For the past fifty years, the idea generation literature has been plagued by inconsistent findings concerning how best to achieve certain group outcomes. It is proposed that these findings are the result of specific and minute influences on the behavior of the group members or the resulting outcomes that have previously been overlooked. This paper reconceptualizes the idea generation process, breaking it down into a specific set of Generate thinkLets and associated Modifiers that can impact both group processes and their resulting outcomes. It is anticipated that this new reconceptualization will serve as a research springboard to help researchers exercise greater precision and potentially even resolve many of the conflicting findings that exist in the field of idea generation.