SyNTHESIS / ANALySIS TECHNIqUE 08 Brainstorm Graphic Organizers Beyond creating lists of new ideas and concepts, brainstorm graphic organizers help in the creation of new knowledge by visually structuring a deep dive into a problem space. Brainstorming has traditionally been used to spur group creativity with the intention of generating concepts and ideas regarding a specific challenge. "Go for quantity over quality," "withhold judgment and criticism," "build on each other's ideas," and "welcome oddity" are a few of the widely accepted rules of brainstorming. 1 The intention of these guidelines is to create a safe forum for the expression and free association of creative ideas, and quell any inhibitions of the participants by providing a judgment-free zone to explore new concepts. More recently, brainstorming is also being used to develop one's fluency of thinking. 2 Graphic organiz- ers, or visual representations of knowledge, are frameworks that facilitate teams as they challenge assumptions, experiment with new relationships between accepted components of a problem space, and as they consider unconventional alternatives within a domain. Design teams can visually communicate the rigor required of most brainstorming sessions using the following visualization frameworks: 3 Brainstorming Webs Use brainstorming webs when developing a central concept or question and identifying its characteristics, supporting facts, and related ideas. Brainstorming webs can be built by 1. In 1948, Your Creative Power by Alex Osborn was published. The book documented the brainstorming technique that had been used at Osborn's famous ad agency, BBDO, since the 1930s. Brainstorming was further popularized in Osborn's book, Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Problem-Solving, 3rd ed. Buffalo, N.Y.: Creative Education Foundation, 1993. 2. Hyerle, David. Visual Tools for Constructing Knowledge. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1996. 3. See note 2 above. 4. Ausubel, David, Joseph D. Novak, and H. Hanesian. Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View, 2nd ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1978.