The Effects of Facilitation, Recording, and Pauses on Group Brainstorming

Few brainstorming studies have attempted to provide motivation and structure to assist interacting brainstorming groups to maximize their performance. This study investigated the effect of afacilitator; use of aflip chart recorder and periodic pauses to overcome production blocking in interacting brainstorming groups. The results showed that interacting groups with a group facilitator outperformed groups without afacilitator and did about as well as nominal groups. Flip chart recording had no effect, possibly because it blocks production. Pauses had no important effect on brainstorming. The study and its results demonstrate how to bridge the gap between laboratory research and practice.