Category: Brainstorming and Ideation

As the Manager, should you be present in the Brainstorm meeting?

You want to hold a meeting with the team you manage in order to generate some really creative ideas. You would like the group to challenge assumptions, think differently and come up with plenty of radical proposals. Here is the dilemma. You naturally want to lead the meeting but should you be in the room at all? Unfortunately for managers,  your presence in the room can inhibit people. With you there,... Read More--

Don’t Reject Radical Ideas with ‘Yes but….’

One of the exercises on my Creative Leadership workshop runs like this. People in pairs have short conversations. In the first conversation one person makes a suggestion for something new that could be done for customers (say). The second person replies with an objection. They start their sentence, ‘Yes but….’ The first person then rebuts the objection with another sentence starting, ‘Yes... Read More--

Ten Top Tips for a Successful Brainstorm – Video

Expert facilitator Paul Sloane shares some of his best tips for a successful brainstorm.     Here is the written check list of tips. Top tips for a Great Brainstorm. Find powerful brainstorm methods in this book, How to Generate Ideas ... Read More--

Don’t use Data Analysis; Use Shiritori.

Shimpei Takahashi is a Japanese innovator and inventor of new toys. In this TedX talk he recommends disregarding data analysis when developing new products. Instead he suggests using random words to generate novel ideas and combinations. In particular he recommends using a method called Shiritori where you generate a list of words where the last letter of one word is used as the first letter in the... Read More--

Start your Meeting with a Big Lie

Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School and Scott Wiltermuth of Marshal Business School published a paper which proposes that dishonesty leads to creativity. Their report states that, ‘dishonesty and creativity have something in common; they both involve breaking rules. Because of this shared feature, creativity may lead to dishonesty and dishonesty may lead to creativity.’ They tested this hypothesis... Read More--

How to Run an Innovation Workshop

In this audio and slide presentation I give eight key steps on how to run a really effective workshop to generate and select great ideas. The Eight Steps are: 1. Set a Clear Objective 2. Choose your Selection Criteria 3. Invite the Right Group 4. Use a Facilitator 5. Prepare the Ground 6. Brainstorm 7. Select the Winners 8. Action Please let me know if I can help with your innovation workshop. New... Read More--

Value Chain Analysis

Do you want to innovate with your service or process?  Here is an effective method which I use on innovation workshops. It involves analysing and questioning every stage of your procedure.  Start by breaking the customer journey down into separate stages starting with when the client first encounters you or your brand through to them completing the transaction and any follow-up steps. Draw this... Read More--

Think Highly!

Researchers have discovered that the height of the ceiling in a meeting room can affect the outcome of the meeting.  Apparently a high ceiling encourages people to think more creatively while a low ceiling discourages imagination and influences people to think in a constrained way. So if you want an effective brainstorm choose somewhere with plenty of headroom. The concept extends beyond the physical.... Read More--

Why Leaders should Choose Their Words with Care

Let’s say the challenge is to win an important bid. You say to your team, ‘We must win this bid. We’ve got to do everything possible to win it.’ You are in command mode, effectively issuing orders and an implied threat. On the other hand you could say, ‘We really want to win this bid. Let’s think of every possible way we can succeed.’ Now you are being inclusive... Read More--