Here is an excerpt from an article written by Vijay Govindarajan and Jay Terwilliger for the Harvard Business Review blog. To read the complete article, check out the wealth of free resources, and sign up for a subscription to HBR email alerts, please click here.

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In articles in both the New York Times and The New Yorker earlier this year, the concept of brainstorming as introduced in the 1940’s by Alex Osborn has been attacked as ineffective and linked to the concept of “Groupthink.”

In her NYT piece and in an HBR ideacast, Susan Cain points out that the popular view — “Lone geniuses are out. Collaboration is in.” — conflicts with research that suggests “people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption.” Some of the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverts who are more comfortable working alone. And in his New Yorker article, Jonah Lehrer cites research indicating, “Brainstorming didn’t unleash the potential of the group, but rather made each individual less creative.”

We have no issue with the importance of the creative individual to generate focused and powerful ideas. Furthermore, we agree that, used improperly, Osborn’s process of brainstorming can promote consensus, not collaboration. Suffice it to say, we dislike consensus-based “Groupthink” as much as the next person. Rather, our issue is with the way both articles have attacked Alex Osborn’s concept of brainstorming as a powerful collaborative thinking tool. We are strong advocates of collaboration in innovation, and believe that the proper use of brainstorming techniques is a powerful tool in the collaborative approach. Over our many years of experience, we have seen managers effectively use three simple techniques for avoiding “Groupthink” during brainstorming. Here’s our advice:

[To read the complete article, please click here.]

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Vijay Govindarajan is the Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He is co-author with Chris Trimble of Reverse Innovation: Create Far from Home, Win Everywhere (HBR Press, April 2012). Jay Terwilliger is the President of Creative Realities, Inc., a Boston-based innovation management consulting firm. To read my review of Reverse Innovation, please click here.