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Getting Down to Business: Using Speedstorming to Initiate Creative Cross‐Disciplinary Collaboration
Author(s) -
Joyce Caneel K.,
Jennings Kyle E.,
Hey Jonathan,
Grossman Jeffrey C.,
Kalil Thomas
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
creativity and innovation management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.148
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1467-8691
pISSN - 0963-1690
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8691.2009.00538.x
Subject(s) - brainstorming , discipline , creativity , variety (cybernetics) , face (sociological concept) , boundary (topology) , computer science , sociology , knowledge management , engineering ethics , psychology , social science , social psychology , engineering , artificial intelligence , mathematical analysis , mathematics
Creative collaborations that cross disciplinary boundaries are essential to innovation. Individuals face challenges, however, in forming new collaborations. Empirical and anecdotal evidence suggests that the common formats of brainstorming and free‐form networking are insufficient for enabling such collaborations to form. We present a potential solution called speedstorming, a pair‐wise method of creative interaction similar to the round‐robin ‘speed‐dating’ technique. Speedstorming combines an explicit purpose, time limits, and one‐on‐one encounters to create a setting where boundary‐spanning opportunities can be recognized, ideas can be explored at a deep level of interdisciplinary expertise, and potential collaborators can be quickly assessed. A comparison of speedstorming and brainstorming suggests that ideas from speedstorming were more technically specialized and that speedstorming participants were more certain in their assessments of the collaborative potential of others. This paper concludes with a discussion of the method's application in a variety of settings.