Read Case 7.2: From Brainstorm to Thunderstorm. Then answer this question: If this were your meeting, what would you do as the leader to improve (a) the quantity of viable of ideas, (b) the quality of those ideas, (c) the ability to capture those ideas in detail, and (d) the process to differentiate good ideas from bad?

CASE 7.2: FROM BRAINSTORM TO THUNDERSTORM Starways Technology is a small start-up company that has become known for attracting talented programmers to create web applications ("apps") for the iPhone. You're working there as a summer intern in "apps dev" (application development), and the company decides to spend time brainstorming and coming up with five new ideas for apps that it can develop and launch in the coming six months You walk into the room and quietly take a seat at the back. When the meeting starts, the CEO and VP of Product Development both give a short presentation together about the goal of the meeting at which point people start anxiously asking questions: "How long do we have?" "How many downloads are we shooting for? "What's our budget?" . "This is going to take a lot of time: what will be done about our overtime issue?" You sense that this meeting is rapidly deteriorating into a town hall-style complaint-fest. Luckily, the CEO brings order by saying, "I know you all have questions and concerns. Right now, my primary interest is in identifying the best ideas in the room. So please call them out. We will capture your thoughts and evaluate them later. Tell us what are your ideas for apps that we can develop in the next six months7* There is silence for a few seconds before the first idea is shouted across the room Immediately, someone disagrees with the idea and two new ideas are offered. Before long it is hard to distinguish between ideas and critiques, and people begin judging the ideas using very different criteria One group talks louder and more insistently while another starts to withdraw. Several people pull out their technology and start tapping on the screens, and it is clear to you that this has officially become an unproductive brainstorming session If this were your meeting, what would you do as the leader to improve as the quantity of viable of ideas, (b) the quality of those ideas, (c) the ability to capture those ideas in detail, and (d) the process to differentiate good ideas from bad