Suspended judgement
Suspended judgement is a key principle in brainstorming where no evaluation of ideas is allowed during the session. It encourages free expression of ideas without fear of criticism, allowing even seemingly ridiculous suggestions to be put forward.
THE IDEA
Suspended judgement
The brainstorming session provides a formal opportunity for people to make suggestions that they would not otherwise dare make for fear of being laughed at. In a brainstorming session anything goes. No idea is too ridiculous to be put forward. It is important that no attempt at evaluation of ideas is made during the brainstorming session.
Attempts at evaluation might include such remarks as:
‘That would never work because…’
‘But what would you do about…’
‘It is well-known that…’
‘That has already been tried and found to be no good.’
‘How would you get that to…’
‘You are leaving a vital point out of consideration.’
‘That is a silly, impractical idea.’
‘That would be much too expensive.’
‘No one would accept that.’
These are very natural remarks but if they are allowed then the brainstorming session is useless. Not only is one forbidden to evaluate the ideas of others but also one’s own ideas. It is the job of the chairman of the session to stop any attempts at evaluation. He must make this quite clear at the start of the session.
Thereafter he need only say: ‘That is evaluation,’ in order to put a stop to it.
The other type of evaluation which must be guarded against is the evaluation of the novelty of an idea. The object of a brain-storming session is to produce effective ideas. Usually this means new ideas otherwise one would not be holding the session. But the purpose of the session is not actually to find new ideas. During the session a long forgotten idea may be resurrected and found to be very effective.
The evaluation of novelty might include such remarks as:
‘That is not new.’
‘I remember reading about that some time ago.’
‘That has already been tried in America.’
‘That was the way it was done years ago.’
‘I thought of that myself but threw it out.’
‘What is so original about that idea?’
To counter such tendencies the chairman has to say, “Never mind how new it is, lef’s have the idea and worry about its novelty later.”
When to use it
In a product development team brainstorming new features.
In a classroom setting to encourage students to share creative ideas.
In a strategic planning session to generate innovative solutions.
In a design thinking workshop during the ideation phase.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Forbidden evaluation remarks
Attempts at evaluation might include: 'That would never work because...', 'But what would you do about...', 'It is well-known that...', 'That has already been tried and found to be no good.', 'How would you get that to...', 'You are leaving a vital point out of consideration.', 'That is a silly, impractical idea.', 'That would be much too expensive.', 'No one would accept that.'
Novelty evaluation remarks
Remarks evaluating novelty: 'That is not new.', 'I remember reading about that some time ago.', 'That has already been tried in America.', 'That was the way it was done years ago.', 'I thought of that myself but threw it out.', 'What is so original about that idea?'
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
Why is it important to suspend judgement during a brainstorming session?
What types of remarks are considered evaluation and should be avoided?
Think of a time when you refrained from criticizing an idea and it led to a creative breakthrough.
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Lateral Thinking A Textbook of Creativity (Edward de Bono)