brain storming report

Brainstorming concepts and applications ..........

BRAINSTORMING............. [BRAINSTORMING CONCEPTS AND APPLICATIONS ..........]

Manoranjani.R NS/ BEM/464

Contents

What is Brainstorming session ?

How to conduct a successful Brainstorming session?

Quality management & Brainstorming - Applications

Process Diagram for a Brainstorming sessions.

Application of Brainstorming in construction field

Example 01 - Workshop on Sustainable Construction Practices - NBC

Example 02- New Road Construction Concepts

Example 03 - Factors to drive design brief development – Through

Brainstorming

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What is Brain storming ?

Brainstorming combines a relaxed , informal approach to problem solving with lateral

thinking.It makes people to come up with ideas & thoughts that can at first seem to

be a bit crazy.it a tool to make your mind think out of boxThe idea here is that some

of these ideas can be crafted in to original ,creative solutions to the problem we try

to solve , while others can spark still more ideas.

This approach aims to get people unstuck by their normal ways of thinking.

Steps to conduct successful Brainstorming session:

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Every individual learns differently and communicates in different ways but there are

three distinct types of learners and

Communicators :

Audible

Visual

Kinesthetic

You need to ensure your brainstorming environment and process will tailor to all

three by providing an audible setting (this is obviously most common in a meeting

style of environment). Also visual aids can boost the creative thinking. Provide

additional tools and visual guides like white boards, flipcharts, sticky notes and even

toys or gadgets can help people be more creative. For kinesthetic participants, they

need to interact with things and have feelings during the meeting so plan to include

interactive participation and ask specifically to brainstorm about feelings things will

generate as well, as those feelings will lead to even more ideas.

Optimize the Environment

The environment should have the space it needs to allow people to flow around the

room, just like you’ll expect from the ideas being generated. To encourage the

creative process, let people decide how to arrange the room themselves if at all

possible.



Not everyone works based facing others as it’s confrontational, while others will

excel from that if competition is their nature. Some will need to see the ideas, some

just hear them, so its best to let individuals arrange themselves so they are

comfortable and ready to participate in their own way that works best for them.

Facilitator

A good brainstorming facilitator ideally is experienced with the process and needs to

easily handle and follow the rules to ensure the brainstorming session is effective. All

these rules will be explored in the next article but in summary, the facilitator is

required to engage everyone, capture notes and lead the process to ensure ideas

are flowing, explored for branching and not holding up the process. The facilitator

doesn’t need to participate in the creative brainstorm but any good facilitator will do

so, since they are likely a very creative thinker themselves if they’d been involved in

a lot of brainstorming sessions.

Provide Background Ahead of Time

Brainstorming is about sharing, expanding and building a set of ideas on some topic.

However, not everyone will have immediate and spontaneous ideas so you should

always provide some background information about the problem or topic before the

session itself. This ensures it gives attendees time to process and think about it

before the session. It will stir in their subconscious and likely, they will come to a

brainstorming session with several ideas in mind to build on with the group. Not

everyone needs this but it ensures that people are prepared and comfortable with

the topic before hand and it gives them a chance to ask questions prior to

the session so it can be used for brainstorming without distractions and delay.

People Diversity

This is an important one for creative thinking. You need to have a diverse group of

people, with different styles, experience levels ,positions, backgrounds or any other

way to diversify a group for brainstorming. The last thing you want for brainstorming

is a group of like minded individuals who all think the same. You simple won’t get

enough variation or “outside the box” thinking without diversification. Sometimes

people who don’t know much or anything about the topic can have the best idea so

you want to ensure you diversify the group.



Creative Warm-up

And finally, the last step you should do in preparing for an effective brainstorming

session is to be kick start the creative thoughts in the group by having a creative

warm-up exercise. Something simple and fun works well to gets warm up for a few

minutes with an exercise anyone can participate in. One I like is to have a common

everyday simple object and have the group list all the uncommon things that could

be used for. Use a pencil, rock, plant, shoe, door, toothbrush or any other common

object people interact with and list out other uses. This gets the mind thinking on

NEW ideas and it quickly encourages weird ideas, which is important to allow for

brainstorming.

Defer Judgment

This is the one thing that will or break a brainstorming session. It’s so hard to do and

absolutely must be a rule you follow to keep ideas flowing and to allow people to

contribute in their way without a filter applied or any kind of judgment on their ideas.

