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Sunday, 23 August 2009

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Let's have a brainstorming session!

Being managed by humans who are not infallible, companies very often run into problems. One major problem is the non-availability of qualified employees with the right attitude. If a person with a degree in fine arts is appointed as a human resource manager, you can imagine the disastrous situation that can follow. This is very much in evidence in the state sector where people are recruited without looking into their real qualifications and aptitude.

Once I met a law graduate working as a teacher. At a well-known communication centre a girl who holds a Bachelor's degree in Arts works as a computer operator. Many more such cases can be cited. The problem here is not with the employee but with the employer. When recruiting personnel for a particular job the employer should look into the relevant qualifications of each applicant. In addition, the employer should be satisfied with the applicant's attitude to the job.

Another problem faced by certain business establishments is their inability to market a product effectively in a competitive environment. For instance, the market is flooded with various brands of toilet soap. They come in attractive packs in different colours and fragrances. The prices vary in most cases. However, most consumers regularly buy a particular brand. In business circles this is known as brand loyalty. A new competitor will find it extremely difficult to wean the consumer from this brand loyalty.

Some business establishments find it difficult to motivate their workers. They find that certain employees have become virtual passengers doing nothing productive for the company. Such people, strangely, do not keep quiet. They start gossiping and launch mud-slinging campaigns against their bosses. Apart from creating unnecessary problems for the employer they will also demand higher salaries and annual increments!

In order to tackle such problems most business establishments hire human resource consultants and hold conferences. Faced with the problem of recruiting new employees, a New York telephone company held a special meeting to tackle the situation. As they faced a severe shortage of telephone operators, the company had to come up with a quick solution.

Instead of depending on the advice of human resource consultants, the company organized a brainstorming session. Sitting round a table the employees came out with their views quite freely. Many divergent views were expressed and a stenographer took down their ideas. After some time the company directors assessed the ideas and found that some of the views expressed by the employees were really important. However, they had to reject certain suggestions as they were mere 'fluff'.

There are certain dos and don'ts in a brainstorming session. Usually, policy makers do not attend such sessions. Instead, participants are drawn from equal ranks so that they could express their views without inhibitions. Participants are generally not encouraged to criticize the views expressed by others. A moderator will shoot down any attempt to disrupt the proceedings by making unnecessary comments such as "That's ridiculous!" or "That's not going to work." The purpose of a brainstorming session is to come out with fresh ideas to solve an existing problem.

The brainstorming sessions of the telephone company produced 150 ideas for recruiting employees. The ideas were expressed in a matter of 20 minutes. In a similar brainstorming session, Reynolds Metals developed a new sales strategy for one of their new products. Another brainstorming session at General Motors produced more than 100 suggestions on how to smooth a casting.

The creator of brainstorming was Alex F. Osborn, a co-founder of Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn advertising agency. He is credited with organizing small brainstorming sessions for the agency's employees to come up with names for their new products and to create sales slogans for their clients. Some time later brainstorming became a regular feature with the advertising agency.

At a brainstorming session organized by a private hospital down south, the management wanted to know how to address customers. The prevailing practice was to call the customers- most of whom are patients or their relatives- as 'uncle' or 'aunt. A senior employee suggested that all the customers should be addressed as 'Sir' or 'Madam'. Meanwhile, another employee had a different view. "How can you address these rural people as Sir or Madam as they will be non-plussed. One of the receptionists said the customers did not mind being addressed as 'Uncle' and 'Aunt', as the terms were endearing. All the views and suggestions were recorded and submitted to the management for further action.

Brainstorming sessions should not be confined to business establishments. We can use them to solve some of our family problems as well. What happens most of the time is that the father or the mother takes unilateral decisions without any heed to the views of their children. Sometimes, young people may have better solutions to pressing family problems. Therefore, an informal brainstorming session would be ideal to settle family problems.

We owe a debt to Alex F. Osborn who created this wonderful tool for solving problems in an effective and inexpensive way.

 

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