Group Idea Generation Research Articles

Toward the Development of a Computer-Assisted, Real-Time Assessment of Ideational Dynamics in Collaborative Creative Groups

ABSTRACT We present the results of an ongoing collaboration between computer science and psychology researchers that employs Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods to examine the trajectory of semantic space used during group idea generation sessions. Specifically, we track and estimate the region of semantic space being used and the degree to which new ideas expand that space. We present a visualization of this space mapping endeavor and compare human ratings of creativity dimensions (i.e., novelty, task-relevance, and elaboration) to algorithm-based estimations of those same dimensions. The semantic space mapping and algorithm development projects can be used to deliver real-time feedback to human creative groups in order to optimize the collaborative creativity process. The overall goal of this research is to increase the “survival” of novel ideas and their elaboration in the collaborative ideation and subsequent decision processes.

Competing within and beyond the boundary: Joint effect of intergroup and intragroup competitions on group creativity

Group creativity is affected by both intergroup competition and intragroup competition, but few studies have examined their joint effect. Based on the Motivated Information Processing in Groups (MIP-G) model, the current study aims to explore such joint effects on group idea generation and idea selection. Both intergroup competition (high vs. low) and intragroup competition (competition vs. cooperation) were experimentally manipulated, and 66 three-person groups were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions to perform a brainstorming task. Consistent with our hypotheses, results showed that two types of competitions interacted to determine group idea generation in that groups under the high intergroup competition and intragroup cooperation condition were most creative in terms of fluency and flexibility. Regardless of the level of intergroup competition, groups demonstrated a higher level of idea elaboration under intragroup cooperation but not competition conditions. Moreover, intergroup and intragroup competitions complemented each other in terms of originality in idea generation and idea selection. Specifically, groups under intragroup competition (rather than intragroup cooperation) condition generated and selected ideas of higher originality when the intergroup competition was low; instead, when the intergroup competition was high, the originality of generated or selected ideas was higher for groups under intragroup cooperation condition. We concluded with a discussion of the implications and value of these findings for theoretical research and management practice in organizations.

Idea Generation in Enterprise Social Media: Open versus Closed Groups and Their Network Structures

ABSTRACT Social network theory has produced conflicting results regarding the link between different social network structures—bridging versus bonding—and idea generation. To address this conundrum, we conduct a naturally occurring quasi-experiment of 126 open and 108 closed groups within an Enterprise Social Media (ESM) system of a multinational enterprise. Our findings show that idea generation occurs when the type of social network structure—bridging or bonding—is matched to a group’s openness or closedness, respectively. We further show that the reverse is counterproductive: when closed groups display bridging ties and open groups display bonding ties, idea generation is significantly undermined. Theoretically, these findings clarify the conditions and mechanisms by which both bridging and bonding can result in idea generation and provide a deeper understanding of the use of ESM for idea generation. Practically, our findings provide valuable and actionable insights regarding the use of ESM for idea generation in groups.

Group Idea Generation and Selection: The Originality vs. Feasibility Battle & Intragroup Competition

Organizations often try to stimulate creative problem-solving by inducing competition among group members. This facilitative effect of intragroup competition lies in group members’ enhanced motivation to outperform the others. Previous research, however, has mainly focused on idea generation, thereby overlooking the subsequent idea selection stage. In fact, groups are poor at selecting both original and feasible ideas (i.e., creative), which may be further exacerbated when group members compete against each other. Furthermore, while originality and feasibility are two key factors of creativity, people seem to have difficulty taking both into account. The current research investigated how intragroup competition, through incorporating a rewarding scheme, influences group idea generation and selection, and whether explicit instructions of focusing on either originality or feasibility (performance criteria) could steer groups’ focus in the intended direction. An experimental study was conducted with 78 three-person groups. Results showed that overall, neither intragroup competition nor performance criteria influenced groups’ generation and selection performance. Nevertheless, some interesting findings emerged - Originality and feasibility were indeed inversely correlated; idea quality at the generation stage predicted the idea quality at the selection stage; furthermore, certain group processes during the group task might have indirectly linked the competition-selection performance relationship. Study limitations, theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Creating while taking turns, the choice to unlocking group creative potential

This study aimed to examine how communication modes affect creative idea generation in groups. Three communication mode conditions were created: natural (N), turn-taking (T), and electronic brainstorming (E). Participants were randomly recruited and grouped in dyads to solve one alternative uses task (AUT) in each condition, during which functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based hyperscanning was used to record interpersonal neural responses. No difference was observed in AUT fluency across the three conditions, but AUT uniqueness was higher in the T condition than in the E condition. In addition, AUT uniqueness, AUT fluency, and perspective-taking behaviours increased faster in the T condition than in the other conditions. The T condition also showed higher perspective-taking behaviours than did the other conditions. Moreover, fNIRS data showed higher interpersonal brain synchronisation (IBS) increments at the right angular gyrus in the T condition than in the other conditions, which positively predicted perspective-taking behaviours between individuals during group creativity tasks. These findings indicate that when group members create together while taking turns, both creative performance and interpersonal interaction processes can be stimulated.

