If, however, a member's turn arrives and the only response on his mind is clearly common, he should give that response and allow the team to move on. In the second case, creative responses have a much higher value. Time spent carefully crafting a creative response is time spent wisely. A fluent team that rattles out their 40 responses in half the available time, but with a very low rate of creative responses will generally be outperformed by a team that takes the time to achieve a high rate of creative responses. Ideally, the team wants to reach the limit on number of responses just as time runs out.
Many teams assign specific roles to some team members before they get to the competition site.
One role is that of a Captain - his or her job is to solicit ideas, delegate tasks, and keep everyone involved and coordinated. Another role is a Rules Checker - his or her job is to reread the problem and make sure the team is pursuing a solution which is within the limitations and completely meets the scoring criteria. While any team member may contribute ideas, you will generally find, after several practice problems, one or two team members who are your best idea generators. They should not be the Captain or Rules Checker. The team should learn, through practice, to use creatively the materials they are given.