Status meetings focus on what has happened. Brainstorming shares what could happen. The term brainstorming was introduced in the 1940s by Alex Faickney Osborn in the book Applied Imagination. The story is that Osborn was frustrated with his employees' creative output and began experimenting with ways to improve it. The book shared his conclusion that group brainstorming is a more efficient way to improve idea generation compared to individual thought. Osborn stated there were two principles that contribute to an effective brainstorming session. They are:
Deferring judgment, that is, not getting frustrated when people introduce what is considered impractical or impossible ideas
Reaching for quantity, that is, the need to generate as many ideas as possible
On the surface, this sounds like simple criteria to follow but the challenge is actually conducting brainstorming sessions where these two principles are consistently put into practice.