When paying attention pays off: the mindfulness skill act with awareness promotes creative idea generation in groups

ABSTRACT Past work has linked mindfulness to improved individual-level creativity, but remained silent about group-level creativity. Of all mindfulness skills, the ability to observe and attend to various stimuli (Observation) is the most powerful predictor of individual-level creativity. Studies examining effects of specific mindfulness skills on factors pertinent to group creativity suggest that for group-level creativity, the ability to focus attention with full awareness (Act with awareness), may be equally, or even more, important. We tested the relation between mindfulness and group-level creative idea generation using two brainstorming studies: one exploratory and one confirmatory. Mindfulness skills were either measured (Study 1; N = 88 groups) or the Act with awareness skill was targeted with a short, incidental guided meditation session (Study 2; N = 68 groups). Results from both studies showed differential relations between mindfulness and group creative idea generation: Only Act with awareness positively predicted the originality of ideas (Study 1 and 2) and the number of creative ideas in groups (Study 2). How mindfulness skills relate to creativity thus depends on the particular mindfulness skill involved and whether creativity happens at the individual or group level.

Polyphonic Imagination: Understanding Idea Generation in Multidisciplinary Groups as a Multivoiced Stimulation of Fantasy

ABSTRACTThe primary objective of this paper is to offer a new way of understanding the creative processes of multidisciplinary groups, whose work is to generate innovative ideas. The paper reports from a project focused on organizational creativity at the group level, investigating what characterized such creative processes in that context. This project used ethnography as a qualitative method including participant observation, focus group interviews, and individual qualitative interviews. Furthermore, an inductive approach was used to analyze the data. Findings showed that when group members from different disciplines collaborated on innovative idea generation, the creative processes were characterized by a multivoiced stimulation of fantasy. In the paper, we first discuss how imagination involved new ways of combining knowledge and ideas based on one’s own and others experiences, including the use of technological tools. Secondly, we discuss how imagination was ignited by diversity and tension. Thirdly, we elaborate on the importance of emotion and support for the drive and stimulation of imagination in groups. Finally, we sum up the discussion by presenting a model based on the concept of Polyphonic Imagination, in order to visualize the characteristics of the creative processes. We propose this concept of Polyphonic Imagination, derived from the empirical data, to designate the ways in which different perspectives in the groups created tensions that fed into the group members´ imagination whenever these perspectives acknowledged each other.

Exposure to Ideas, Evaluation Apprehension, and Incubation Intervals in Collaborative Idea Generation.

This study focused on the social factors and cognitive processes that influence collaborative idea generation, using the research paradigm of group idea generation, evaluation apprehension, and incubation. Specifically, it aimed to explore the impact of exposure to others’ ideas, evaluation apprehension, and incubation intervals on collaborative idea generation through three experiments. The results showed that in the process of generating ideas in a group, exposure to others’ ideas and evaluation apprehension can lead to productivity deficits in the number and categories of ideas, without affecting the novelty of ideas. Further, exposure to others’ ideas and evaluation apprehension had an interaction effect on the number of ideas. As compared with the situation without exposure to others’ idea, in that with exposure to others’ idea, evaluation apprehension had a weaker impact on the productivity of the number of ideas. Furthermore, incubation intervals were beneficial in reducing the negative effect of exposure to others’ ideas and in improving collaborative idea generation productivity.

Individual and Group Brainstorming: Does the Question Matter?

The goal of this research was to test whether the kind of question that is used to prompt brainstorming differentially affects individual and group idea generation performance. More specifically, it was examined if prompts that require brainstormers to generate alternate uses for common objects (e.g., other uses for cars) foster more benefits from collaborative ideation than prompts to generate improvements for an object, place, or process (e.g., ways to improve cars). These hypotheses were tested in two experiments using electronic idea exchanges. In Experiment 1, individuals generated ideas about either alternate uses or potential improvements for cars, SUVs, or vans. In Experiment 2, participants brainstormed in response to one of these two prompts in either an interactive group setting (exchanging ideas with two others) or individually (no idea sharing). The results of both experiments showed that alternate uses and improvements prompts indeed differentially affected ideational performance in terms of both idea quantity and quality. The results were also consistent with the well documented “process loss” on the improvements prompt, but the gap between interacting and nominal groups was closed on the alternate uses prompt. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Empirically analysing design reasoning patterns: Abductive-deductive reasoning patterns dominate design idea generation

