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The origins of brainstorming: from crisis to creative revolution

Creative process
The history of brainstorming began with a crisis that forced Alex Osborn to rethink creativity, leading to a revolutionary method for innovation and problem solving.
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Introduction

The history of brainstorming, a technique used in organizations worldwide today, begins not with a sudden eureka moment, but with a profound crisis that forced Alex Osborn, co-founder of the advertising agency BBDO, to radically rethink the fundamentals of creativity within his organization. Although brainstorming is now taken for granted, we often forget the revolutionary impact brainstorming had on the way organizations handle innovation and problem solving.

The blog article is about the origins and evolution of brainstorming, developed by Alex Osborn during a crisis at advertising agency BBDO. It describes how Osborn’s systematic approach to creativity, based on age-old traditions and scientific validation, evolved into a revolutionary and reliable tool for innovation and problem solving.

The crisis that unleashed creativity: the birth of a necessary innovation

In 1919, at the age of 31, Alex Osborn and several partners founded the advertising agency Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn Inc. better known as BBDO. The company experienced steady growth and developed into a thriving advertising agency. The real test, however, came in 1939. That year, the company faced a decline in profits and the loss of one of its key partners, Roy Durstine, who decided to start an independent advertising agency. This double blow – financial pressure combined with the loss of a key figure – forced Osborn to seek creative solutions to what seemed at the time to be a seemingly unsolvable problem.

It was precisely during this period of uncertainty and despair that Osborn made his passion for creative thinking central to his management approach. He began systematically looking for ways to encourage his employees to “invent” – a term he used for what we now know as creative idea generation. This personal and professional crisis became, paradoxically, the catalyst for a methodology that would fundamentally change the way organizations think about creativity and innovation.

From intuitive solutions to structured methodology

In 1942, Osborn introduced his first systematic approach to creative thinking in his work “How to Think Up.” This book was more than just a collection of techniques; it was a precursor to the Creative Problem Solving Process (CPS) that he would later formalize and a first, crucial attempt to approach creativity systematically within the context of a business. Osborn’s approach was revolutionary because he no longer saw creativity as a mysterious, innate talent of individuals, but as a skill that could be developed and structured within each individual and team.

Fascinatingly, and this shows the depth of Osborn’s thinking, he attributed the origins of his process to much older, cross-cultural traditions. In his later 1979 work, he referred explicitly to Hindu teachers in India, who had used the method of “Prai-Barshana” (literally, “asking outside yourself”) for more than 400 years. This ancient tradition already had the core principles that Osborn would later formalize and substantiate scientifically: no discussion or criticism was allowed during such sessions, and evaluation of ideas took place only in later meetings of the same group. This historical connection shows that rather than inventing an entirely new technique, Osborn was translating ancient wisdom into the specific needs and contexts of modern organizations.

The scientific implementation and validation of brainstorming

The process Osborn developed proved exceptionally effective for BBDO. The results spoke for themselves: in 1951, BBDO became the second largest advertising agency in the United States, with revenues exceeding $100 million. This success was not accidental; it was the direct result of a systematic and scientifically based approach to creativity that Osborn formally introduced in 1953 in his seminal work“Applied Imagination,” complete with detailed illustrations of BBDO’s success stories.

 

Osborn’s methodology was surprisingly detailed and prescient for its time. He established specific guidelines for team composition: participants should have different levels of experience in the relevant task, but he explicitly discouraged mixing participants of different hierarchical levels within a brainstorming group. This insight, based on observation and experimentation, is still considered relevant and crucial by modern organizational psychologists for creating a psychologically safe environment.

Preparing for a brainstorming session

Preparation for a brainstorming session was as important to Osborn as the session itself. He required that participants be sufficiently informed about the specific problem in advance so that the creative focus could remain focused on the challenge. Moreover, prior to the session, participants had to be trained in the rules and techniques of brainstorming by a skilled facilitator – a role Osborn considered absolutely crucial to the success of the process. This emphasis on training and facilitation distinguishes Osborn’s method from the many superficial applications of brainstorming we see today.

