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Appendix C -- Brainstorming
  
Brainstorming, as described by Alex Osborn in his classic book “Applied Imagination” is not simply a group of people sitting around suggesting silly ideas, but a deliberate attempt to find ideas by identifying and manipulating the variables or structural elements of a problem situation by asking a series of questions -- summarized by Robert Eberle with the mnemonic SCAMPER: asking what can be Substituted, Combined, Adapted, Modified/Magnify/Minify, Put to other uses, Eliminated, Reversed/Re-arranged.

This list can be expanded by using a thesaurus – with the list offered by Ronald Reinhold in “Creative Genius for Everyone” running to 80 pages. Although Brainstorming is regarded as group activity, normally involving no more than six or seven people, in order to get different viewpoints, it can also be carried out solo, using the visual imagination to scan each word – and also informally by simply chatting over a cup of coffee.

Prior to a Brainstorming session, it is important to spend some time generally exploring and analyzing the NEEDS of the situation situation, viewing it from every possible angle, defining the re-defining the problem over and over again, broadening or narrowing the brief as seems sensible, making sure that you really are sure what really NEEDS to be accomplished before taking the time of several individuals to Brainstorm it.

This exploration may be assisted by a wide-ranging discussion and applying Rudyard Kipling’s little helpers: Who? What? Why? When? Which? How? to every dimension of the situation (see APPENDIX A, above).

Each of these words should be repeatedly applied, in a divergent manner. The “Who?”, for example, might concern who is affected by the problem, who “owns” it, who profits and who suffers, who might be able to help us, who might already know the answer? The “When?” may include times of day or week, as well as seasons.

It is recommended that problems for Brainstorming be phrased in the form: “In what ways might . . . ?”, suggesting that there may be a variety of solutions, some more appropriate than others to your particular situation, with your particular experience, skills and resources.