You shouldn’t moderate anything in brainstorming and really anything goes.

All ideas.Weird, difficult, unrealistic, and any other ideas must be allowed. These in

fact allow people to be comfortable with the creative process and you want to

promote and encourage ideas, not instill a fear of blurting out a dumb idea. There is

no reason to have any criticism in a brainstorming session and if you see that or

moderation of ideas at any time, put an end to that and reinforce that you welcome

weird and even what seems like bad ideas.

Everyone Participates

Make sure that everyone has a chance to participate and to be heard. The facilitator

should ask each person for their ideas and to expand on things. Take note of the

group, some people will start to lead and share more which is great but you don’t

want any one person to dominate the session or you lose the value of the diversity in

the group.

If the environment and tools tailor to audible,visual and kinesthetic people (as I

outlined in the first article) then you should be able to easily have everyone



participate. You just need to make sure that is happening in the session and limit

how much you let the dominate vocal styles contribute without leaving

room for others.

High Energy

Energy is important to activate the mind and so keeping the group alert, energized

and active helps with creative thinking. You can do this with expression, motion,

positive encouragement on every idea, toys and physical objects, and of course the

facilitator should be as energetic as possible.

Speak with passion about capturing ideas and push the group to participate, keeping

everyone’s energy levels up. Provide candies, or juice or other energy foods. Some

groups might like to brainstorm in an environment that energizes them. Perhaps

music on will help, or holding a session outdoors. Add something to the session to

ensure keep a high energy level.

Faster is Better

Faster is related to high energy in that if you run the session quickly, you must do

this with high energy to encourage people to be quick. However, faster also means

that you want the initial ideas and reactions from people as soon as they come to

mind. You don’t even want individuals filtering or moderating their own ideas before

they share them (see #1). Spontaneity and speed is what makes brainstorming really

work so do everything you can to keep the group moving quickly and going fast.

Quantity versus Quality

If you encourage everyone to work fast, it’s more likely that you will get more ideas.

More ideas mean more options and generally this leads to much better results.

Encourage Wild Ideas

Wild and audacious ideas are often needed to break from a rigid problem that has no

immediate or useable solution. Since that is where brainstorming sessions are

typically needed, it only makes sense to encourage.



Build on Each Other’s Ideas

Every idea created has the potential to build more ideas. What one person starts

with can easily be shifted or modified into a whole new idea so always encourage

people to modify ideas in order to keep generating more. If you have a low point in a

session without a lot of new ideas, ask people to add ideas and changes on any of

the items already captured in the session. Ask people to think of opposites to certain

ideas just to spark their thinking. Ask questions differently even when after similar

results.

Keep on Track

This one requires a delicate balance. You must allow ideas to diverge to new areas

that might seem off topic (at least a bit) in order to let the creative process thrive and

to not stifle people’s participation, yet, at the same time, you must control the group

to stay on tasks so that the focus is to solve the problem at hand. Depending on the

group and individuals, things can often lead into other problems, design work on an

idea or even to evaluating what will and will not work with any of those ideas (which

is also judging them again). Anytime things diverge too far, ask the group to come

back to a previous idea or new ideas back on the original problem and don’t allow

any further discussion on those areas off topic. It is the not the time nor place for that

and so you must keep things on track for the brainstorming itself.

Short Discussions

Inevitably, the will be some discussions going on for some of the ideas and while you

can’t eliminate these, you can ensure they are brief. Discussion generally leads to

designing solutions or confrontation between individuals, neither belong in a

brainstorming session. Use discussions with the purpose of exploring a subject

further and to lead only to new ideas and things to capture, instead of any evaluation

of an idea. Remind the group of these items when it happens and bring it back to

generating ideas.

Capture Everything

Capturing and recording the ideas is critical to a good brainstorming session as well.

The way you do this first of all is important and you must have a method that works

live in the meeting. You want everyone to see it as many will require that visual aid to



help their own creative thoughts. I recommend using a flipchart or whiteboard as well

as sticky notes for individuals to add thoughts onto that can quickly be put up in front

of everyone. When other point of capturing ideas is to capture EVERYTHING.

