All successful companies develop their competitive edge through some form of innovation.
However, many focus on one area of innovation only. For instance, they may only look at improving customer services, or creating new products.
While all this is well and good, they may be able to do a lot better by innovating in other areas as well.
When we spread innovation over multiple areas, it becomes much more difficult for competitors to copy us. It can also create much more value. So, where should we look to innovate?
This is where Doblin's 10 Types of Innovation can help. This useful tool highlights 10 key areas that we can look at when we need to innovate.
About the Tool
The tool was created by the Doblin Group , an innovation consulting firm, which developed the 10 Types of Innovation* after 27 years of research with a variety of businesses and organizations. Doblin says that you're far more likely to have a successful organization if you focus on innovation in at least four of the ten areas.
The 10 types of innovation are grouped into four broad categories:
Finance

Business Model – how your organization generates profit.
Networking and Alliances – how you manage supplier relationships and build strategic partnerships.

Process

Enabling Process – the supporting tasks and processes that happen in your organization. (These are often generic tasks that you could outsource to contractors or other organizations.)
Core Process – people and processes that give you a competitive advantage in your market.

Offering

Product Performance – the basic features of your product.
Product System – this is your "offer," and includes any tailored or customized product offers that you have available.
Service – the service and services that you provide to potential clients or customers.

Delivery

Channel – how customers find out about your product or service.
Brand – how you communicate the value of your company, your product or your service to your customers.
Customer Experience – what customers think or feel about you when they encounter you.

Applying the 10 Types
Doblin's 10 Types of Innovation give you an awareness of areas that you can focus on to improve your organization. Without this awareness, it's likely that you'll focus on only one or two key areas.
You can focus your innovative efforts over a much broader area when you have this awareness, increasing the likelihood of creating more value, and creating a unique offering that is difficult for competitors to copy.
There are many ways to innovate in each of the 10 areas – we've highlighted some strategies below to help you get started in each area.

Tip:
The Simplex Process and the Innovation Circle are useful general tools that will help you innovate in all of the areas that we cover below. Our article on Generating New Ideas can also help you innovate in different parts of your organization.

Finance
1. Business Model
This is where you look at your organization's business model, and think about how you could increase your profit. Where does most of your revenue come from? Are there any bottlenecks that are limiting revenue, or could you be doing other things to generate revenue?

Our articles on SWOT Analysis , PEST Analysis and Core Competency Analysis can help you identify opportunities; our article on Porter's Diamond can help you ensure that you're thinking in the right areas; and our article on Porter's Five Forces helps you take appropriate advantage of market power.
You can also use VRIO Analysis to make sure that you're making effective use of the resources you have available.
2. Networking and Alliances
Look at how your organization is currently working with its suppliers. Approaches like supplier relationship management , procurement management and the Kraljic Portfolio Model will help you manage your supplier relationships strategically.
Your organization should be focusing on its strengths, and outsourcing its weaker areas to a network of suppliers and contractors. (See the next area for more on this.)
Also, can you create strategic alliances with other organizations to make best use of your mutual opportunities?
Process
3. Enabling Process
There will be some organizational processes that don't give your organization much competitive advantage – examples of this can include payroll management, IT support, and suchlike. In other areas, external providers may have more expertise and skill than internal providers – for example, in marketing, design, or specialist technology delivery.
In all of these cases, it can make sense to outsource this work. Our articles on the Outsourcing Decision Matrix and Working with Outsourced Suppliers will help you think about this.

Tip:
When you do keep routine processes within your organization, you may be able to use techniques such as Lean Manufacturing and the 5S System to work more efficiently and productively.

4. Core Process
Does your organization have any unique processes that haven't been mastered by your competitors? Or, are you looking to create a core process that will differentiate you from the competition?
Look at your own core processes, and try to find ways to make them unique and more efficient. Tools like Value Chain Analysis , Porter's Value Chain , Core Competence Analysis , USP Analysis , and the Product-Process Matrix can help here. (If you're stuck on where you could improve, our article on Business Process Reengineering has some useful strategies that can help you get started.)
Offering
5. Product Performance
When people think of innovation, product performance is often where they begin.
Look at the products or services that your organization offers. How could you improve these to make them more appealing or more effective for your customers?
You can start improving product performance with a Conjoint Analysis . This helps you measure buyer preference so you know what to improve. You can also use Kano Model Analysis to explore product improvement.
6. Product System
Look at your current product line or offering. There might be ways you can customize these items for customers, or bundle certain products or services together to offer a more complete solution.
(Again, Conjoint Analysis and Kano Model Analysis can be useful here.)
7. Service
You should be providing the very best service possible to your customers. As well as offering them a high quality product, this also involves improving every step of the information-gathering and purchase process.
Look at how your organization treats its customers. How could you improve the process for your customers?
Value Chain Analysis and Porter's Value Chain can help you map these out. You can also help your people serve customers better with our article on the Customer Service Mindset , and you can improve the way you manage complaints and feedback , so that you use this valuable feedback and business improvement channel properly.
Delivery
8. Channel
How does information about your products and services reach your customers? What channels does your organization use to get your message across? What new channels could you use to reach current and potential customers?
Start by looking at your marketing mix and web marketing tactics to make sure you're using all the channels you have available. Brainstorm new ways that you could get your product or service in front of new customers. For instance, could you use social networking, or get involved in charity events in your community?
9. Brand
Re-analyze your brand's message by creating a Value Proposition . This will help you communicate the benefits and value of your brand to your customers.
You can also review and refresh customer-facing material to enhance your brand, as well as engaging in a whole range of other brand-building activities.
10. Customer Experience
What do your customers experience when they do business with your organization? How could you improve this experience to add greater value for them? How can your brand or organization become part of their life in a more personal way?
You can improve customer service with Value Chain Analysis (again) and with Customer Experience Mapping , which helps you and your team experience your business through the eyes of your customers. You can also review user experience on your website – work in this area can yield huge business improvements for organizations with complex websites.


Key Points
Doblin's 10 Types of Innovation was created by The Doblin Group, an innovation consulting firm.
The 10 areas are divided into four categories, as follows:
Finance

Business Model.
Networking and Alliances.

Process

Enabling Process.
Core Process.

Offering

Produce Performance.
Product System.
Service.

Delivery

Channel.
Brand.
Customer Experience.

The tool is useful, because it highlights all of the areas where you can innovate to create more value. This helps you build an exceptionally innovative business – one that is very difficult for your competitors to copy.

* The work “Doblin’s 10 Types of Innovation” is the copyright of Doblin Group .

