Category: Brainstorming and Ideation

How can we become more creative? Let’s start by thinking about our thinking.

Most organizations want to become more agile. Leaders talk about the need for innovation and entrepreneurial activity. Meanwhile employees bemoan the difficulties of getting things changed, of getting new ideas approved and implemented. How can we overcome these roadblocks? Let’s start by considering how we think at work and in particular by contrasting two styles of thinking – divergent and convergent.... Read More--

Find a Business Partner through Speed Dating

One of the best routes for innovation is collaboration. Two organizations with different strengths and markets can often collaborate in a way that combines their skills and develops new opportunities. When Mercedes Benz set out to create a radically different town car they did not choose to work with another car manufacturer or engineering company – they partnered with a fashion watch maker, Swatch.... Read More--

How Good are you Brainstorming Skills? Take the Quiz.

Brainstorms are also known as Thought Showers or Ideation Sessions.  They can be fun, fulfilling and fruitful or damp, dismal and demotivating.  It depends on how they are run.  Let’s check out your brainstorming skills with a short quiz. Here are some things to think about before your next brainstorm meeting. Try these questions then check your answers below:  How many people should there... Read More--

Run a Really Creative Ideas Event

Say you have an important issue in your business that needs creative ideas. Express it as a challenge for it and run an ideas event. A regular brainstorm or ideation meeting is fine but why not add some excitement with a different approach? Here are the sorts of events you could run: A lunchtime brainstorm with pizza and drinks.A team contest where teams post ideas on an intranet site and everyone... Read More--

If you want some good ideas make for the cafe, not the library.

Where do you get your best ideas?  Do you like to sit and think in a quiet environment?  You might do better heading for Starbucks. Researchers led by Ravi Mehta conducted experiments to understand how ambient noise levels affect creativity.  In one trial they tested people’s creativity at different levels of background noise by asking participants to brainstorm ideas for a new type of mattress... Read More--

A Child’s Toy that can Boost your Brainstorm

One of the most effective techniques for generating really unorthodox ideas in a brainstorm meeting is the use of the random word which was described in this article.  An alternative way to do this is with the use of a toy, Rory’s Story Cubes which consist of nine cubes each with six different images giving a total of 54 little pictures.  When playing the game children or families roll all... Read More--

Think the Unthinkable – Ask ‘Who killed our business?’

We can broadly simplify innovations into two kinds – incremental and radical. Incremental innovations are improvements to current products, methods, processes, services, partnerships and so on. Customer complaints and suggestions are a good source of ideas for incremental improvements. So are the people who work in the organization. If you ask customers how your product could be better or if... Read More--

What do you do with Good Brainstorm Ideas you cannot implement?

Say you hold a brainstorm meeting and generate 100 ideas, what do you do next? You should use some selection criteria to whittle the long list of suggestions down to say a dozen promising ideas. The criteria should be reasonably broad so as not to eliminate radical ideas. You might then vote to select the ideas you want to action – this might be the two or three best. What happens to the other... Read More--