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Silent Brain Storming Technique (SBS)
Multiple Mind Conferencing (MMC) or Kaleidoscope Brain Storming (KBS)
KRS Murthy (Copy Right 1996)
CEO
Virtual Think Tank - (Creativity is the breathe of our passion)
Advisors to High Technology CEOs and Corporations)
Silicon Valley, California
Note: THIS TECHNIQUE IS APPLICABLE TO ANY TOPIC OF YOUR CHOICE, AND ANY FORUM TO INCLUDE WEB BASED IMPLEMENTATION. This is only an overview. I have many more details of implementations and variations. This can also be customized for specific groups and application environments)
(I am trying to implement this technique to "Talk back to Veda Vyasa" and "Talk back to Shakespeare". Please let me know if anyone one wants to implement it in other application environments)
Have you attended any brain storming sessions in your life? The sessions are normally run by a facilitator, who introduces the purpose of the session to the participants, explains the ground rules and coordinates the process. A note taker or scribe may be used to document all the ideas generated in the session. Generally, the session is open to any ideas. Important guideline is that no idea is too simple, stupid or wild.
I am presenting a new approach to the brain storming process, and also indicate some potential variations to the approach. At present, I have termed it as Silent Brain Storming or Mind Conferencing, even though the process is not completely silent. People who know my other research works may recognize the basic theme and approach. I call it Special Interplay Between Thesis And Antithesis. I have developed a novel paradigm in literature using this general theme. My approach makes efficient use of silence and communication interleaved in the brain storming session. Various degrees and modes of silence and communication are used as effective tools in this approach. My approach is based on the power of silence and especially its power as a supplement to communication oriented parts of the session.
My approach may seem anti-thematic at the first glance. However, you may recognize that my intention is to make the brain storming process holistic, by exploiting the different modes and degrees of silence, absence of communication and a variety of communication and interaction.
First Idea Generation Session
The session would start with a facilitator detailing the process steps used for the particular session. The session is conducted in a normal fashion with the participants speaking out their ideas in a round robin or random fashion for some duration. The facilitator can choose any format for this session. There are numerous brainstorming session techniques and format in use. It is a good idea to pick one comfortable for the facilitator and the participants.
Invoking the Silent Brain Storming Session
The facilitator or one of the assistants rings a bell. The guidelines of the Silent Brain Storming process would require for the participants to stop talking, and quickly get to the silent part of the session. In the silent mode the participants are required to come of up with more ideas, but not speak it out. They can write out the ideas. In addition, the participants would have to start guessing the ideas that others may be getting and writing. They may guess the ideas of their colleagues by name one at a time. For example, if the participants are A, B, C, D, E, F and G, then A would not only write his / her idea, but also guess what B, C, D, E, F, and G may have as their ideas. A would do this in a deep thinking process, based on the way others answered during the speaking part of the session. A would have to guess the way Bs mind works to make the best possible guess. A would have to almost think like B to do this effectively. Similarly, A would have to start thinking of the way all other colleagues may think, based on his / her mental model of others. A would also write out the guesses in a list against each of the other participants.
Please understand that all of them would be doing this simultaneously. After a reasonable time duration of this silent mode, the bell rings again indicating that the participants end the silent mode and get back to the second speaking session.
Presentation Session
In this session, each of them reads their own ideas, and also their best guesses of the ideas for others. The presentation made by A would look like the following:
· Ideas generated by A
· Guess of ideas of B
· Guess of ideas of C
· Guess of ideas of D
· Guess of ideas of E
· Guess of ideas of F
· Guess of ideas of G
During As presentation, others simply listen. Similarly, all the colleagues give their presentations. Discussions may not be done during the presentations.
Discussion Session
The presentations are followed by a detailed discussion session. In this session, the participants may discuss why and how they guessed about others. Each participant can also comment on the guesses of the other participants, and validate or clarify. The highlights and conclusions resulting from discussion could be scribed. The individual participants could also make their own notes. For example, their personal notes may contain their mental models and appropriate revisions of the creative thinking process of others.
Continuing Silent and Speaking Sessions
The successive sessions would repeat the session sequence already used. However, in the second and subsequent silent sessions, the participants are required to improve their guesses. It is very important to note that in these silent sessions each one will be thinking into deeper levels of others thinking. For example, the following increasing complexities of thinking would result:
* B would be thinking of his / her own ideas
* B would also be thinking of what A, C, D, E, F and G are thinking
* B would also be thinking of what A is thinking of B, C, D, E, F and G.
Similar thinking complexities would be in all participants. This is like the participants minds acting as mirrors creating multiple reflections of each other. It is like a Kaleidoscope conferencing of the minds. Please note that the number of ideas generated would be many times more than done in any other normal brainstorming techniques, very much like the few small objects inside the Kaleidoscope giving rise to wonderful arrays and patterns. We could also call this technique Kaleidoscope Brain Storming (KBS).
After few successive and successful sessions a successive convergence and cross-fertilization would lead to an asymptotic approximation of their thinking process. Most importantly, they may not need to be talking to each other for their minds to be conferencing with each other. In fact, they can be as far geographically apart as they need to be for their routine life, but still efficiently conference with each other.
The most important aspect is the discipline developed by my silent brainstorming paradigm. Regular teams can be formed to practice this technique. It is a good idea for the team members to branch of and form new groups with other new members. It is also a good idea to have new members or visitors to the KBS team inducted routinely. Diversity of backgrounds is the key to freshness of ideas. True diversity in gender, age, ethnic background, educational levels, race, and personality types will ensure a fertile KBS team. It is like any ecological system. Stability of the KBS team ecology is good, but aberrations and perturbations only guarantee long-term growth.
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