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According to a 2010 study by IBM*, creativity is the single most important attribute that CEOs think is important for future business success.
The importance of creativity and innovation can't be overestimated.
After all, you can have the best products and processes now, but if your organization lacks creative thinkers, it's going nowhere fast.
Without new ideas, new products, and new processes, you'll be left behind by your competition.
In this article we'll explore the importance of creativity, and we'll help you think about how you can foster creativity and innovation within your team.
The Importance of Creative Thinking
Clearly, creative thinking gives us great new ideas, and helps us solve our most complex problems.
However, by encouraging creative thinking, you can also help your people become more engaged with what they do, increase their self-confidence, and improve their morale. Human beings, no matter who they are or what they do, have an innate desire to think and act creatively. (It's not a magical trait that shows up only in artists or musicians: all of us have a deep well of creativity at our disposal, just waiting to be let out.)
Organizations that suppress this natural drive end up creating teams that are stale, disengaged, dissatisfied, and unproductive. Clearly, teams like these are incredibly bad for business!
Barriers to Creativity
So, if the creative drive is so instinctive for us, why aren't people creative all the time? The reason is that there are many common barriers to creativity, especially within organizations.
The attitude of the leadership team is probably the most important factor. In another recent study , researchers concluded that the support that leaders give has a potent influence on team creativity. Without encouragement and support from above, people don't feel safe enough to take risks with their ideas, and, therefore, creative thinking is stifled.
Other issues with team creativity revolve around the common problems that teams face when people work together in groups. For instance, one team member may be dominant, drowning out everyone else's ideas in favor of his or her own. Or, other team members may be shy or apprehensive, and lack the confidence to express their creative ideas.

Also, as teams discuss options, some team members may forget their own ideas while they're waiting for their chance to speak. Others may feel creatively blocked as they listen to other people's ideas.
Additionally, Groupthink can hamper creative thinking, because people's desire for consensus overshadows their desire to come up with innovative, risky, solutions.
Other barriers, such as the pressure to conform, and a natural respect towards authority, can also play a role in stifling creativity.
Strategies for Encouraging Creativity
Despite these many barriers to creativity, it is possible to foster creative thinking in your team. But it does take a concerted effort to develop an environment that encourages creative thinking, both in the short and long term.
To encourage creativity in your team, use the following approaches:
Avoid Micromanagement
Micromanagement can be a major inhibitor of creative thinking. This is one of the many reasons why, as a leader, you should try to avoid micromanaging your team. Give your people the space and freedom they need to think creatively, and work and excel on their own.
Build Trust
The relationship between you and your team should be one built on trust. Without trust and mutual respect, creative thinking can't occur.
This is because creative thinking involves a certain amount of risk, and people don't take risks with those they don't trust. If this is an issue, learn how to gain the trust of your team , so that your people feel safe enough to think creatively with you and each other.
You can also create a sense of safety by reminding your team often how important creative thinking is to you and to your organization. You may feel that you "sound like a broken record," but repetition will drive the message home, and will demonstrate that your interest isn't a passing fad.
Don't Penalize Failures
Many people resist expressing their creative ideas, and especially acting on them, because they're afraid of failure. Or, they might be afraid that they'll be penalized if their idea doesn't work.
As a leader, it's important to help your team overcome the fear of failure , and recognize that good things can come from it. Many failures hide important lessons and insights that, when taken to heart, can lead to greater successes down the road.
Failure can also lead to wonderful new products and ideas. For instance, one of 3M's most famous products, the Post-It note, is the direct result of a failure. A researcher in the company was trying to develop a new glue, which turned out to be incredibly weak. Another 3M professional heard about the failed glue and started using it to keep his bookmarks attached to pages. The rest, as they say, is history.
This classic story is just one example of how failures can lead to innovative new ideas and products. Learn about the failures in your own organization, use business story-telling to help your people accept failure, and discover the important lessons that these failures are hiding.
Use Effective Brainstorming Techniques
Brainstorming is a popular and effective technique for generating ideas. However, many of the barriers that inhibit creativity, such as Groupthink, deference to authority, and shyness, crop up during brainstorming sessions. This is why it's often more effective to use variants of brainstorming than it is to use brainstorming itself.
If you have a member of your team who tends to drown out everyone else's ideas, then use brainstorming techniques such as Round-Robin Brainstorming or Crawford's Slip-Writing Method . These techniques encourage idea generation, yet ensure that everyone in your group has an equal chance to contribute.
If you believe that your team's creativity is being suppressed because achieving consensus seems to be people's top priority, see our article on Avoiding Groupthink . And if you sense that the size of your group is a problem, explore using the Charette Procedure . You may also want to press your team to analyze problems in depth, instead of settling on the first or easiest option. Tools such as the 5 Whys Technique , Cause and Effect Analysis , and Root Cause Analysis will help your team explore problems in detail, so that they can come up with creative solutions to them.
If you want to introduce a new twist to your brainstorming sessions, try brainwriting . This technique allows your people to develop each others' ideas, while everyone still has an equal chance to contribute.
Lead by Example
Never forget that your team looks to you first when it comes to creativity. Encourage your people to think more creatively by leading by example .
Come up with your own creative ideas, don't be afraid to take risks, and stick up for team members whenever they have an unusual idea. The more you demonstrate your own creative thinking, the more your team will feel safe enough to follow suit.
Encourage Solitude
Sometimes, people may find it easier to come up with creative ideas when they're working alone. Whenever you can, encourage them to take time to explore new concepts and ideas. If possible, allow them time to pursue projects that they feel passionate about. Also, consider setting aside a specific space, such as an empty office or conference room, and provide the tools and resources that they need to pursue these ideas.
This sense of freedom and empowerment can go a long way towards fostering a sense of creativity and excitement within your team.

Tip:
You won't get much creativity from your people if they're carrying a crushing workload. If you want creativity, give them the time and space they need to be creative.


Key Points
Creative thinking is vital in many business situations. Without it, you won't come up with great new ideas, and your organization will be left behind.
As a leader, it's up to you to encourage your team to think creatively. There are several ways to do this.
First, make sure you know about the common barriers to creative thinking. Groupthink, shyness, and a fear of failure can block your team's creativity.
Next, encourage your team to think creatively. Build trust, so that your people feel safe to express their ideas, don't penalize failures or bad ideas, and lead by example.
The more time you spend fostering a sense of safety and encouragement within your team, the more creative thinking you'll start to see.

* You can read about this study, which polled more than 1,500 CEOs from 60 nations, here .

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Synectics is a creativity and problem solving process which combines a structured approach to creativity with the freewheeling problem-solving approach used in techniques like brainstorming.
It's a useful technique when simpler creativity techniques like SCAMPER , brainstorming and random input (which are embedded within the synectics approach) have failed to generate useful ideas, as it uses many different triggers and stimuli to jolt people out of established mind sets and into more creative ways of thinking.
However, given the sheer range of different triggers and thinking approaches used within synectics, it can take much longer to solve a problem using it than with, say, traditional brainstorming – hence its best use as a "backstop" when other creativity techniques have failed.

