Verb phrases tend to be put on top of the graph, noun phrases tend to be put in the resources area of the graph.

- goal fixedness - the way a goal is phrased may suggest solutions. Try using different wording to describe a goal, especially more general terms. If you'd lack ideas how to phrase goals into more general terms please consult your language thesaurus and search for particular hyponyms and hypernyms. In some thesauruses you may find mapping of any given word, presenting each word place in hyponym & hypernym hierarchy.

- optional facilitation – you may want to use the help of a facilitator whose role is to asks "how" questions in relation to the goal or challenge to help with refining the goal, help innovators notice what they may overlook by suggesting ideas based on previous experience. Facilitator also keeps graph tidy, especially after many contributions from participants and helps participants to place their ideas in the right place (objective-related, resources related or objective-resource connection related). Finally, a facilitator remind participants that BrainSwarming is not about finding the "right solution" but about generating as many connections between goal and available resources as possible, letting go of "obvious" choices and focusing on those overlooked ones

- right people - participants from different backgrounds offer a variety of perspectives and approaches. When conducting a session with a tightly-knit group try to include people outside of that group to allow for fresh ideas.

- silence – by the use of silence there is no judgement, no criticizing, smaller chance to be influenced by cognitive biases(e.g. Dunning–Kruger effect, expectation bias), extraverts do not dominate the session, Highest Paid Person Opinion is equal to any other, there is no social pressure when expressing less popular ideas, no Groupthink, no following one idea overly without validating alternatives, no evaluation apprehension. When to talk? After number of contributions dwindle. It’s also good to ask participants whether they’d like more time if the session is going on well but the timebox expired.

- timeboxes – try different timeboxes. There is no default timebox. Start with shorter timeboxes like 15-30 minutes and adjust the time as needed. Don’t let a timebox constrain a good and productive session. On the other hand if the amount of ideas lessens you may want to end the ideation phase and move to decision making phase as the output of ideation is on the graph and some solution paths are visible. Instead of one longer session try several shorter sessions and see how it works for you.

·       How to convince people to try BrainSwarming:

"Ignorance is happiness. If you do not know there is something better, then you are probably happy with what you use. For example, if you do not know the cell phones, you are probably very happy with your landline. I invite you to try BrainSwarming. You will see that it produces ideas faster and that there will be less frustration in the team."

- Dr. Tony McCaffrey, HBR interview

Common advantages of BrainSwarming are adding structure to any creative process, which in turn generate more quality ideas in less time than brainstorming. By working in silence during the session creative mental process is uninterrupted. In the process of creating a graph grouping of ideas is done naturally, participants tend to notice what they overlook, ideas are simple and concise as they fit on a post it note. Relationships between resources and objectives are mapped, which provides a tangible result of such session. Every participant is included and engaged at the same time and can work in his own style (strategy oriented participants tend to refine objectives, while detail oriented participants usually start with resources and interactions between them). BrainSwarming works well with objectives in Complex domain from the Cynefin model.

In comparison to brainstormin, BrainSwarming displays following advantages:

- BrainSwarming limits functional fixedness cognitive bias due to visualizing surprising connections between resources and goals. You can consult the so called "candle problem" to learn more about functional fixedness. Or try it yourself - how to make a container out of a ball, let's say basketball?

- production blocking - one person speaking at one time is not an effective solution. Also people may be influenced by other people ideas and diminish the perceived worth of their own ideas.

- regression to the mean - BrainSwarming is free from social proof cognitive bias where people who are subjectively more liked tend to have more people agree with their ideas, nonwithstanding those ideas quality

·       Ties to Liberating Structures

"Presently, I do not see an alternative to talking during evaluation and decision making. But I am open to hearing ideas on this topic."

BrainSwarming has features similar to Liberating Structures, a set of facilitation techniques and microstructures, namely engaging everyone at the same time, being playful, having a purpose and unleashing collective intelligence. BrainSwarming ties in effectively with Liberating Structures.

Potential combination of BrainSwarming and Liberating Structures:

- before BrainSwarming use 1-2-4-ALL (depending on number of participants present) to do some brain-warming

- after BrainSwarming when you have potential solutions visible and decided on which one to use, try "15% Solutions" to generate ideas on how to start working towards such a solution straight away with available resources

- after BrainSwarming use "Min Specs" to further refine chosen path to achieving a goal by stripping parts that are non essential to achieving success

- want to cross pollinate ideas? Tie BrainSwarming with "Shift & Share" LS. Put as many graphs as you have objectives and follow "Shift & Share" LS description.

Experiment with different Liberating Structures and see what works best for you.

Liberating Structures - http://www.liberatingstructures.com/ls/

Resources:

Tony McCaffrey - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-mccaffrey-714a8b6/

Internet Wayback Machine - a tool indispensable when digging for websites that are no longer available - https://archive.org/

Leigh Thompson - https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/thompson_leigh.aspx

3:49 minutes BrainSwarming video - https://hbr.org/2014/03/why-you-should-stop-brainstorming

Original Harvard Business Review video - https://hbr.org/2014/06/BrainSwarming-because-brainstorming-doesnt-work

HBR interview summary - https://www.neuronilla.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/BrainSwarming_Webinar_HBR_Executive_Summary.pdf

AN ALTERNATIVE TO BRAINSTORMING - http://meme-partners.com/an-alternative-to-brainstorming/

Brainswarming: Alternative zum Brainstorming - https://karrierebibel.de/BrainSwarming/

Brainswarming: Because Brainstorming Doesn't Work - https://www.gotomeeting.com/en-au/hd-video-conferencing-resources/BrainSwarming

Brainswarming because Brainstorming does not work - https://dzone.com/articles/BrainSwarming-because-0

Forget Brainstorming, Try Brainswarming Instead - https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228171

How to Generate Awesome Ideas (And Then Develop Products With Them) - https://www.business2community.com/product-management/generate-awesome-ideas-develop-products-01840939

LinkedIn slide presentation on BrainSwarming - https://www.slideshare.net/stefanfrisch/BrainSwarming-good-creativity-method-for-generating-ideas-for-guerilla-marketing

Overview & tips brochure, now archived - https://web.archive.org/web/20160423193522/https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/58951556/BrainSwarming_Tips_Brochure.pdf

Productivity Loss in Brainstorming Groups: A Meta-Analytic Integration - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1207/s15324834basp1201_1?needAccess=true

Reducing consussion in football players - https://hbr.org/2015/12/find-innovation-where-you-least-expect-it?referral=03759&cm_vc=rr_item_page.bottom

Shelter From The Storm: Why Brainswarming Is The Future Of Collaboration - https://www.fastcompany.com/3014839/shelter-from-the-storm-why-BrainSwarming-is-the-future-of-collaboration

Sintetia Interview - https://www.sintetia.com/BrainSwarming-interview-for-sintetia-with-dr-tony-mccaffrey/

Why Group Brainstorming Is a Waste of Time - https://hbr.org/2015/03/why-group-brainstorming-is-a-waste-of-time?referral=03759&cm_vc=rr_item_page.bottom

Your Team Is Brainstorming All Wrong - https://hbr.org/2017/05/your-team-is-brainstorming-all-wrong?referral=03759&cm_vc=rr_item_page.bottom