Gathering materials for creative problem solving
According to Tom Wujec, writing in his book, Five Star Mind, the more information you gather, the greater the pool of resources you have to draw upon for creative ideation. Here are some tips for seeding your pool of resources and ideas.
The benefits of thinking out loud
In his excellent brainstorming book, Five Star Mind, author Tom Wujec includes a page on the benefits of thinking aloud. Many of us are deeply scripted in the mindset of the lone entrepreneur, dreaming up breakthrough ideas. But the fact is that having a conversation with someone else is a terrific way to bring new thoughts to life.
Innovation: A Leadership Issue
Creating a sustainable innovative environment is a leadership task. In order to succeed at this task, leaders must develop innovative abilities and develop them in their constituents. Here's how.
Need a great idea? Feed your brain
To increase the odds of coming up with a great idea, you need to feed your brain. Michele Pariza Wacek offers three strategies for keeping your creative muse well fed.
7 Strategies for Sustained Innovation
Sustained innovation comes from developing a collective sense of purpose; from unleashing the creativity of people throughout your organization and from teaching them how to recognize unconventional opportunities. Here are seven strategies for sustaining innovation in your organization.
Innovation Strategy: Finding Alternative Uses of your Products
Finding innovative new uses for successful products and services can clearly increase your market size and, as a result, sales. Here are some tips from Jeffrey Baumgartner on how to apply this strategy to your firm
Questions for evaluating ideas
When brainstorming, it's not enough to generate a large quantity of ideas. You must have an organized way to evaluate the ideas you have generated. Charles "Chic" Thompson, in his excellent book, What a Great Idea! Key Steps Creative People Take, suggests this valuable list of evaluation idea questions.
Why a systems approach to innovation is critical
Most organizations do a fairly good job of utilizing parts of innovation, but this piecemeal approach is rarely effective. According to Andrew Papageorge, a systems approach to innovation is much more productive.
The power of principles in innovation
Imagine what you could accomplish in your organization if you were able to learn and understand the foundational principles of innovation. Andrew Papageorge has formulated three such guiding principles that can help you to innovate more swiftly and effectively.
Brainstorming strategy: Don’t settle for the first idea
When looking for solutions to problems, we humans have an unfortunate tendency to embrace the first solution that comes to mind. That can be counterproductive, but it can also blind us to more creative, effective and ultimately more profitable solutions, according to Jeffrey Baumgartner.
Permission to innovate
Conformity is a powerful force. Over time, through school and our work lives, independent thinking and creativity become so stifled that organizations literally need to give their employees
Why does innovation feel uncomfortable?
Helping people to deal with change is one of the most challenging tasks that leaders of innovation face. GoInnovate!, an excellent new book by Andrew Papageorge, contains a wealth of advice that can help your organization to overcome resistance to change and to successfully implement a culture of innovation.
How to nurture your creative passion
Do you have a big idea that you feel confident will change your world? Are you willing to take the risk of being audacious? According to Sandy Nelson, passion is the key to unleashing your creative energy.
Innovation in action: Go on, be a contrarian
Following the crowd is not a particularly creative activity. And the more we get in the habit of following the crowd, the harder it is to take the risk of being innovative, according to Jeffrey Baumgartner.
Don’t Multi-task, Multi-think Instead
You probably have numerous tasks awaiting your attention at any given time. And it is inevitable that your mind occasionally turns to one task while you are working on another. Here are some tips to take advantage of this process.
Cultivating the habit of innovation
By cultivating the habit of innovation, you can use your unique abilities to make a difference. This article by change management expert Jim Canterucci explains how.
When Brainstorming, Don’t Give in to Limited Thinking
When we are trying to dream up ideas for a particular problem, we have a tendency to look at the limitations and focus our ideation on ideas that meet the demands of our limitations. In short, we only consider ideas that come within the “good ideas” portion of our realm of ideas. Ideas that do not make it into the good ideas realm are often rejected immediately.
Empowering innovation
A great leader can turn your team into entrepreneurs who are hungrily looking for new opportunities. The key is empowerment. Learn how to empower your employees to innovate in this article by Paul Sloane.
How to use TRIZ to bring clarity to the ‘fuzzy front end’ of innovation
Instead of conducting wide-ranging brainstorming sessions so generate hundreds of ideas in search of the one "big one," author Jack Hipple recommends a TRIZ-based approach that focuses instead on clear problem definition and looking at past patterns of invention for potential solutions.
Imagination: The Number One Tool for Innovation and Creativity
Imagination is not a word you hear much about in business. Few companies, outside electronic game producers, would describe themselves as imaginative. That is a shame and a mistake. Imagination is the number one tool for creativity and innovation.
The ten personas of a brainstorm facilitator
Facilitating a brainstorming session is a multi-faceted task, requiring a variety of sensitivities. A skilled brainstorm facilitator is more like 10 people than one, exhibiting a broad spectrum of personalities as needed in order to get the job done. Read on to assess and strengthen your facilitation skills.
Use ‘knowledgestorming’ to tap your team’s collective knowledge, experience and ideas
Interesting ideas often come from bringing two commonplace ideas together to create a unique concept and developing that concept. "Knowledgestorming" is a group brainstorming technique that can help you and your team to uncover breakthrough ideas.
Creative thinking technique: Lotus Blossom
A creative-thinking technique that will help you expand your thinking beyond your usual paths of thinking is Lotus Blossom. According to author Michael Michalko, Lotus Blossom helps you to organize your thinking around significant themes, helping you to explore a number of alternate possibilities and ideas.
Failure is the Mother of Innovation
The organization that implements lots of ideas will most likely have many failures but the chances are, it will reap some mighty successes too. By trying numerous initiatives we improve our chances that one of them will be a star, according to author Paul Sloane.