Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  The Creative Engineer (30 Jul 2004) Most engineers are familiar with the classic creativity-enhancing technique of brainstorming. In these unstructured discussions, people are encouraged to spout ideas and suggestions. Too often, though, brainstorming fails to produce anything satisfying or practical. Participants may feel uncomfortable with the spontaneity or turned off by how some people dominate the proceedings. Or maybe nobody takes the time to tabulate or follow up on the many ideas that are generated. There is at least one better way. Called "synectics," and developed in the 1960s, this process combines brainstorming with a more disciplined harvesting of ideas. The discussion includes not just those involved on the project but also a representative from the client, who asks the group to address a specific problem. Each person writes down a dozen or more "I wish" statements, and then each reads aloud the ideas, which others can build on; most important, no one is allowed to criticize ideas as they come out. Article URL: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/resource/aug04/0804care.html Read 58 more articles from IEEE Spectrum sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: Top of the Charts: A fake record label shows the way for online fiction     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy