From The Daily Dialogue
From The Daily Dialogue
Broadcast of 8/26/98
Subject: [DailyDialogue #238] Brainstorming
"Everybody's a mad scientist and life is their lab. We're all trying to experiment to find a way to live, to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos."
-- David Cronenberg, Canadian filmmaker
Eddy and I often experiment in our life-partnering laboratory. One of our more successful experiments has been to use brainstorming as a conflict-resolving and problem-solving method.
We begin when one of us proposes a brainstorming session to work on solving a problem. Eddy might say, "I'd like to brainstorm a plan to move to the country. Would now be a good time for that?"
I've found it's very important that we take turns contributing ideas to the process. Otherwise, Eddy will come up with more of the ideas and I'll begin to think poorly of myself. We also use the standard rule that it's not OK to question or criticize each other's ideas. When one of us slips up, the other might say, "Remember, in our brainstorming process we agreed not to criticize each other's ideas."
One of us records all the contributions to the brainstorm. If it's a simple planning exercise (like what to do for our weekend fun) we silently select our three favorite ideas, then discuss our choices. Usually an agreement just falls out of some combination of the ideas we selected.
Experiment: Try the brainstorming technique on an easy problem such as: "What shall we do for fun this weekend?"
Affirmation: We are finding that structure helps us take turns and participate more equally in decisions.
The Daily Dialogue is published each day of 1998 by e-mail. Copyright 1998, Eddy Brame and Marty Crouch, All rights reserved.