Background:
The word "synectics" means "bringing different things together to create a unified connection", which is what's done using the synectics process.
It was developed by William J. J. Gordon in the early 1960s and developed (in an artistic context) by Nicholas Roukes.

How to Use the Tool
Generating ideas with Synectics is a three stage process:

"Referring": Gathering information, and defining the problem.
"Reflecting": Using a wide range of techniques to generate ideas.
"Reconstructing": Bringing ideas back together to create a useful solution.

1. Referring
In the referring stage, you lay the foundations you'll use later for successful use of the tool. At this stage you:

Precisely define the problem you want to solve.
Properly research the factors contributing to the problem.
Understand what solutions have been tried up to this point.

2. Reflecting
Reflecting is where you creatively and imaginatively generate possible solutions to the problem you've defined. The emphasis here
is on using a range of different "triggers" and "springboards" to generate associations and ideas.

Just as with brainstorming, reflecting is best done in a relaxed, spontaneous and open-minded way with an emphasis on creative
thinking rather than on critical assessment of suggestions.
Where Synectics differs from brainstorming and other creativity approaches is in the formal and systematic way it seeks to spark comparison with other approaches and situations, creating new ideas by making associations between these and the problem being solved.
That said, a useful way of starting the Synectic idea generation process is to brainstorm around the problem normally. This should generate a range of possible solutions to the problem.
If none of these solves the problem, the next step is to use some of the 22 possible triggers below to try to break free of existing thinking patterns. These triggers reflect things that you can do to transform your current product, service or approach to try to solve the problem. They are:

Subtract: Remove parts of your current approach, or simplify it.
Repeat: Duplicate parts of it, or significantly increase resources so that you can take existing approaches to a new level.
Combine: Mix existing approaches with other approaches.
Add: Make existing approaches bigger or stronger, or add other elements.
Transfer: Move existing approaches into different situations, and look at how they would change to cope with these approaches.
Empathize: Put yourself in the minds of your customers, or pretend that you are the problem: From this perspective, how would you do things differently?
Animate: Bring the problem to life. Think about it as a living thing.
Superimpose: Overlay the situation with new meanings or ideas, possibly randomly generated (see random input).
Change Scale: Think about what would happen if you radically expanded the scale of the problem, or if you reduced it substantially.
Substitute: Switch out and replace elements of your current approach. Switch in parts of alternative approaches.
Fragment: Take the problem or your current approach apart. If you solve some parts of the problem, does this help solve others? Or can other people help you solve parts more effectively?
Isolate: And is there value in only looking at part of the problem? Are people really that concerned about other parts?
Distort: Change the "shape" of your current product, solution or service: Extend it or stretch it, think about it as a different, distorted shape.
Disguise: Think about whether you can eliminate the problem by hiding it or camouflaging it (in some cases this may be a legitimate solution).
Contradict: Think about doing the opposite of what you want to do (for example, how you would make the problem worse?), then reverse this.
Parody: Think about what you'd ridicule about your problem or solution. See if this changes the context or suggests alterations.
Prevaricate: Fantasize about your service. Think about what it would be like in your wildest dreams.
Analogize: Think about analogies for your product or service, and what you can compare it to in other disciplines. How do people deal with analogous problems? (We'll look at this in more detail later.)
Hybridize: Think about what would happen if you crossed your current approach with something wildly different. Does this suggest any ideas?
Metamorphose: Think about how your product or service will be affected if current trends continue – will the problem get worse, or will it fade away in significance?
Symbolize: How can you strip your product or service back to its bare essentials? How can you convert it into something this is immediately easy to grasp?
Mythologize: Taking this further, how could you give it symbolic, "iconic" or "mythological" status?

Use these triggers as starting points for further brainstorming ("What would we have to do to give our product iconic status in our market?")
Again, once you've done this, evaluate whether you have a satisfactory solution to the problem you're addressing.
If you haven't, it's time to move to the next stage: Using "synectic springboards" to stimulate new ideas. These are analogies between the current situation and other situations or things. They can be functional analogies (with other products, services and approaches that do a similar job), analogies with other phenomena (for example, with an ocean storm, a rainforest or a mechanical digger), or stretched analogies (for example, comparisons with emotions or symbols).
Analogies can be close or can be outrageous: Close analogies are likely to generate steady improvement, while outrageous analogies are useful for generating fundamental shifts in the way people think.
(This springboard approach is similar to the random input technique we discuss elsewhere on Mind Tools, in that it seeks to disrupt stale or unproductive thinking patterns and provoke creative
associations and connections that wouldn't normally occur.)
3. Reconstructing
Reconstructing is where you collect all of the ideas you've created during the "Reflecting" step, and evaluate them rationally, bringing them together to create practical and useful ideas.
Visit the Mind Tools creativity section for more approaches to practical creativity.

Tip:
Be careful in introducing and using these approaches – if people you're working with aren't familiar with these approaches and if you don't manage expectations carefully, you can quickly look ridiculous if you push analogies too far.
Also bear in mind that using the full synectic process can be very time-consuming – make sure that the problem you're solving is worth the effort.

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When it comes to creative planning, it can be hard to find the right way to transform imaginative thinking into concrete business strategy.
You need to dream big in order to come up with possible ways of solving a particular problem.
At the same time, you need to be able to focus on the detail needed to put your plan into action successfully.
Getting the right balance between these two aspects is a real challenge, but you can learn a lot about how to do just that from one man, who not only mastered the technique, but used it to create a legendary billion-dollar empire.
When you hear the name 'Walt Disney' what comes to your mind? For lots of people it will be that famous animated mouse he created, and the joy he's brought to millions of people through his films. But many consider Walt Disney to have been just as much a business genius as a creative one. Closer inspection shows that much of his success was thanks to having a very specific approach to realizing his dreams.
Known as the Disney Creative Strategy, it was originally formulated by Robert Dilts, a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) expert. One of the goals of NLP is to model the thinking strategies of successful people. Dilts defined this particular strategy after analyzing Disney's methods for turning his dreams into reality. He details the strategy in his book, "Strategies of Genius: Volume One", published in 1995.
In this article we'll explain the Disney Creative Strategy, and show how you can use it to realize your own ideas.
The Disney Creative Strategy
The Disney Creative Strategy is a tool for brainstorming and developing ideas. It involves using three sequential roles, or thought processes, namely the Dreamer, the Realist, and the Critic.
As you imagine and develop your ideas, you move from one role to the next, putting yourself into these different mindsets, so that you can better analyze what you're doing.
Below are the essential elements associated with each role:

The Dreamer
Taking on the Dreamer role in this first phase, you and your group focus on free association and brainstorming of ideas. Anything goes here. It's your chance to let your imagination run wild!
The Realist
Next, it's time to be realistic and decide which of your ideas are actually possible or practical. What would you need to do in the real world in order to make them happen?
The Critic
Here you need to examine your chosen proposal and its real world implications from a more critical viewpoint. You want to make sure that your plan is as comprehensive as it can be. Every detail needs to be scrutinized and refined.

