Why Problem Solving and Brainstorming in Groups Often Fails: Moving Beyond the Minimum Acceptable Solution

All too often a team groups together to do a brainstorming session to solve a problem. But despite the excitement the outcome is a disappointing failure: The ‘Minimum Acceptable Solution’,

Introduction

What is Brainstorming and Group Problem Solving?

The idea is that we get a group of people to generate a wide range of ideas and solutions through spontaneous and freewheeling discussion. It encourages open thinking and the sharing of all possible ideas without immediate criticism or evaluation.

Group Problem Solving: is a variant that is more logical and analytical in tone. It is a collaborative process where multiple individuals work together to identify, analyse, and develop solutions to a specific problem. This approach leverages the diverse perspectives, skills, and expertise of the group members to achieve effective and well rounded outcomes.

What these 2 approaches have in common is the idea that bringing people together to solve a problem will generate creativity inspiration and fresh insight therefore is far more useful than working on the problem individually.

The Excitement of Group Brainstorming to Solve Problems

Gathering a group of diverse minds to tackle a challenge can spark excitement and creativity. Whether it’s brainstorming for new ideas, troubleshooting service issues, or developing plans and strategies, collaborative problem-solving has immense potential. Most people enjoy doing it (although some dread it). It is seen as the ultimate team activity where the group can shine as one.

The Outcome of Brainstorming is Often Failure

Yet, all too often, these sessions falter, resulting in not the best possible solution but merely the first one deemed ok or good enough for now. This phenomenon, where groups settle for the minimum acceptable solution, undercuts innovation and wastes the opportunity for transformative thinking. Nemeth and Ormiston (2007) Research showed that groups often favor safe, conventional ideas over innovative ones.  Why does this happen, and more importantly, how can it be avoided?

The Consequences of Mediocrity

Settling for minimum acceptable solutions has far-reaching consequences. History offers stark reminders: Blockbuster’s failure to adapt to the digital age and Kodak’s resistance to digital photography Boeing ongoing struggles illustrate how cognitive fixation can precipitate organisational collapse. Similarly, in healthcare, such as the NHS’s perennial problems with waiting lists, prioritise prevention and expand primary care and even the fall of the Roman Empire.

The Brainstorming Pattern Resulting in The Minimum Acceptable Solution

Brainstorming and Solving Problems As a Group Often Follows a familiar pattern: It happens like this, the group starts with lots of energy and blue sky thinking, and wild ideas come out. But then someone goes to far and says something silly, everyone laughs and from that point for the most part we get safe suggestions. No-one else wants to be laughed at or the butt of jokes.

Settling on The Minimum Acceptable Solution

Once someone in the group identifies the first solution that the group, and especially the leader, finds acceptable the effort and energy goes out of thinking. 

Whilst the intention may have been to come up with great new ideas the reality in most decision making groups is as soon as someone identifies the first acceptable solution. We then settle on a solution that most people will put up with.

The Minimum Acceptable Solution is Not an Optimum Solution

The minimum acceptable solution is seldom the best solution. Indeed cognitive fixedness and the Eistellung effect mean it is quite likely a solution we are already familiar with. 

The Minimum Acceptable Solution is ‘Sticky’

Once the minimum acceptable solution is established it takes hold. Challenging this safe acceptable solution is seen as a risk. It takes a lot of effort to change someone’s mind and people often dont enjoy their mind being changed.

So the group coalesces around imperfect familiar ideas and another opportunity is lost to do things better. The brainstorming has failed and the problem is patched over for another day.

Why Brainstorming Groups Fail and Settle for the Minimum Acceptable Solution

1. Cognitive Biases at Play

Creative brainstorming and group problem solving is fertile ground for cognitive biases. When we ask people to think freely. What happens is that people stop critical thinking and cognitive biases emerge subconsciously and unchallenged. When we ask a group to get ‘creative’ we are inviting a crowd of cognitive biases in to dance with our thinking.

 As mentioned previously The Einstellung effect leads individuals to fixate on familiar solutions, even when better alternatives exist. Similarly, Herbert Simon’s concept of satisficing explains why groups often stop exploring options once they find a solution that meets minimum requirements. 

2. Social Dynamics and Groupthink

The need for harmony and swift agreement can lead to groupthink. Group think narrows the number of options considered acceptable. While dissenting ideas are stifled. Interpersonal pressure to conform discourages members from proposing unconventional ideas, particularly when such ideas risk challenging the group’s status quo.

