Creative Solutions to Management Problems via Dreamstorming

Fredrick Davidson
(Concord University, USA)

Abstract: We can “Google” thanks to a dream! Fortune reported that Google co-founder Larry Page had a dream in 1996 about downloading the entire web onto computers. “I grabbed a pen and started writing . . . I spent the middle of the night scribbling out the details and convincing myself it would work.” This paper reviews historical dream-based insights such as this, speculates on the mechanism by which it occurs, and builds on contemporary dream research to develop a model for incubating dreams specifically aimed at group problem-solving for complex management decisions. Three examples of dream-incubated solutions are presented along with a protocol for extending this research into the realm of executive decision-making.

Key words: group problem-solving; dream incubation; creative problem-solving; executive decision-making

JEL codes: M, Y, Z