Sound planning requires innovators to take on all three roles, and work through them in order. Some of your team members may be more naturally disposed to one or other role, and you need to make sure you balance the process so that all roles are used. Not enough emphasis on The Critic phase may mean you produce unrealistic proposals that are doomed to fail. Equally, if you skip The Dreamer stage, your plans could well lack the imagination needed for true innovation to take place.
It's likely that you'll only be really successful in your planning when you work through all three roles in the correct sequence.
How to Use the Tool
So, how do you actually use the Disney Creative Strategy?
Step 1: Create Space
If you have the space, it can be helpful to use a different room or space within a room for each phase. This will help you and your team to switch mindsets and move into each different role. And it's also vital that someone is in charge of documenting each stage.
Step 2: Step into The Dreamer
Once you've gathered your team, make sure everyone is clear that you're starting with The Dreamer role. Each person should feel free to brainstorm and bounce ideas around during this time. Don't introduce any limitations here. Avoid mentioning budgets, time frames or rules. If you and your team could do anything with this project, what would you most want to do? What ideas really excite you?
Step 3: Transition to The Realist
Once you've given everyone plenty of time to brainstorm ideas, it's time to switch into The Realist role.


In this phase you're going to refine and adjust your ideas to make them more concrete. This is when your team will focus on taking action: planning, scheduling and evaluating the idea or ideas they find most promising.
Step 4: Transition to The Critic
In this last phase you and your team must look at your ideas from a critical point of view. You need to question and test every step of the process, pretending you're a "naysayer", and trying to find fault with any proposition. Your goal is to criticize and refine your plan until it's as good as you can get it.
Make sure you allow enough time at each stage for ideas to fully develop. Moving from one phase to the next too quickly can stifle people's imagination.

Tip:
It's also especially important that, during The Critic phase, you and your team remember to criticize the plan itself, and not the person or people coming up with the ideas!

Example: Disney Creative Strategy in Action
Diane Austin works for a young organization. The firm has been growing rapidly since it was founded just five years ago, and now has more than 100 employees.
The problem, as she sees it, is that there is no system in place that allows everyone to share their know-how. She's keen to introduce knowledge management to her firm, as she believes this could significantly increase retention and revenue over the long term. She needs to create and implement a user-friendly system for sharing and spreading this collective knowledge.
Diane decides to try out the Disney Creative Strategy with her team, in order to create a system that will work for everyone. With her boss's approval, she's able to use three different conference rooms for the initial meetings.
She explains to her team exactly how she's going to structure the meetings. And during the first one the team steps into the role of The Dreamer. Diane functions as the moderator, documenting ideas and guiding the discussion. She writes down all the suggestions, and encourages everyone to participate. No idea is considered too far-fetched or unrealistic at this stage, and her team really gets into the excitement of being able to shout out everything they can come up with.
After a 15 minute break the team moves to the next room, where they're instructed to step into the role of The Realist. It's time to consider how practical the ideas they came up with during the first phase are in reality. These included setting up a new part of the company intranet for storing relevant information; "lunch and learn" sessions; the appointment of a knowledge champion, who would spend time holding group discussions to identify knowledge that could usefully be shared; and the creation of a system of cross-team "knowledge buddies".
Considering these four proposals to be the most solid and practical, they then create a rough plan for realizing each idea. At this point they decide to discard the knowledge champion idea as it's too expensive, and depends too much on one person rather than on a more sustainable, collective effort. Step-by-step implementation plans are created for the remaining three ideas.
Diane gives the group another 15 minute break, and then they move to the third conference room to take on the role of The Critic. Here, she and the group look at each plan from the point of view of a skeptical outsider. Every step is analyzed, picked apart, and refined.
As a result, Diane and her team are able to come up with a solid, well thought out plan for introducing a knowledge management system into the organization.

Tip:
The steps laid out here are similar to a number of other approaches to creative problem solving. See our Introduction to Problem Solving , and our articles on Simplex and Six Thinking Hats for more.


Key Points
Balancing the conflicting roles of Dreamer, Realist, and Critic can be a challenge for teams. All three elements are necessary for successful project planning, but they need to be addressed in the right order. Teams can easily fall into the trap of trying to do all three at once!
By using the Disney Creative Strategy you can clearly separate these roles, and devote time to each. When each role is defined and set apart, teams can focus on doing one task at a time. This will greatly increase the chances of your planning being realistic, innovative and successful.

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How many times have you thought of a really
fantastic idea?
Maybe it was something that would revolutionize
the way your office operates.
Or perhaps it was a great product
that would appeal to millions of people worldwide.
Most of us have been in this situation at least once, and we'll
probably have to admit that this great idea never became a
reality. Sure, it was creative – and it could be done. But we
never acted on it.
Why? Why do we think of ideas that we know are good, only to let
them sit in the back of our minds – without doing anything about
them?
One reason is that putting an idea into practice can seem like a
huge amount of work. Even if it's a small idea, most of us see
nothing but potential obstacles when we imagine taking action. We
assume we've lost the election before we've even started the
campaign!
Another reason can be fear – fear of moving out of our current, comfortable space.
In this article, we'll detail steps and tips for turning your ideas into
reality.
Implementing Your Ideas
OK, so you've got the idea. Now what?
Step One:Define Who Will Be Affected By Your Idea
Imagine that your great idea is a process that will cut your
company's month-end reporting time in half. Who will benefit from
this? Obviously, everyone who's involved in the current month-end
reporting system. But who else? Your company's executives will
clearly be interested if timely information is business-critical. And if your new process will save half a day's work for everyone,
then your team will have more time for other things – perhaps for
taking care of clients?

On a small scale, this may be obvious. On a larger scale, techniques like Stakeholder Analysis can help you think this through thoroughly.
Determining who will be affected by your idea is like defining your
"target market." When you're ready to sell your idea, you know
you'll have to talk to these people.
Step Two: Think About How it Will Affect Them
Now that you know WHO will be affected by this idea, briefly think about how it will affect each of them, as an individual. What will the benefits be? What will be the costs? And will the benefits sufficiently outweigh the costs for this to be worth doing?

At this stage, you can do this at a superficial level. In step four, after you've planned what you'll do, you can look at this in more detail.
Step Three: Plan "Backward"

Next, create a plan
for HOW you're going to help these people.
The easiest way to do this is to create a "reverse" plan.