The psychology of the environment: a holistic approach

One of the most innovative and often overlooked aspects of Osborn’s approach was his in-depth attention to the physical and psychological environment. A typical brainstorming session at BBDO took place in a bright yellow room, specifically chosen to keep the atmosphere warm, inviting and non-intimidating. Even the arrangement of furniture was strategically thought out to create a relaxed and informal atmosphere that would enhance creativity. Tables were generously provided with pencils and notebooks – simple but effective tools that participants could use to channel their creativity and capture ideas visually.

A stenographer recorded all ideas put forward, which provided an objective and complete record without participants having to worry about remembering or noting their own or others’ contributions. This element of external recording is crucial to reducing participants’ cognitive load and allowing them to fully focus on generating ideas. After the brainstorming session, the stenographic record was systematically sorted and reviewed by someone with authority within the agency – a crucial step that ensured that valuable ideas were not lost but actually implemented.

Measurable results of systematic creativity: the impact of a method

The figures BBDO reported in 1956 were impressive and, even by today’s standards, still are: through 47 ongoing brainstorming groups, resulting in 401 brainstorming sessions, the company produced a total of 34,000 new ideas. Of this enormity, 2,000 ideas were rated as being of superior quality and worthy of investment. As Osborn himself astutely noted: these 2,000 valuable ideas might not have existed if the systematic idea generation process within BBDO had not been implemented and consistently applied.

These results were all the more remarkable because they proved reproducible. It was not a one-time flurry of inspiration, but the consistent result of a systematic methodology that produced reliable results. This made brainstorming more than just a creative technique – it transformed it into a reliable and measurable business tool.

From practice to science: the need for rigorous validation

Now, more than seventy years later, the word “brainstorming” is used (and unfortunately often misused) in a wide range of contexts. However, this widespread popularity has also led to increased scholarly interest in the methodology and its effectiveness. In 1998, Scott Isaksen, of the Creativity Research Unit of the Creative Problem Solving Group in Buffalo, New York – the same prestigious institution where o2c2’s founder, Luc De Schryver, developed and refined his expertise – conducted a comprehensive review of 50 studies on brainstorming from 1958 to 1988.

Isaksen’s findings were both a validation of Osborn’s original insights and an important warning for practice. The study showed that brainstorming was probably the most researched creative thinking tool, and at the same time, paradoxically, the least understood. The irony was that many researchers did not strictly adhere to Osborn’s original, detailed brainstorming model in their studies, so their results often failed to accurately assess the true effectiveness of the methodology. This emphasized the need for rigorous and methodologically correct application of the technique to achieve the promised results.

Modern evolution and scientific refinement: the development of CPS 6.1

The critical analysis of Isaksen and others led to a renewed interest in the scientific underpinnings and refinement of creative processes. Leading researchers such as Scott Isaksen himself, Don Treffinger, and later Brian Dorval, began to systematically examine which aspects of Osborn’s original model were and were not effective, and under what circumstances. Their work, building on Osborn’s foundations, eventually led to the further development of the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) framework, resulting in the current, robust version CPS 6.1™.

This evolution shows how Osborn’s original, groundbreaking insight – that creativity can be approached and enhanced systematically – has led to an entire scientific discipline devoted to understanding and facilitating creative thinking. Modern applications of CPS 6.1™, as used by specialized consulting firms such as o2c2, combine Osborn’s original principles with decades of scientific research, cross-cultural validation and practical experience in diverse organizational contexts.

The continuing relevance of Osborn’s insights in the 21st century

What Alex Osborn began as a desperate, albeit visionary, attempt to save his company from an impending crisis grew into a fundamental change in how organizations worldwide deal with creativity, problem solving and innovation. His core belief that creativity is not a mysterious, elusive talent, but a developable skill that can be systematically cultivated, still forms the basis of the most effective modern innovation methodologies.

The principles he formulated – from the crucial importance of a psychologically safe environment to the need for delayed judgment and systematic evaluation – have been validated and refined time and again by scientific research. And while the specific techniques and tools have evolved and adapted to the complexities of the 21st-century organization, the core of Osborn’s approach remains as relevant as ever: sustainable creativity and innovation do not arise by chance, but through the right, deliberate combination of people, process and environment.

If this fascinates you and you want to learn more about how to become a pro at facilitating creative problem solving (CPS) then click here