p.p1%20%7Bmargin%3A%200.0px%200.0px%200.0px%200.0px%3B%20font%3A%2018.0px%20Arial%3B%20color%3A%20%23272727%3B%20-webkit-text-stroke%3A%20%23272727%7D%0Aspan.s1%20%7Bfont-kerning%3A%20none%7D%0Aspan.s2%20%7Bfont%3A%2018.0px%20%26%2339%3BTimes%20New%20Roman%26%2339%3B%3B%20font-kerning%3A%20none%7D Reading Task 2: Read the text. Then choose one phrase below to fill in each gap of the following text. • A. blocking • B. combine and improve ideas • C. evaluation apprehension • D. focus on quantity • E. free rider problem • F. illusion of group productivity • G. personal contribution • H. social matching effect • I. welcome unusual ideas • J. withhold criticism Text3: The problem with brainstorming Brainstorming is one of the most popular techniques used in meetings to generate ideas for solving a specific problem. Alex Osborn, the inventor of the term ‘Brainstorming’, established four rules. • Firstly, it’s important to __(1)__. Write everything down, the more ideas, the better. • Secondly, participants need to __ (2)__. Never criticise another person’s idea during the brainstorming session, as it will prevent people from being creative. There’s plenty of time for criticism in the evaluation stage later. • Thirdly, we should __(3)__. Try to challenge your assumptions and ask ‘what if...?’ questions. • Finally, try to __(4)__. This is the real power of brainstorming: person A’s crazy idea, which would never work in practice, may get person B thinking about a similar idea which might just work. Even better, person A’s crazy idea and person C’s crazy idea can be combined, taking the best parts of each. So instead of saying ‘no’ or ‘yes, but ...’ we need to train ourselves to say ‘yes, and ...’. A successful brainstorming session can be really useful, but is it always as effective as it could be? Researchers have identified many possible problems, all of which suggest that it is far from perfect. First of all, there’s the __(5)__.This comes from the idea of travelling by bus without a ticket. Why should I bother to buy a ticket when the bus is going anyway? From a selfish point of view, it’s in my interest to ride for free and let others pay for their tickets. The same goes for a brainstorming meeting: why should I make the effort to be creative when all the benefits, and the praise for good ideas, go to the group? From a selfish point of view, it’s in my interest to let everyone else do all the work. Even if people don’t think in such simple terms, it can be demotivating to keep generating ideas when you know you will not be praised or rewarded personally for them, especially if you don’t have especially a strong sense of being part of a team. • A related problem is called the __(6)__. Observers have noted that we try to match our behaviour to the behaviour of other people in the room. So if everyone else is sitting silently, or focusing only on sensible ideas, we feel pressure to do the same. Of course, the social matching effect can have the opposite effect, by encouraging quieter or less creative people to contribute as freely as other participants, but this positive effect tends to be weaker than the negative effect, for the simple reason that it’s easier to contribute less. • There’s also evidence that people are bad at judging the level of their __(7)__ to a brainstorming session. In one experiment, for example, a group of four participants each believed they had contributed around 36% of the ideas at a recent brainstorming session, even though that is mathematically impossible. • A fourth potential problem is __(8)__, or being worried about what other people will think or say about your ideas. It’s one thing to avoid openly criticising other people’s ideas, but it’s much more difficult to avoid all signs of judgment. People may express criticism with a simple facial expression, a slight laugh or even a pause between hearing an idea and responding. And even if nobody is negative in any way, it’s still difficult to accept that nobody is thinking negative thoughts about your crazy idea. A much more serious problem is called __(9)__.This happens when only one person at a time is allowed to talk. If that person talks for too long, you may forget your own idea, or decide not to express it when you finally get your chance. This problem probably happens all the time: ideas come and go every second, but it is terribly easy to get distracted, especially when we are listening politely to a colleague expressing his or her own idea. Finally, there is a problem called the __(10)__, where participants think the meeting is more effective than it really is. For example, it can be very difficult to judge when the meeting’s objectives have been met: how many ideas should be on the board? How many of those ideas need to be serious proposals, as compared to lists of random words and thoughts? Without concrete criteria for assessing success, groups tend to believe they’ve achieved their goal far too soon. • In other words, instead of making people more creative, the act of listening to each other’s ideas may actually make them try less hard, withhold their own ideas and give up too soon.