Evaluating electronic workshops through analysing the ‘brainstormed’ ideas

Abstract

This paper explores how participants work in a new format of brainstorm, called an ‘incubated gathering’. The paper explores brainstorm-type activities, where senior managers share occupational knowledge in the generation of a solution to a problem in which they have an embedded interest. The findings suggest that participants perceive great worth in the incubated gathering, and (compared to other formats of gathering) it allows participants to consider a significantly wider range of issues, and in more detail. They also suggest that an outcome from an incubated gathering will be informed by a more rich consideration of the pertinent issues than that from other formats of brainstorming. This paper substantiates these claims with evidence from a suite of new approaches to gauge the ability of participants to share knowledge during group brainstorming-type activities.

Keywords:

• soft OR
• brainstorming
• group decision support
• problem structuring
• facilitation

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Fran Ackermann, Colin Eden and two anonymous reviewers for their ‘contributions’ to this paper.