This again goes back to the most important rule of deferring judgment because if you

choose what to capture and not to capture from people’s ideas, you are really

filtering them out and you impact those who’s ideas that were not captured and they

will be less likely to keep contributing if you have “filtered” out their ideas.

Organize and Filter AFTER the Brainstorm

Don’t attempt to organize or filter anything while you are looking for ideas and in the

brainstorming session. This turns on logical thinking and will suppress the creative

mind from producing more ideas. Stay focused on the brainstorm and wait to do any

organizing and filtering of those ideas afterwards. If you need the same people or

plan to do it in the same session make sure you have some break because switching

modes as you want the ideas to stir in the minds of those involved before switching

back to task mode. Give people a chance to add more ideas in that break and to

think on them individually.



Process Diagram For a Brainstorming session :

Source : Wikipedia



Quality management & Brainstorming :

Who is customer?

What Level of Quality do they need?

Are they purchasing to Some Quality Specification?

Any Safety Considerations?

Future Litigation?

Plan ,Do study and act :

Source : Quality management techniques ,PMI

QUALITY PLANNING

Who is customer?

What do they need?

QUALITY CONTROL

Evaluate, compare, act

QUALITY

IMPROVEMENT

Establish infrastructure



WHY-WHY DIAGRAMS

A systematic representation of causes of why some occurrence happens.

Used to guide brainstorming sessions

Ethical Issues

Example and effect of WHY – WHY diagram is that we can identify the cause and

analyse the effect of the identified cause.

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management,Vol. 12 No. 1, 2005

Achieving client satisfaction has been identified as one of the most important

challenges facing the construction industry in the 1990s , with Latham (1994)

emphasising achieving client need and Egan (1998) focusing on the customer as a

driver for enhancing performance.

Clients are likely to be satisfied when the final product matches or exceeds their

expectations The need to achieve client satisfaction coupled with the dynamic

,changing and fragmented environment of the construction industry results in the

need to investigate the factors that drive the development of the brief



CHALLENGES IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT.

Projects are growing in size and complexity-today it is common to think in terms of

projects involving investments of Rs. 20000 Cr and more.

Increasing complexity and size accompanied by a need to cut implementation time

and cost

The net result is a set of major challenges that the Project Owners, Consultants,

Contractors and Suppliers have to face jointly and overcome at each stage of a

project .

The Brainstorming session agenda ned to address the following issues

• Delays

• Cost over runs

• Management of risk

• Resource Constraints

• Sustainability

The right approach at each stage helps to address these issues



Method to Approach the issue:

Brainstorming for developing the vision of a project an organization –

Influencing factors



Strategic Planning Method :

Brainstorming is a mind tool which helps to develop a strategic planning models

The Brainstorming session to frame a strategic Planning model need to address the

following issues :

1. Assessment

2. Baseline

3. Components

4. Down to specifics and

5. Evaluate.

This tool acts as a background tool to analyse the situation and strength and

weakness opportunities of the existing process.



Brainstorming ! For construction projects and organizations – A Road Map

Brainstorming session can be conducted at each and every stage ,to improve the

overall performance and quality of the deliverables

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Example :

Brainstorming Session

Example :01

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Workshop on Sustainable Construction Practices - NBC

Goals : To address the sustainability issues and verify the process program

sequence of the preparation of sustainable construction Management Practices

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Process :

Tools: The agenda was projected

Comfortable environment & Refreshments ,like minded experienced and successful

professionals (Relevant field ) as participants

Preparation of sustainable construction management practices

Establishment of construction project management practices

Establishment of management systems

Establishment of environment management system

Establishing health and safety management system

Establishing site organization structure

Construction site planning



Location of construction site infrastructure

Location of facilities for hazardous material

Establishing quality management system

Control of noise at work site

Efficient use of energy ,monitoring and control

Sustainable construction site management

Management of top soil

Sustainable work execution procedures

Substructure works

Construction waste management

Emission of construction equipment

Sustainable masonry , Interior finishes Effective use of water

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Findings: (Result of the Brain storming session)

Identify & address the practices that can reduce the resources at the

construction phase

Practices such as use of treated water from STP – for curring

Amount of raw material & Primary energy consumed by building over its life

with respect to project type and location.

Eg.In Andaman – Sand demand – they have to set plant to manufacture

sand.

