Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

Brain Writing 4
A process to help groups collaborate when dealing with a sensitive idea or issue.
Supports: collaboration, problem solving, conflict resolution, group learning
LEVEL OF EFFORT
SIZE OF UTILITY
SCOPE OF WORK
LOW
SCALABLE
NARROW
Brain Writing is a specific process to gather ideas and opinions in a non-threatening manner.
It is particularly effective in achieving collaboration when sensitivities or conflicts are anticipated.
If the intent is to gather ideas and opinions, the group might be as large as 20 people.
However, if the intent is to hone in on specific wording, the effective size for the group would be
4-8 people. The estimated time to complete the process for 4-8 people is 20 minutes. For a
group of up to 20 people, allow 30 minutes to write and another 15-20 minutes to discuss. The
only props needed are blank paper and writing utensils for each participant. Brain Writing
entails a five-step process.
Step One: Pose or frame the question, issue, or problem facing the group. Ask each person
to write on the top of their paper one of the following (depending on the question, issue or
problem just framed):
An answer (if a question is posed).
A resolution (if an issue is presented).
An idea (if a problem is confronted).
Proposed wording (if a statement is being crafted, that is, a mission statement).
Step Two: Ask each person to pass their paper to the person on their left.
Step Three: Ask each person to comment on the paper in front of him or her by either writing
a rewording of the suggestion below what is already written, or commenting on his or her
opinion of the suggestion. When this is complete, again pass the paper to the left.
Step Four: Continue this process until the papers are in the hands of their originator.
Step Five: Discuss the findings. Most often, consensus will have built around a small
number of suggestions, narrowing the discussion field.
A variation on this process is that once ideas have been generated, to post each idea on a
sheet of flip chart paper and spread those around the room. Each participant would then travel
around the room with a marker commenting on as many items as desired, repeating the process
as many times as they choose. During this process suggest that people use a check mark to
indicate agreement. When the activity dies down, review each chart to assess group opinion
and determine if the comments lead to a common conclusion. This technique can also be used
to narrow the field prior to voting.
4 Adapted from the Department of the Navy cPort Toolkit
C-19
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