For most people, this may not seem to make sense. You need to plan
your steps by moving forward, right? Well, that's one way to do
it. But when you start at the beginning, there are many directions
you can take to reach your end goal, so it's easy to get lost.
However, when you start with your end goal and work backward,
things tend to come together much more easily.

Here's an example: One of your internal month-end processes takes
4 days to complete because of the vast amount of data that your
colleague Sara has to process when the month is over. This causes
a lot of stress as senior management are always agitating to get
the figures earlier, and it means that Sara can never take
vacation during that period – which is sometimes frustrating for
her. You want the month end work to take no more than one day. But how
can you make that happen? Think "backward":

What's your end result? You want the final results available no
more than a day after the last activity they report on has been
completed.
Immediately, you realize that if Sara could process data in
batches throughout the month, she wouldn't have so much to do
after the month end. But this would require other departments to
provide figures every week instead of only every month.
You talk to your colleagues in other departments, and they agree
to provide the data every week. Although this does create more
work for them, they're happy to make the change as it means they
won't have to handle a large batch of queries from a stressed-out
Sara at month end.

By working backward like this, you'll develop a plan to take that
idea you've imagined and make it a reality. You probably won't get
lost along the way, because you started planning in the place
where you want to finish.
Make sure you write down your plan – it's very unlikely to become
real while it exists only in your imagination. Read Action Plans , Business Requirements Analysis , and The Straw Man Concept – these
have tips on which elements to include in your plan, and how to
make sure you don't forget anything.
And make sure you assess the RISKS of your idea. Work on ways to
reduce the likelihood that these risks will occur – or reduce
their effects if they do occur. This is especially important if
you depend on someone else for support to implement your plan.
Assess, and then explain, the risks. This will show that you're
realistic about your idea.
Step Four: Evaluate Your Proposal
Now that you have a plan in place, you'll need to check it again to make sure that it works as a plan, and that this plan is worth implementing. This may be obvious, however, if it's not, take a look at our Financial Forecasting and Project Evaluation Bite-Sized Training session – this will explain how to do this thoroughly.
Step Five: Ask for Feedback
Next, discuss your ideas with a few people whom you trust. Does the idea seem reasonable and possible to them? In particular, try it out with some of the people who you think will benefit. Their input will help to improve the idea.
Be careful here. Avoid negative people who like to discourage others. Feedback can be tremendously helpful, but don't let yourself be affected by people who don't have vision. Approach those whose opinions you trust, and stay away from the others.

Tip:
If you want to set up a business to exploit this idea, be particularly careful who you talk to. On one hand, talking to others will help you improve your idea. This can be very important, and can help you find allies and backers. On the other hand, you don't want to lose control of the idea. Trust is all-important here!

Step Six: Start Taking Action

This is when a lot of people give up. After all, thinking about an
idea and planning how to bring it about are easy and fun, and
involve little commitment beyond the time put in. The thought of
actually doing all of the steps you've carefully planned can be a
bit frightening, and hard work can be difficult and boring.

But this is your chance to achieve something great!

You've done everything right so far – you know who will be helped,
you know exactly what you need to do to get it done, and you've
received some feedback from your peers. So get going. An idea will
remain just that – an IDEA – unless you take action to turn it
into a reality.

In most cases, you'll need the support of others – either for
permission to implement your plan, or for help to actually make it
happen.
When you seek approval to go ahead with your idea, make sure that
your "sales pitch" focuses on benefits as well as features. A
feature is a fact – for example, "This new cellphone feature is a camera zoom lens offering 10 times magnification." A benefit is the result of the fact,
the "What's in it for me?" So, "This lens helps you take great impromptu photos of things that would look tiny on a normal phone camera." With that sentence, your
recommendation just became a lot more personal. Show people what
they have to gain – ideally in time or money, or both.
And when you try to persuade others to help you implement your
idea, focus your requests on your ALLIES, or "friends," to
increase the chances that they'll agree. Make sure the work you
ask people to do is within their capabilities, and be sure the
work reasonably fits into their schedules. Set yourself, and
others, periodic short-term goals and deadlines. This will keep
the project moving and help ensure that it's completed.

Tip:
If your idea involves setting up a new
business to develop and launch a new product or service,
you'll need a lot of help and training to get things going
properly. To get this, for example, contact a local
enterprise or development agency and see what help and
advice they can give, or buy books on starting and running
your own business.

Step Seven: Focus on the End Result

Will there be obstacles and unexpected delays when you finally
implement your plan? Almost certainly. Things usually happen that
we don't plan for, so it's important to be persistent. Keep your
end goal in mind. Obstacles don't necessarily mean complete stops
– they're just issues that you have to work through. You're
probably going to face a few, so expect them.

You can see the power of persistence when you look at one of the
world's greatest inventors. Famously, Thomas Edison had over 10,000 failures
before he successfully created the light bulb. Through it all, he
never lost his vision. If he had, he never would have made it
through so many unsuccessful attempts – and we would all be
sitting around in the dark.

So above all, don't give up!

Key Points
Many people have fantastic ideas. But because they fail to act on
them, the ideas are never put into practice. By creating a plan,
asking for feedback, and taking action, your great idea can become
a reality. But don't think it's going to be easy. Look closely at
the risks and potential barriers – and create solutions to
overcome them. The more you prepare, the higher chance you'll have
for success.

Read more…

"We need to think differently!"
"This needs some fresh ideas!"
"We have got to be more creative around here!"
Are messages like these popping up more and more in your workplace?
Faced with complex, open-ended, ever-changing challenges, organizations realize that constant, ongoing innovation is critical to stay ahead of the competition.
This is why we need to be on the lookout for new ideas that can drive innovation, and it's why the ability to think differently, generate new ideas, and spark creativity within a team becomes an important skill. You need to work actively on building and cultivating this skill, and it can be done!
Often, though, we make the mistake of assuming that good ideas just happen. Or worse still, we get caught in the mind trap that creativity is an aptitude; some people have it, others don't. Then there is the other self-defeating belief – "I am not intelligent enough to come up with good ideas."
These assumptions are rarely true. Everyone can come up with fresh, radical ideas – you just need to learn to open your mind and think differently. This article shows you how to do so.
How to Generate New Ideas
Standard idea-generation techniques concentrate on combining or adapting existing ideas. This can certainly generate results. But here, our focus is on equipping you with tools that help you leap onto a totally different plane. These approaches push your mind to forge new connections, think differently and consider new perspectives.
A word of caution – while these techniques are extremely effective, they will only succeed if they are backed by rich knowledge of the area you're working on. This means that if you are not prepared with adequate information about the issue, you are unlikely to come up with a great idea even by using the techniques listed here.
Incidentally, these techniques can be applied to spark creativity in group settings and brainstorming sessions as well.
Breaking Thought Patterns
All of us can tend to get stuck in certain thinking patterns. Breaking these thought patterns can help you get your mind unstuck and generate new ideas. There are several techniques you can use to break established thought patterns:


Challenge assumptions: For every situation, you have a set of key assumptions. Challenging these assumptions gives you a whole new spin on possibilities.
You want to buy a house but can't since you assume you don't have the money to make a down payment on the loan. Challenge the assumption. Sure, you don't have cash in the bank but couldn't you sell some of your other assets to raise the money? Could you dip into your retirement fund? Could you work overtime and build up the kitty in six months? Suddenly the picture starts looking brighter.