Reasoning is a fundamental process in design activity, and it provides a way to understand design behaviour. Theories and models of design propose reasoning that follows abductive-deductive patterns. At the micro-level, these patterns are untested. This study analyses verbal reasoning patterns at the micro-level for group idea generation using protocol analyses of concurrent verbalisations from five design teams with industry participants. The results show that reasoning in design activity across 218 ideas follows general patterns of abductive-deductive reasoning. At the individual idea level, the reasoning patterns are disorderly and enter into micro-patterns of inference. The study concludes that understanding reasoning at early-stage idea generation processes is indicative of the mental models and abductive-deductive reasoning that are prevalent in design activity.

How to facilitate a brainstorming session: The effect of idea generation techniques and of group brainstorm after individual brainstorm

There is a growing recognition that creativity is a key factor to an organization’s innovation capacity. When facing challenging problems, organizations tend to rely on facilitated idea generation sessions. During these sessions, people are progressively applying different creativity techniques to generate creative solutions. The aim of the current paper was to examin the effect of four idea generation techniques—Silence, Evolution, Random Connections, and Scamper— on the ability to generate creative solutions, and to shed light on the question whether the idea-generation techniques built on each other. The number of solutions generated did not differ between techniques, suggesting that ideation does not get exhausted. With regard to idea quality all four techniques brougth about equal levels of originality. A difference was found between the techniques on usefulness and flexibility, technique ‘Random connections’ outperformed technique ‘Evolution’. Moreover, the current paper examined whether idea generation in groups after individual idea generation has any benefit over-and-above generating ideas individually. The number of ideas generated in groups did not increase nor decrease. Importantly, however, overall the originality did significantly increase, suggesting that generating ideas in a group after generating ideas individually has a beneficial effect on the quality of the ideas generated.

Online focus groups: a valuable alternative for hospitality research?

PurposeThis paper aims to test the idea generation capabilities of online text-based focus groups as compared to the traditional in-person focus groups using sustainability in the hospitality industry as the idea generation topic. Idea generation quantity and quality are analyzed and the theoretical and practical implications for the hospitality industry are discussed.Design/methodology/approachAn experimental study tested the quality of ideas generated by online versus in-person focus groups. Participants were purposively sampled from the hospitality program at a large southeastern United States university and randomly assigned into one of two treatment groups: online text-based or traditional in-person focus groups. During both treatment groups participants generated ideas focused on sustainability in the hospitality industry.FindingsThe online focus group generated a comparable quantity of ideas, in addition to a similar average quality of ideas and number of good ideas.Practical implicationsThe generation of ideas and the selection of opportunities drive the innovation process through which firms can strengthen their competitive advantage and maintain and grow market share and profitability. The results of this study may assist hospitality firms in determining which form of qualitative research delivers the highest return on investment by generating the best ideas at the lowest cost.Originality/valueThis paper breaks new ground by assessing the effectiveness of idea generation in online versus traditional focus groups, comparing both the quantity and quality of ideas generated from an experimental study that uses random assignment.

The facilitating role of task alternation on group idea generation.

The facilitating role of task alternation on group idea generation.

The Facilitating Role of Task Alternation on Group Idea Generation

During group idea generation, group members often first retrieve typical ideas from common categories. The sharing of these typical ideas is likely to lead to fixation on them preventing subsequent creative idea generation. Two experiments were conducted to examine whether a task-alternation approach can reduce such fixation and facilitate idea generation. Dyads were asked to work on idea generation tasks (Experiment 1) or category–exemplar generation tasks (Experiment 2). In both experiments, dyads had to perform the tasks in either a continuous or an alternating condition. The continuous dyads worked on one task continuously before proceeding to another. The alternating dyads switched between tasks. Both experiments found a positive role of task alternation. Moreover, the performance gap between the alternating and continuous dyads increased over time. We conclude that task alternation facilitates group idea generation, most likely via overcoming fixation.

