Chapter 2

Beyond Brainstorming

Understanding Individual and Group Ideation Techniques

Here's a joke from a cynical client:

Question: What's the difference between a brainstorming session and an ideation session?

Answer: An extra two thousand dollars a day for the facilitator.

There's some truth in what the client says, but it's also true that there is a big difference between brainstorming and ideation. Brainstorming, still generally used as a catch-all term to describe group idea generation, is, strictly speaking, only one of several hundred specific idea-generating techniques. The term ideation took its place in the business lexicon because a categorical term was needed to describe all the new group and personal idea-creation techniques that ...

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