Reword the problem: Stating the problem differently often leads to different ideas. To reword the problem look at the issue from different angles. "Why do we need to solve the problem?", "What's the roadblock here?", "What will happen if we don't solve the problem?" These questions will give you new insights. You might come up with new ideas to solve your new problem.
In the mid 1950s, shipping companies were losing money on freighters. They decided they needed to focus on building faster and more efficient ships. However, the problem persisted. Then one consultant defined the problem differently. He said the problem the industry should consider was "how can we reduce cost?" The new problem statement generated new ideas. All aspects of shipping, including storage of cargo and loading time, were considered. The outcome of this shift in focus resulted in the container ship and the roll-on/roll-off freighter.

Think in reverse : If you feel you cannot think of anything new, try turning things upside-down. Instead of focusing on how you could solve a problem/improve operations/enhance a product, consider how could you create the problem/worsen operations/downgrade the product. The reverse ideas will come flowing in. Consider these ideas – once you've reversed them again – as possible solutions for the original challenge.
Express yourself through different media: We have multiple intelligences but somehow, when faced with workplace challenges we just tend to use our verbal reasoning ability. How about expressing the challenge through different media? Clay, music, word association games, paint, there are several ways you can express the challenge. Don't bother about solving the challenge at this point. Just express it. Different expression might spark off different thought patterns. And these new thought patterns may yield new ideas.

Connect the Unconnected
Some of the best ideas seem to occur just by chance. You see something or you hear someone, often totally unconnected to the
situation you are trying to resolve, and the penny drops in place. Newton and the apple, Archimedes in the bath tub; examples abound.

Why does this happen? The random element provides a new stimulus and gets our brain cells ticking. You can capitalize on this
knowledge by consciously trying to connect the unconnected.
Actively seek stimuli from unexpected places and then see if you can use these stimuli to build a connection with your situation. Some techniques you could use are:

Use random input : Choose a word from the dictionary and look for novel connections between the word and your problem.
Mind map possible ideas: Put a key word or phrase in the middle of the page. Write whatever else comes in your mind on the same page. See if you can make any connections.
Pick up a picture. Consider how you can relate it to your situation.
Take an item. Ask yourself questions such as "How could this item help in addressing the challenge?", or "What attributes of this item could help us solve our challenge?"

Shift Perspective
Over the years we all build a certain type of perspective and this perspective yields a certain type of idea. If you want different ideas, you will have to shift your perspective. To do so:

Get someone else's perspective: Ask different people what they would do if faced with your challenge. You could approach friends engaged in different kind of work, your spouse, a nine-year old child, customers, suppliers, senior citizens, someone from a different culture; in essence anyone who might see things differently.

Play the "If I were" game: Ask yourself "If I were ..." how would I address this challenge? You could be anyone: a millionaire, Tiger Woods, anyone.
The idea is the person you decide to be has certain identifiable traits. And you have to use these traits to address the challenge. For instance, if you decide to play the millionaire, you might want to bring traits such as flamboyance, big thinking and risk-taking when formulating an idea. If you are Tiger Woods you would focus on things such as perfection, persistence and execution detail.


Employ Enablers
Enablers are activities and actions that assist with, rather than directly provoke, idea generation. They create a positive atmosphere. Some of the enablers that can help you get your creative juices flowing are:

Belief in yourself: Believe that you are creative, believe that ideas will come to you; positive reinforcement helps you perform better.
Creative loafing time: Nap, go for a walk, listen to music, play with your child, take a break from formal idea-generating. Your mind needs the rest, and will often come up with connections precisely when it isn't trying to make them.
Change of environment: Sometimes changing the setting changes your thought process. Go to a nearby coffee shop instead of the conference room in your office, or hold your discussion while walking together round a local park.
Shutting out distractions: Keep your thinking space both literally and mentally clutter-free. Shut off the Blackberry, close the door, divert your phone calls and then think.
Fun and humor: These are essential ingredients, especially in team settings.


Key Points
The ability to generate new ideas is an essential work skill today. You can acquire this skill by consciously practicing techniques that force your mind to forge new connections, break old thought patterns and consider new perspectives.
Along with practicing these techniques, you need to adopt enabling strategies too. These enabling strategies help in creating a positive atmosphere that boosts creativity.

Read more…

Innovation is the process of making something
new and of value.
When we think of business innovation, two things
typically come to mind:

Research and development departments
bringing new products and services to consumers.
New systems
and processes stemming from business process reengineering.

Innovation doesn't have to be as complex as this. Innovation is
something that every one of us, at every level of an organization,
can participate in.
Innovation on a grand scale is what can allow
companies to excel. Look at some of the most influential businesses:
Apple, Microsoft, and 3M. How many people want an MP3 player other
than an iPod™? How many computer operating systems have
most people used, apart from Windows™? What do you call
those little pieces of colored paper that have sticky edges?
These companies are all examples of business
innovation at its finest. They've made it a strategic priority
to be groundbreaking and creative. At some level, though, all
organizations need to be innovative, and to evolve their processes
and products continuously.
Businesses that don't change risk being left
behind. To avoid that risk, put the power of innovation to work.
This could mean developing the next supertrend, or simply ensuring
that you're doing the best with what you have.
The benefits of successful innovation can include:

Increased competitiveness by gaining market share and increasing the value of your product or service in the marketplace.
Greater customer loyalty through building trust and developing a reputation as a preferred supplier.
Smoother operations through making better decisions, better monitoring of business processes, and progressive improvement of the way your business runs.
More effective employees through involving them with strategic decisions and empowering them to make a difference in your organization.

Inspiring Innovation
Deciding that you want to be innovative is easy. Figuring out HOW to innovate is another matter altogether.
A major barrier to innovative practice can be thinking that innovation needs to be "top down." The first thing you should understand is that the person working in your accounts receivable
department may be just as likely to come up with an innovative idea as the executive in charge of communications.

