Many of our intuitions about creativity are incorrect. We see this most clearly in the case of face-to-face brainstorming. The process of generating novel and useful ideas is often blocked in teams. There is no evidence that conventional brainstorming teams can exceed the performance of people working alone. The various inhibitory social and cognitive factors in teams simply outweigh the potential positive effects of social and cognitive stimulation.152

Why then, with all of its faults, is face-to-face group brainstorming so pervasive in companies? Part of the reason is that people falsely believe it is effective. Most managers severely underestimate the process loss in teams—that is, the inhibitory cognitive and social factors such as social loafing, production blocking, coordination loss, task irrelevant behaviors, and filler talk—because they lack a relevant benchmark.

We don’t suggest that companies and teams abandon brainstorming. Rather, we suggest they develop hybrid methods for creative work that capitalize on individuals’ strengths and combine those with team strengths. For example, one manager told us that the simple act of asking team members to submit items before their weekly group meeting resulted in a tenfold increase in volume of ideas and higher quality of ideas. With some simple changes, the productivity of teams can increase dramatically.