Value-Focused Brainstorming

Brainstorming can be a useful technique to create alternatives for complex decisions. To enhance the quality and innovativeness of the created alternatives, value-focused brainstorming incorporates two features of value-focused thinking into the traditional brainstorming procedures. First, it explicitly identifies the valued aspects of potential alternatives, specified as distinct objectives, to guide brainstormers to create alternatives of greater value. Second, all participants in a brainstorm individually create alternatives prior to any anchoring on group discussions, which will enhance getting the full range of each individual's thoughts articulated. Concepts and procedures of the approach are discussed. A public policy application, done to address recommendations following the World Trade Center disaster, illustrates the approach by creating alternatives to improve emergency evacuation of individuals from large buildings.