That's why innovation often starts and ends with corporate culture, and with the systems you put into place. From building a culture of innovation and creativity to focusing on what your customers need and want, it all starts with the right environment, support, and systems for your people.
Encouraging Innovation
Managing innovation is ultimately about generating, analyzing, and managing ideas – so you need a disciplined approach to doing this. Here are some effective practices you can use to
manage and maintain a steady flow of innovative ideas:

Create an employee suggestion system – Many companies use an employee "suggestion box" (even if this is, in reality, a database on the Intranet). This
can work very well and be adapted for a variety of situations.
Whatever method you use, it's important to follow through with
the suggestions received. Don't create a "black hole,"
where suggestions enter and are never seen or heard from again.
Best practices for suggestion programs include the following:

Creating a formal method for submitting ideas.
Making your system transparent. Clearly describe what happens to suggestions that are received.
Committing to following the system for each and every suggestion.
Providing structure for the ideas you seek. Link your requests to a specific strategic goal, and you'll likely get more relevant and practical ideas.


Make sure each suggestion receives a quick response. Even ideas that may appear silly or irrelevant deserve consideration and feedback. If the suggestion is made anonymously (you can decide whether or not to allow staff to submit ideas without giving their names), find a way to acknowledge it. To continue receiving suggestions, it helps to show that they're actually read and processed.


Use rewards and incentives – When
idea management systems are implemented, they often receive
lots of ideas at the start, but this can slowly decrease to
almost nothing after a while. To encourage continuous idea generation,
use monetary incentives, or use some other form of recognition
or acknowledgment. Ensure that the person making the suggestion
continues to play a role in the design and implementation of
the idea – this can motivate as well.
Implement creativity training – This
is becoming quite popular. Many people believe that they aren't
creative, or that they're somehow incapable of coming up with
innovative ideas. This usually isn't true. Almost everyone can
learn to be more creative, but they have to be open to creativity,
and then be given some specific strategies to look at a situation
with new eyes. Mind Tools has a Bite-Sized
Training session on creativity that includes some great
exercises for developing your own creativity.
Form problem solving teams – Make
a team responsible for assessing a specific issue, generating
a solution, and implementing a plan. Teach your staff that improvement
and change are good things. Give people an opportunity to narrow
down their ideas to one specific issue – this can help them
practice problem solving techniques that they can then use in
their day-to-day work responsibilities.
Design flexible jobs – Allow people
to share jobs and cross-train. This may help people understand
what makes your company successful, because they'll have a better
overview of the systems and processes you have in place. When
people see organizational functions from a variety of perspectives,
it's much easier for them to come up with innovative solutions.
Increase "why" training – The better people know why they're doing something, the more
likely they are to see ways to improve it. People can repeat
tasks, over and over again, until they do those tasks perfectly.
But once learned, they may never do the tasks any differently.
Take the time to help all staff understand how their work affects
the organization's success, and you may help them discover ways
to be more effective.
Establish self-managed work teams – Give staff some responsibility and control – this may provide
the incentive they need to make a project successful. The information
that's often shared within this type of team can bring a much
greater understanding of the issue at hand, which can cause
team members to look for new ways to do things. Such teams can
also provide lots of opportunity for leadership, which can motivate
people to think differently.

Bring managers and team
members together on a team. This can be a really effective
way to emphasize how the team's purpose is linked to organizational
strategy. It helps fill in the "why" aspect for
everyone involved, and it improves the chances of generating
innovative ideas. Non-management team members may also benefit
from knowing their ideas are heard directly, and they can
experience firsthand how ideas are developed and evaluated.



Key Points
Innovation is usually a function of how well you bring together
and manage ideas. It's not something that just happens in R&D or
in production-related departments – it can happen everywhere.
Develop human resources systems that support innovation, and you
can capture and control the creativity and innovation that's
present in everyone.

Read more…

Projects of all kinds frequently reach a point
where as much analysis as possible has been carried out, but the
way forward is still unclear. Progress seems blocked, and if the
project team is to move forward, it must develop creative
solutions to the problems it faces.
You'll already know about techniques such as brainstorming , which can help with this sort of situation. However, this type of approach, which depends on intuition and the knowledge of the members of the team, tends to have unpredictable and unrepeatable results. What's more, a huge range of possible solutions can be missed, simply because they're outside the experience of the project team.
TRIZ is a problem solving methodology based on logic, data and research, not intuition. It draws on the past knowledge and ingenuity of many thousands of engineers to accelerate the project team's ability to solve problems creatively. As such, TRIZ brings repeatability, predictability, and reliability to the problem-solving process with its structured and algorithmic approach.
About TRIZ
"TRIZ" is the (Russian) acronym for the
"Theory of Inventive Problem Solving." G.S. Altshuller and his
colleagues in the former USSR developed the method between 1946
and 1985. TRIZ is an international science of creativity that
relies on the study of the patterns of problems and solutions, not
on the spontaneous and intuitive creativity of individuals or
groups. More than three million patents have been analyzed to
discover the patterns that predict breakthrough solutions to
problems, and these have been codified within TRIZ.
TRIZ is spreading into corporate use across several parallel paths
– it is increasingly common in Six Sigma processes, in project
management and risk management systems, and in organizational
innovation initiatives.
Generalized Solutions
TRIZ research began with the hypothesis that there are universal
principles of creativity that are the basis for creative
innovations, and that advance technology. The idea was that if
these principles could be identified and codified, they could be
taught to people to make the process of creativity more
predictable. The short version of this is:
Somebody someplace has already solved this problem (or one very similar to it.) Today, creativity involves finding that solution and adapting it to this particular problem.

The three primary findings of the last 65 years of research are as follows:

Problems and solutions are repeated across industries and sciences. By classifying the "contradictions" (see later) in each problem, you can predict good creative solutions to that problem.
Patterns of technical evolution tend to be repeated across industries and sciences.
Creative innovations often use scientific effects outside the field where they were developed.

Much of the practice of TRIZ consists of learning these repeating
patterns of problems-solutions, patterns of technical evolution
and methods of using scientific effects, and then applying the
general TRIZ patterns to the specific situation that confronts the
developer. Figure 1, below, describes this process graphically.



Here, you take the specific problem you face, and generalize it to
one of the TRIZ general problems. From the TRIZ general problems,
you identify the TRIZ solutions to those general problems, and
then see how these can be applied to the specific problem you
face.
Example
A powerful demonstration of this method was seen in the
pharmaceutical industry. Following the flow of Figure 1, the
specific problem was as follows: an important process needed cell
walls to be broken down in bacteria cells so that hormones inside
the cells could be harvested. A mechanical method for breaking the
cell walls had been in use at a moderate scale for some time, but
the yield was only 80%, and was variable. Higher yields and a
scaleable solution were needed.