Pressure Booster Pump in Batching plant

Resizing the- slumps re crushed– used in concrete instead of sand

Monitoring of equipment pollution control



Preparing a list of Banned hazardous materials – eg. Asbestos

Pre stressed structure not permitted near Heritage structures as it does not

have proper demolition method.( Sustainable methods of demolition should

also be addressed.

Can be made as part of contract clause

Benchmark standards need to be developed:

Selction and location of equipments :

Process design

Production design - Construction methods and Planning

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Example 02 :

New Road Construction Concepts

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Goal :

Towards reliable, green, safe & smart and human infrastructure in Europe

If one consider NR2C timing, three main phases can be identified:

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Process :

• Phase 1 – survey and analysis

Began in 2004, continued in 2005, this phase was designed to clearly identify future

user needs and expectations. It had consisted of enquiries, surveys, focus

workshops and brainstorming sessions, to build the vision. In parallel, state of the

art reports on innovations in urban, interurban and civil engineering have been

provided.

• Phase 2 - assessment and selection

During this phase running to the end of 2006, innovations, feasibility studies,

preliminary models have been carefully assessed and the most promising have been

selected for further development



• Phase 3 – testing and recommendations

Running to the end of 2007, innovations selected in phase 2 have undergo detailed

design, laboratory tests and when possible site pilot tests, leading to specific

recommendations. Finally, in the continuity of the NR2C vision concepts, and taking

in account Europe concerns, emblematic future research projects have been

identified.

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Findings :

Eco technic Road System (ERS) is a concept of an Integrated Infrastructure ,Based

on the most innovative technologies in order to minimize globally and disturbance

due to traffic (Noise ,Vibrations , Air and Water pollution )

The nuisance mitigating road Infrastructure solutions defined as ERS, are composed

by three subsystems.

1.Pavement subsystem (i.e, Resilient,resonant and reservoir pavements )

2.Barriers Subsystem (i.e, Antinoise ,Air depollutant ,Safety and green Barriers)

3.Auxillary subsystems (ie, Air cleaning unit, ventilation unit ,Ground catalyser

,Photo catalytic material and TIO2 coating



SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

On the initiative of FEHRL, the European Commission has set up the innovation

project “New Road Construction Concepts (NR2C)”. This project aimed to generate

future-orientated initiatives for accessibility problems and issues related to road

infrastructure.

Relevant to the sixth Framework Program – priority 6: Sustainable development,

global change, NR2C which was a four year project, has started in December 2003,

to be completed in December 2007.Its objectives were, in dialogue and cooperation

with all actors concerned such as road infrastructure owners, decisions makers,

experts, users, road industry:

1 - firstly, to provide long term perspectives for the road infrastructure (vision 2040),

which reconciles future transport needs, expected users and social demands, and

sustainability goals; this means to develop new concepts for the road of the future

(high quality, cost-effective, low noise,environmentally friendly, safer, risk mitigating,

low maintenance, while facilitating traffic mobility and inter-modality)

2 - secondly, to implement concrete short term actions by developing specific

innovations that will support this long term vision, these innovations being relevant to

three fields : urban infrastructure,interurban infrastructure and civil engineering

structures.

Eco tectonic Road system:

Ecotechnic Road System (ERS) is a concept of an integrated infrastructure, based

on the most innovative technologies in order to minimize globally pollution and

disturbance due to traffic (noise,vibrations, air and water pollution).

The nuisance mitigating road infrastructure solutions defined as ERS, are composed

by three subsystems:

- Pavements subsystem (i.e. resilient, resonant and reservoir pavements);

- Barriers subsystem (i.e. anti noise, air depollutant, safety and green barriers);

- Auxiliary subsystem (i.e. air cleaning unit, ventilation unit, ground catalyser, photo

catalytic material and TiO2 coating).



Findings of the Brainstorming session :

The main results, as regard nuisances mitigation, are:

Noise : different solutions are available in order to reduce noise nuisance via road

pavement and barrier. Optimised solutions reaching 12 dBA can be obtained with

contribution from 3 to 6 dBA from road pavement and till 8 dBA from barriers.

