Hi David,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Our tool is called "Crealogic" and as you also say, i use the tool as a
supplement to existing tools and methods. I also take care not to keep the
data inside the machine, but to print them for instance on hexagons. David
Kruetzer published an article about thinking with hexagons in my last
issue of The Systems Thinker. Regarding this contribution i send him this
mail:
>I have been reading your article in The Systems Thinker and i thought you
>might be interested in a computer brainstorming tool that we use in
>connection to hexagons. In stead of taking in the summaries (a summary of
>the group discussion, led by a facilitator - jl) , we ask people from the
>team to answer some questions (like yours) behind a simple computer
>screen. They can type as much ideas (one idea at a time, two lines per
>idea) as they want, at their own pace. They can read their own ideas and
>those of the other team members. After about 20 minutes the are finished
>and we have printed their statements on hexagons. Then we ask them to
>make the summary themselves, we call it clustering, and write down the
>cluster titles. Cluster titles are added to the computerdata. Then we get
>into the steps you were decribing (depending on the issue). We can also
>make an evaluation of the items behind the computer, with a number or
>"stickering".
DavidK4162 wrote:
> I agree with Jan, having used a similar computer-assisted meeting
> technology called VisionQuest. Beyond reducing groupthink, the
> productivity (generation of ideas) is greatly enhanced due to the
> simultaneous input that occurs during the process. Still, a facilitator
> needs to be alert to the possibility that a dilluted form of groupthink
> can creep into the process; and the tool is appropriately used to enhance
> and focus discussion, not replace it, and to complement other tools like
> flipcharts, post-its and colored markers. Having helped several groups
> utilize this kind of 'groupware' technology I personally become very
> frustrated when I find myself, as a participant, back in the 'traditional'
> environment with a facilitator-scribing-on-flipchart-in-serial- fashion.
> I wish everyone could sometime experience what it feels like to really
> think as a group WITHOUT groupthink.
Best whishes,
Jan Lelie
--Drs J.C. Lelie CPIM (Jan) janlelie@pi.net (J.C. Lelie) LOGISENS - Sparring Partner in Logistical Development - + (31) 70 3243475 Fax: idem
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