Fast Company: I’m Anya. I’ll be your facilitator for today’s brainstorming session. Our topic: how to brainstorm. Why don’t you introduce yourselves and then start by saying the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the term brainstorming. That’s a standard technique, by the way, called freewheeling.
ALEX OSBORN: I’m Alex, the “O” of legendary ad agency BBDO. I’m deceased. I invented brainstorming in the 1930s, wrote the rules, and coined the term in my 1953 book, Applied Imagination. Brainstorming means using the brain to storm a creative problem and to do so in commando fashion, with each stormer audaciously attacking the same objective.
GERARD PUCCIO*: I’m Gerard, and I’m the chair of the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College. We’re proud to cite Alex as our inspiration. Brainstorming is one of the most enduring, well-diffused, widely researched methods of creative problem solving.
BOB SUTTON*: I’m Bob, cofounder of Stanford’s d.school and a Fellow at Ideo. I don’t get the excitement about brainstorming. It only makes a difference if it’s part of a larger creative process, as you see at Ideo, Pixar, and other places that do real creative work.