Pavements: It is recognized that quiet pavement systems develop effective noise-

controlling pavements concentrating on sound absorbing properties, micro- and

macro-texture characteristics. However under NR2C, questions regarding the

duration of the reduction and the degree each different system contributes are under

performance analysing by monitoring in Italy on motorway network the experimental

pavements using resilient and resonant technology (euphonic and ecotechnic types)

originally conceived, lab prototipysed and small & full scale implemented during

SIRUUS (Silent Roads for Urban and Extra-Urban Use) project taking into account

an idea by the Romans 1700 years ago to control low frequency noise.

- The resilient type, with "dumping" behaviour, is constituted by a bituminous porous

double layer (2 cm of 0-6mm on 4 cm of 0-16mm) on the light-weight aggregate

bituminous mixture road base course (15 cm of 0-25mm) as energy absorbing semi-

porous lower layer in order to decrease the mechanical impedance reflecting also on

the acoustical behaviour improvement.

- The euphonic and ecotechnic types of the SIRUUS pavement concepts are

variations of the resonant typology that consists of two layers of porous asphalt

(constituted by a porous wearing course 0/6mm and a porous base course 0/16mm)

connected to a concrete road base course with localised Helmholtz resonators. The

third layer can be obtained also as transition or disconnection layer carried out by

diffused resonant cavities obtained by light-weight cement mortar.

The Helmholtz resonators are designed to absorb noise over the range from 100 to

250 Hz widening the absorption range of 400 Hz – 1200 Hz carried out by the double

layer at the top.



- The Ecotechnic pavement which was originally developed for street traffic, is a

multi-layer pavement including a top layer of porous asphalt 0/5mm, a base layer of

porous asphalt 0/24mm, and a metallic panel disconnection layer.

Barriers: innovative barrier solutions have been developed - coupling the traditional

antinoise barrier types, eventually with self adaptive height and inclination with

acoustic changing characteristics by folding panels, and restrain integrated road

safety system, eventually with dirty avoidable characteristics by sprayed TiO2

(screen close to source);

- improving the performance characteristics trough new materials and/or structure

types as light weight concrete vertical panels constructed using expanded clay as

aggregates (novel-shaped noise barriers & optimisation of acoustic absorption

properties);

- adding new functions as atmospheric pollution control/abatement (as active carbon

particle) and traffic management carrying out an active integration in the nuisance

mitigating infrastructure (novelshaped noise barriers & optimisation of acoustic

absorption properties).



Example 03 : Factors to drive design brief development – Through Brainstorming

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Goal :

Analysis of factors that drive brief development in construction Ayman A.E. Othman

Department of Social Services and Commercial Buildings, Abu Dhabi,

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Purpose :

The founding argument, that incorporating these changes is paramount for

achieving client satisfaction, introduces the concept of dynamic brief

development (DBP), which permits changes throughout the project life cycle.

The understanding and attitude of the major construction project stakeholders

towards DBP are investigated along with identifying the originators of brief

development and the value and risk sources

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Design/methodology/approach –

A method was used comprising a comprehensive questionnaire survey followed by

structured interviews. The results of these were further investigated though a

brainstorming session with major construction project stakeholders.

A total population of 266,434 units for the survey was identified, reduced to a random

stratified sample of 530. The response rate was 49.2 per cent and the responses

were analysed using a weighted relative importance index.

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The process :

A total of 88 interviews were carried out and 12 client organisations participated

in the brainstorming session.

Questionnaire survey sample

The total population of 266,434 units was classified into seven different strata

including

Client organisations,

End-users,

Design firms,

Constructors,

Suppliers,

Government authorities and

Funding bodies.

Stratified random sampling was adopted to ensure that the resulting sample would

be distributed in the same way as the population in terms of the stratifying criteria.

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Findings :

The findings lead to the conclusion that there is a need to set out a detailed brief

development management system that incorporates both value management

and risk management.

This system should enable the appropriate project participant to make informed

decisions at the right time for the benefit of the client. The system must facilitate

feedback to both client organisations and construction professionals to enable

lessons to be learned.



Understanding the relationship between the factors that drive brief development and

the various project team members will facilitate managing brief development in a way

that increases client satisfaction and enhances the performance of the project.

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Conclusion :

Hence Brainstorming always acts as a nerve tool to bring in new concepts and

thought process also to change the existing process or to improve the current

practices. We can incorporate this tool in our professional practice to improve the

quality of the delieverables .

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brain storming report

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