To solve scientific problems, researchers often come together to “brainstorm” ideas. In doing so, it is implicitly assumed that when individuals with different types of expertise are present and encouraged to speak freely, original ideas will emerge automatically.    

However, as research in Social Psychology has shown, in meetings, participants will only be creative if certain conditions are met. If using the wrong formats for exchanging ideas, even groups constituted by smart individuals might fail to outperform any one person (or fail to perform at all) - a not too uncommon experience with conventional Brainstorming.  

This seminar aims to enable you to design your interactions with your colleagues in a way that effectively promotes everybody’s creative thinking. To that effect, you will learn about the conditions affecting creativity in groups and practice a number of formats that have been found to stimulate the collaborative generation of ideas. As a consequence, you will be able to host productive problem-solving sessions and thus to more reliably tap into the “wisdom of the crowd” - to the benefit of your originality and that of your group. 

The seminar will be held in English.

This seminar is open to doctoral and postdoctoral researchers at KIT who are KHYS members.