From "engines of our ingenuity"
Modern engineering designers are up to an odd
piece of work. It's called synectics. The word is
Greek. It means binding different elements, and it
fits invention. We invent when we see relations that
other people have missed.

The word synectics was coined by William Gordon
in 1961. Gordon points out that putting three people
in a room doesn't mean trippling their effect. Three
people with IQ's of 150 aren't apt to perform like
one person with an IQ of 450. You have to do more
than put people in the same space to make them do
what they're capable of doing.