2016 Issue

ticipant to keep their writing concise. And these materials are easily obtained. Once Crawford was comfortable with creating his own slips and using them to increase his own focus, it was a short path from there to getting others’ ideas into his deck of slips. “Brainpower mobilization” was born (See figure 3). He did this by means of “targets” or “target questions”. While focusing the team on the targets, it is critical to impose the strict discipline of complete silence and also ensure they are complying with the required slip format by checking participant’s slips as they write them. If you are not strict, you get too many slips with only one person’s ideas. And the slips you get are too hard to work with. This little article is only a quick sketch of the key elements of the method. There is much more to learn if you want to master it. Yet today, if you look up the Crawford Slip Method on the internet, the only fact they get correct is that the inventor was Dr. C.C. Crawford. Nearly all descriptions start with “take a bunch of post-it notes…”. Dr. Crawford is certainly turning in his grave. A good CSM facilitator must have brains, skill, and discipline learned from an ex- pert. And then they must gain their own experience. So it is not too surprising that a pseudo-CSM has taken over in the popu- lar brainstorming culture. And since some benefit is possible even in this abridged and bastardized CSM, it seems to have taken over as the “true CSM”. But a real CSM workshop is a "good deal" for both the leader and the participants. CSM allows a workshop facilitator to spend an hour with a group of, for instance, 100 people and leave with 10,000 well format- ted, easily manipulated ideas. This is be- cause each idea is permanently recorded on its own little 4 1/4" by 2 3/4" slip of paper. Once a person has attended a CSM workshop, they leave having learned a new and powerful individual tool to help increase their per- sonal brainpower. Also, there is no theoretical upper limit on the num- ber of participants. Large numbers of slips help guar- an t ee anonym- ity which yields more truthful in- sights. The whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts as unexpect- ed connec t i ons can be made while slips are read and sorted. If you would like to give it a try, here’s what to do. Find an industrial strength paper cutter with a competent operator. Insist on precision cuts so that your result- ing slips are uniform enough to stack. Your own place of work might have this kind of capability. Find a copy of the January 1983 CSM instructional text CRAWFORD SLIP METHOD How to Mobilize Brainpower by Think Tank Technology. (Most of the illustrations in this paper are from that non-copyright text.) When you write on the slips, follow these rules: • Only one sentence per slip • Very top edge of each slip • Write long way, not across ends • Write for those outside your specialty • Simple words, short sentences • Write out acronyms at least once • Avoid words like “it” or “this” • To explain, use a new slip Can a method using little slips of paper and ball-point pens be useful in the 21st Century? Grab some slips and find out for yourself. Figure 3: Brainpower is mobilized and any group can be a think tank Figure 4: Dr. Crawford liked to use a Dictaphone after he had arranged his slips. Back then USC professors had secretaries instead of today’s computer word processors Combined Brainpower Looseleaf Logistics Improved Performance CRAWFORD SLIP METHOD 27