Brainstorming was invented by advertising executive Alex Osborn in 1939 and first published in 1942 in his book "How to Think Up."

　　头脑风暴由广告执行官Alex Osborn首创于1939年，并出现在他19421年的著作How to Think Up中。

　　This is a typical description, from James Manktelow, founder and CEO of MindTools, a company that promotes brainstorming as a way to “develop creative solutions to business problems”:

　　这是一个很经典的概念，James Maktelow提及，他是MindTools的创立者兼首席执行官，而这所公司则把头脑风暴作为一种“产生解决商业问题的创造性方案”的方法推而广之。

　　Brainstorming is often used in a business setting to encourage teams to come up with original ideas. It’s a freewheeling meeting format, in which the leader sets out the problem that needs to be solved. Participants then suggest ideas for solving the problem, and build on ideas suggested by others. A firm rule is that ideas must not be criticized  —  they can be completely wacky and way out. This frees people up to explore ideas creatively and break out of established thinking patterns. As well as generating some great solutions to specific problems, brainstorming can be a lot of fun.

　　头脑风暴一般运用于商务场合，用以激发团队产生创意理念。这完全是一种随心所欲不受约束的会议模式，领导者们就会把有待解决的问题提出来。然后会议参与者便把自己的想法提出来，然后再基于他人的想法再提出自己的想法。这种思维模式有一个惯例，就是不对任何看法做出评判——因为有些想法实在是太跳脱古怪了。这样的方法能够解放人们的思想从而更有创造力地发现新点子并打破既有的思维模式，还能够为某些问题得出恰当的解决方案，因此头脑风暴是一件很有趣的事情。

　　Osborn claimed significant success for his technique. As one example of brainstorming’s effectiveness, he cited a group of United States Treasury employees who came up with 103 ideas for selling savings bonds in 40 minutes. Corporations and institutions including DuPont, IBM, and the United States government soon adopted brainstorming.

　　Obsborn认为这种技巧是非常成功的。就头脑风暴的有效性的一个例子，他提到了美国财政部的工作人员在40分钟内能够想到了103种推销储蓄债券的方法。包括Dupont和IBM在内的一些公司或机构，甚至是美国政府内部都陆续采用头脑风暴的方式解决问题。

　　By the end of the twentieth century, its origins forgotten, brainstorming had become a reflex approach to creating in many organizations and had entered the jargon of business as both a noun and a verb. It is now so common that few people question it. Everybody brainstorms; therefore, brainstorming is good. But does it work?

　　在20世纪末，头脑风暴的起源已经被遗忘了，但它已经成为各大组织机构的一种习惯性思维模式了，同时也作为行业术语中的一个动词和名词使用。如今头脑风暴已经非常普遍，几乎没有人对它提出过质疑。每个人都头脑风暴，所以头脑风暴就是好的，但它真的管用吗?

　　Claims about the success of brainstorming rest on easily tested assumptions. One assumption is that groups produce more ideas than individuals. Researchers in Minnesota tested this with scientists and advertising executives from the 3M Company. Half the subjects worked in groups of four. The other half worked alone, and then their results were randomly combined as if they had worked in a group, with duplicate ideas counted only once.

　　关于头脑风暴有效性的观点建立在简单的测试假设上。有这么一个假设：团体总会比个人产生的想法多。在美国中西部的明尼苏达州，有研究人员就这一观点对采矿制造公司的科学家和广告执行者们进行了测试。有一半的受试对象被分配在四人小组里面工作，而另外的一半则独立工作，然后他们的测试结果就会随机结合起来，如同他们在一个小组里面工作一样，如果是重复的想法只算作一次。

　　3M company：Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company

　　(美国)明尼苏达采矿制造公司

　　In every case, four people working individually generated between 30% and 40% more ideas than four people working in a group. Their results were of a higher quality, too: Independent judges assessed the work and found that the individuals produced better ideas than the groups.

　　在每种情况下，四个单独工作的员工比四人小组工作的产生的点子比例多出30%到40%。同时他们的点子也是高质量的：中立的评估者评估了工作的难度并且结果发现，单独完成工作的员工比团队合作的员工产生更好的点子。

　　Follow-up research tested whether larger groups performed any better. In one study, 168 people were either divided into teams of five, seven, or nine or asked to work individually. The research confirmed that working individually is more productive than working in groups. It also showed that productivity decreases as group size increases.

　　后续的研究测试了团队的规模是否与他们的表现成正比。有这样一个研究，其中的168名员工要么被分配到5人，7人或9人的小组里工作，要么被分配为独立工作。研究证实了独立工作确实比团队合作更具创造力。同时研究也发现创造力与团队的规模成反比的关系。