Supplemental Material for The Facilitating Role of Task Alternation on Group Idea Generation

Supplemental Material for The Facilitating Role of Task Alternation on Group Idea Generation

Alternating individual and group idea generation: Finding the elusive synergy

Three experiments were designed to test the efficacy of ideation procedures that involved alternation of individual and group idea generation sessions (hybrid brainstorming) as compared to traditional individual and group ideation. The hybrid condition led to the best performance in terms of number of ideas generated. This effect was strongest in comparison to the group condition. A meta-analytic comparison involving all three experiments indicated that the hybrid condition outperformed both the alone and the group conditions. Since after each group idea exchange session there was an enhancement in the number of ideas generated in the alone session, the pattern of performance in the hybrid condition supported the cognitive perspective of group creativity (Nijstad & Stroebe, 2006; Paulus & Brown, 2007). Social cues in the form of the co-presence of other participants in the alone condition, the addition of practice sessions to all conditions, and an additional phase did not change the pattern of results. The results of the experiments support the original suggestion by Osborn (1953) that the most effective brainstorming process is one that involves a variation in individual and group ideation.

Departmental Dialogues: Facilitating Positive Academic Climates to Improve Equity in STEM Disciplines

This exploratory qualitative study examined faculty responses to a collegiality-building process called Dialogues. The process used a series of discussions and activities to guide faculty members toward a common, mutually beneficially goal, while changing patterns of interaction. The responses revealed how faculty members experienced collegiality-building practices, including individual reflection, small group discussions, idea generation and prioritization, and consensus-building. The study examined faculty responses within STEM departments. We conclude with recommendations for encouraging inclusive and participatory departmental norms and behaviors in order to promote a positive departmental climate, which is crucial to achieving equity in all disciplines of the academia.

A qualitative study of collaborative stimulation in group design thinking

It is often assumed in both education and industry that collaboration encourages creativity. This assumption is explored by investigating the influence of designers’ interactions on creativity-relevant thinking processes by extending creative cognition to the group design context. It is proposed that sharing design entities and questions stimulates creativity-relevant thinking processes through four types of collaborative stimulation. Specific patterns are hypothesized to exist between each type of collaborative stimulation and thinking processes. A case study was conducted to determine whether the hypothesized types and patterns of collaborative stimulation exist. The results were analyzed using a directed coding approach and collaborative retrospective protocol analysis, which enable capturing both internal thoughts and external interactions with minimal interference to collaboration. The results indicate that the identified types of collaborative stimulation are observable and that they have recognizable patterns with stimulated thinking processes. Stimulation occurring through design entity questioning had the strongest relationship with generative thinking processes. Although creativity-relevant generative processes are stimulated by collaborative activity, this does not necessarily mean that collaboration results in a more creative product. However, these patterns can be used in future work to develop methods and interventions for promoting group idea generation and improving group creativity.

Deploying and Visualising Teacher’s Scripts of Small Group Activities in a Multi-surface Classroom Ecology: a Study in-the-wild

There is a fast growing interest in the use of interactive surfaces in collaborative learning contexts. These devices hold the promise to enrich a typical collocated class by enabling learners to interact with digital content while maintaining face-to-face mutual awareness. However, little has been done to help teachers deploy and monitor the learning scripts for their planned small group activities in a classroom enhanced with these kinds of devices. We present an approach for deploying and visualising the teacher's script for small group idea generation and problem solving activities in a multi-surface classroom ecology that is composed of multiple interactive tabletops, public vertical displays and a teacher's dashboard. We frame our study by drawing on design guidelines for classrooms with multiple interactive surfaces and combine these with principles of scripting and orchestration of learning activities. The paper presents the results and experiences of the implementation of our approach, in an authentic deployment of our classroom ecology, held over 8 weeks in a semester, involving 150 university students and 4 teachers. The paper concludes with remarks about the strengths and shortcomings of our approach, to be taken into account by learning practitioners and designers.

Asynchronous Brainstorming in an Industrial Setting

The goal of this study was to examine the effectiveness of brainwriting in an industrial setting. Research has demonstrated that group interaction can inhibit idea generation. Written exchanges of ideas in groups have been found to be an effective way to increase idea generation. To our knowledge, no study has examined the potential of brainwriting for group idea generation in work settings or the impact of different sequences of group and individual idea generation. Participants in a high-technology company participated in two brainwriting studies. In one study, participants generated ideas either first alone and then in a group or in the reverse order. In a second study, participants either generated as a group during the entire session or alternated individual ideation with a periodic review of the group's ideas. In the first study, participants who generated ideas first as a group and then as individuals performed best. In the first session, group writing also tended to lead to more ideas than did individual writing. In the second study, participants with periodic reviews performed best. The results suggest that alternation in individual and group brainwriting can enhance the number of ideas generated. The group-to-alone sequence is also beneficial since it allows group members to build on shared ideas. This research indicates that collaborative idea sessions can be beneficial in work sessions if the brainwriting paradigm is used with an appropriate alternation of group ideation or review sessions with individual idea generation sessions.