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I recently had an interesting experience with a kind of brainstorming session, specifically designed to help uncover possible process or value improvements in an engineering project.

All our projects start with a rough estimate, generally with a plus or minus factor of 60%. Once through initial engineering, the “final” estimate is produced with the plus or minus factor reduced to 20%. (While that may still seem large, it’s surprisingly hard to forecast engineering projects with better accuracy. Well, perhaps it’s more accurate to say it can be done, but costs too much to do so.)

The history of this particular project has been, shall we say, less than stellar (all right, I’ll be honest - it’s a train wreck.) After experiencing a large amount of “scope creep” (no, that’s not a pet name for our favorite vendor), several changes in project deadlines, and various other forms of excitement, we finally produced a final estimate that was three times greater than the original! Yikes!

After everything came screeching to a halt (you could almost hear the crash from here), a great deal of work went into revisiting everything about the project, from the objectives to the equipment requirements. Finally, we were ready to start over again. So naturally the client wants a brainstorming session to make sure we’ve identified all possible cost savings.

I said to myself, “Self, haven’t we been doing that already?”

So I had to take the time (and spend the money) to get the entire team together (no small feat since the project team members are located in two different states.) I must admit, I was a bit skeptical of the value.

Why? Well, because of the, well, let’s call them challenges, not problems, shall we? - the project had become elevated to a really high profile. (This is rather like being the apple on William Tell’s head. You can feel everyone taking a bead on you.) Also, since all project team members had already spent so much time focusing on revising the objectives, scope, etc., it seemed likely that no stone had been left unturned. With those considerations, I’m afraid I had little faith in our ability to come up with anything new.

I know, I know - you can already tell where this story is going. The bottom line is, we still uncovered some valuable improvements. Once again, brainstorming saved the day. Happy endings all around.

But I learned something valuable. I have personally experienced what it is that makes brainstorming so powerful a tool.

The power is not in the accumulated knowledge or experience of the participants. It’s not in their collective desire to discover the best, to be creative or to unleash innovation. It’s not even the ability to focus every resource on the challenge. Sure, all these things are great elements in a successful session, but that’s not what makes it work.

What makes it work so well is the ability to do all those things face to face. To be in the same room, across the same table, and look into each others eyes - in other words, to have that personal connection - is what fuels the best in a brainstorming session.

I’m a believer now.

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