Let’s consider for a moment the Mediterranean Africa as a complex organization and the future as something that we build from chaos and not as something that will happen.
This meeting also may be considered a complex organization consisting prevalently in humans, each one a very complex being.
There are many systemic instruments we could apply on complex organizations to analyse and solve problems and decide what to do. Some of the instruments as BSC, SWOT, SOB, BCP are widely applied in Business Organizations and one wonder why are very rarely utilized by government people. But this is another issue.
One of the most popular methodology to expand the boundaries of projects and create a better context for idea generation was introduced by Alex Osborn in 1939. This is “brainstroming”. This tool has been refined since then. Now we have better communication instruments and it is not always necessary to apply brainstorming in presence. Soon, very few years from now, we may ask our holograms to meet and now we use videoconference.
Whatever mean of communication, physical or virtual, we use it is very important we abide to two rules:
1.Ask the right questiones
2.Choose the right people
My personal experience in observing and leading brainstorming sessions in a traditional way has been very often useless not applying the two above rules.
It often works like this: a group of people, often chosen casually, begins by listening as a moderator urges them to “Get creative!” and “Think outside the box!” and reminds that “There are no bad ideas!”.
Some attendees remain passive, some contribute a little, and a few dominate the session with their useless ideas. At the end, the group will think: “Now we can get back to real work”.