3. Premature Closure

Groups often experience a rush to action due to deadlines or fatigue. The tendency to accept early, familiar solutions, known as premature closure, short circuits the creative process. Conformity means that people are unwilling to suggest new ideas and readily jump on a safe bet. Confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance mean we then reinforce our decisions with any available evidence.

Additional Challenges Causing Failure in Group Brainstorming

Information Overload
Groups can falter when faced with excessive information, making it difficult to distinguish between critical and peripheral issues. Studies reveal that cognitive overload reduces creative output and leads to surface-level decision-making​.

Communication Barriers
Variations in communication styles can disproportionately amplify some voices while muting others, creating an uneven playing field for idea-sharing. Introverts often particularly suffer in group brainstorming sessions.

Strategies to Overcome Common Failures in Brainstorming and Group Problem Solving

1. Keep the Decision Space Open Longer
Leaders must deliberately resist premature closure by encouraging further exploration of ideas, even after a seemingly viable solution emerges.

2. Use Iterative Processes
Treat brainstorming as an ongoing journey rather than a one-off event. Test ideas, gather feedback, and refine solutions over multiple iterations.

3. Take a Quality Improvement Approach
At the outset of the meeting set at least one parameter to optimise against. That way when one solution is suggested, it can be tested to see if it can be improved upon.

4. Facilitate Constructive Dissent
Establish “red teams” tasked with challenging the group’s proposals. This ensures that solutions undergo rigorous testing before implementation.

5. Incorporate Diverse Perspectives
Diversity in group composition enhances creativity. People from different backgrounds bring varied cognitive frameworks, ensuring a broader exploration of ideas.

6. Emphasise Co-Creation
Involve stakeholders, including those directly impacted by the problem, in decision-making. This approach creates solutions more attuned to real-world complexities​​. Simple solutions rarely work in organisational change as I explore in this post.

7. Focus on Psychological Safety
Fear is the killer of team performance: Encourage an environment where participants feel secure sharing unconventional ideas without fear of judgment. Research shows that psychological safety correlates with higher innovation​.

Minimum Viable Product is Different From The Minimum Acceptable Solution

I hear some people ask the but the concept of a minimum viable product works very well. So what’s wrong with a minimum acceptable solution. While the concept of the “minimum viable product” (MVP) is very valuable in developing a product. It is only intended as a stop gap to test and learn how to improve. It is never intended to be a final solution The true intent of MVPs is continuous improvement: test, learn, and build better. This is different from the minimum acceptable solution as it is the decision making is the limitation on the development of the idea.

How do You Know if The Brainstorming Has Failed?

How do you know if your problems solving and brainstorming have failed? People prefer to stay in their niche and comfort zone whenever possible. So when coming up with ideas as a group if there has been no major disagreement, you’ve probably not pushed past people’s fears and you have an minimum acceptable solution. Pushing beyond the edges of minimum acceptable solutions is where innovation starts, not when it ends. (As i discuss in my Edge of Possible Model. Fear is the boundary to innovation.

Can AI be Used To Improve Group Problem Solving?

AI can be used to generate alternative solutions. AI used poorly can isolate the decision makers from the wider organisation. (AIsolation) Whereas creating an AI that is harmony with your staff customers and organsations will generate better solutions. However, the problem still comes back to the issue that the group still needs to agree and discuss alternative solutions. So even though the range of possible answer can be increased by AI, unless you address the cognitive biases and enable people to overcome their fears, The chances are the decision making will continue to be biased towards failure and optimising safety. So you must also tackle the group dynamics as well as improving the range of solutions being considered.

Overcome Your Fears and Innovate

If you and your team would like to overcome your fears innovate and explore what’s possible, connect and get in touch with me at the Edge of Possible. I coach and advise people how to be more innovative and implement change and social impact effectively.

Conclusion:

Innovation rarely arises from safe, familiar ground. Failure is the normal outcome of brainstorming and group problem solving resulting in a minimum acceptable solution. Pushing beyond the minimum acceptable solution requires deliberate effort, a willingness to challenge comfort zones, and an openness to diverse perspectives. By fostering iterative thinking, promoting psychological safety, and resisting cognitive biases, organisations and team can unlock their true creative potential.