Ideas are sometimes described as memes because they can spread like genes.
I’m wondering how this applies to brainstorming. I’ve always associated brainstorming with groups of several people and techniques such as Six Hats. But is this the best way?
In nature, genes are combined from two sources. This is repeated over successive generations. How would this work for memes? Instead of a six people brainstorming in one group, they could split into 3 pairs, brainstorm, and then mixup the pairs and repeat.
Personally, i find it useful to have a couple of days between each “generation” in order to let ideas sink in and stew a bit.
Maybe this all just me being a geek and having an aversion to big meetings. Maybe it partly explains the success of pair programming amongst developers.
Maybe it will help avoid some of the pitfalls of traditional groupthink.