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FORGET brain-storming if you want good ideas.

Brain-storming is where a group of people throw ideas into the ring and someone writes them down.
 
What’s wrong with brainstorming? The participants build on each other’s ideas. The system is not conducive to generating completely fresh ideas. It’s lazy thinking.
 
Edward de Bono has made it his life’s work to study thinking. He has written many books and come up with brilliant techniques. If you want to learn to think, study de Bono.
 
Avoid brain-storming. A better technique is to get everyone in the thinking process writing down all their ideas. Allow them three minutes. They’ll all have dried up by then. The system requires real effort from everyone, instead of a nice easy ride of just calling out any idea which comes into your head. List all the ideas, as you would for brain-storming, and prioritise them. In the process of listing, other ideas are usually generated.
 
Systematic thinking is one of the keys to success. You don’t need a big team. In fact, the techniques can be used by just one person.