An unspoken rule of brainstorming is to not criticize each other's ideas. The findings of a recent study published in Organization Science challenge this notion.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., conducted the study, which found that criticism boosts creativity in cooperative settings. When the setting is competitive, criticism can be harmful.
For the study, researchers observed 100 brainstorming sessions in which participants discussed a real expansion project on MIT's campus. Participants were split into four groups with the following dynamics: cooperative without criticism, cooperative with criticism, competitive without criticism and competitive without criticism.
The results:
- Cooperative teams that were encouraged to criticize each other performed better than the cooperative teams that did not share criticism. They generated 16 percent more ideas, and observers rated the ideas as 17 percent more creative.
- In competitive teams, groups that were encouraged to criticize each other produced 16 percent fewer ideas that were rated 23 percent less creative by observers.
The results suggest that criticism can be a valuable tool in brainstorming, as it helps creativity flourish. If cooperation among team members is unreasonable, then criticism should be prohibited to avoid stunting creativity.
Though real-life situations are hardly strictly cooperative or competitive, leaders may want to assess the overall dynamics of a brainstorming group session to see whether such criticism may be beneficial, lead study author Jared Curhan, PhD, associate professor of work and organization studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management, said in an article published Feb. 17 on the management school's website.
To read the full study, click here.
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