The TRIZ general problem at the highest level is to find a way to
produce the product with no waste, at 100% yield, with no added
complexity. One of the patterns of evolution of technology that
TRIZ identifies is that energy (fields) replaces objects
(mechanical devices). For example, consider using a laser instead
of a scalpel for eye surgery. In this case, ultrasound could be
used to break the cell walls, or an enzyme could be used to "eat"
it (chemical energy). This may seem very general, but it led the
pharmaceutical researchers to analyze all the resources available
in the problem (the cells, the cell walls, the fluid they are in,
the motion of the fluid, the processing facility, etc.) and to
conclude that three possible solutions had a good potential for
solving their problem:

The cell walls could be broken by sound waves (from the pattern of evolution of replacing mechanical means by fields).
The cell walls could be broken by shearing, as they pass through the processing facility (using the resources of the existing system in a different way).
An enzyme in the fluid could "eat" the cell walls and release the contents at the desired time.

All three methods have been tested successfully. The least expensive, highest yield method was soon put in production.
Eliminating contradictions
Another of the fundamental concepts behind TRIZ is that at the
root of many problems is a fundamental contradiction that causes
it (we'll give examples below.) In many cases, a reliable way of
solving a problem is to eliminate these contradictions. TRIZ
recognizes two categories of contradictions:

Technical contradictions are classical engineering "trade-offs." The desired state can't be reached because something else in the system prevents it. In other words, when something gets better, something else automatically gets worse. Classical examples include:

The product gets stronger (good), but the weight increases (bad).
Service is customized to each customer (good), but the service delivery system gets complicated (bad).
Training is comprehensive (good), but keeps employees away from their assignments (bad).


Physical contradictions , also called "inherent" contradictions, are situations in which an object or system suffers contradictory, opposite requirements. Everyday examples abound:

Software should be complex (to have many features), but should be simple (to be easy to learn).
Coffee should be hot for enjoyable drinking, but cold to prevent burning the customer.
Training should take a long time (to be thorough), but not take any time.



Example
Dairy farm operators could no longer dry cow manure for use as fertilizer due to an increased cost of energy. They were faced with a technical contradiction between dry manure (good) and cost (bad). TRIZ led the operators to a drying method used for the concentration of fruit juice, which required no heat.
Some of the TRIZ Tools
The "General TRIZ Solutions" referred to in Figure 1 have been developed over the course of the 65 years of TRIZ research, and have been organized in many different ways. Some of these are analytic methods such as:

The Ideal Final Result and Ideality.
Functional Modeling, Analysis and Trimming.
Locating the Zones of Conflict. (This is more familiar to Six Sigma problem solvers as "Root Cause Analysis.")

Some are more prescriptive such as:

The 40 Inventive Principles of Problem Solving.
The Separation Principles.
Laws of Technical Evolution and Technology Forecasting.
76 Standard Solutions.

In the course of solving any one technical problem, one tool or many can be used.
One of these tools, "The 40 Principles of Problem Solving" is the most accessible "tool" of TRIZ.
The 40 Principles of Problem Solving
These 40 Principles are the ones that were found to repeat across many fields, as solutions to many general contradictions, which are at the heart of many problems. A list of all 40 Principles of
Problem Solving can be found at http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/1997/07/b/index.html .
Here are just a few of the Principles and examples of how they could have been used to create products that were once new and innovative:



Principle
Solution




Segmentation (Divide an object into independent parts)
Individually wrapped cheese slices


Local quality (Provide different packaging for different uses)
"Adult" editions of Harry Potter books


Universality (make an object perform multiple functions)
Chocolate spread sold in glasses (with a lid) that can be used for drinking afterwards


Nested Doll
Store within store (coffee shops in bookstores)


Another dimension (Tilt or re-orient object)
Squeezable ketchup bottles that sit on their lids



Using TRIZ
The best way to learn and explore TRIZ is to
identify a problem that you haven't solved satisfactorily and try
it. Use the List of the 40 Principles of Problem Solving and the
Contradiction Matrix tool that can be found at www.triz-journal.com to help you through the process.

Material for this article has been provided by a team of experts
from the TRIZ Journal: Katie Barry , Editor, Ellen Domb , PhD, Managing Editor, and Michael S Slocum , PhD, Managing Editor.

Read more…

DO IT is a process for creativity.
Techniques outlined earlier in this chapter focus on specific
aspects of creative thinking. DO IT bundles them together, and
introduces formal methods of problem definition and evaluation.
These help you to get the best out of the creativity techniques.
DO IT is an acronym that stands for:
D – Define problem.
O – Open mind and apply creative techniques.
I – Identify best solution.
T – Transform.
These stages are explained in more detail below:
1. Define Problem
This section concentrates on analyzing the problem to ensure that the correct question is being asked. The following steps will help you to do this:

Check that you are tackling the problem, not the symptoms of the problem. To do this, ask yourself why the problem exists repeatedly until you get to the root of it.
Lay out the bounds of the problem. Work out the objectives that you must achieve and the constraints that you are operating under.
Where a problem appears to be very large, break it down into smaller parts. Keep on going until each part is achievable in its own right, or needs a precisely defined area of research to be carried out. See
Drill Down for a detailed description of this process.
Summarize the problem in as concise a form as possible. Robert W Olsen suggests that the best way to do this is to write down several of two-word problem statements and choose the best one.

2. Open Mind and Apply Creative Techniques
Once you know the problem that you want to solve, you are ready to
start generating possible solutions. It is very tempting just to
accept the first good idea that you come across. If you do this, you
will miss many even better solutions.

At this stage of DO IT we are not interested in evaluating ideas.
Instead, we are trying to generate as many different ideas as
possible. Even bad ideas may be the seeds of good ones.
You can use the whole battery of creativity techniques covered
earlier in this section to search for possible solutions. Each tool
has its particular strengths and benefits, depending on the problems
that you want to solve. While you are generating solutions, remember
that other people will have different perspectives on the problem,
and it will almost certainly be worth asking for the opinions of
your colleagues as part of this process.
3. Identify the Best Solution
Only at this stage do you select the best of the ideas you have
generated. It may be that the best idea is obvious. Alternatively,
it may be worth examining and developing a number of ideas in detail
before you select one.
The Decision Making Techniques section of Mind Tools explains a
range of excellent decision making techniques. Decision Tree Analysis and Force Field Analysis are particularly useful. These
will help you to choose between the solutions available to you.
When you are selecting a solution, keep in mind your own or your organization's goals . Often Decision Making becomes easy once you know these.
4. Transform
Having identified the problem and created a solution to it, the
final stage is to implement this solution. This involves not only
development of a reliable product from your idea, but all the
marketing and business side as well. This may take a great deal of
time and energy.
Many very creative people fail at this stage. They will have fun
creating new products and services that may be years ahead of what
is available on the market. They will then fail to develop them, and
watch someone else make a fortune out of the idea several years
later.
The first stage in transforming an idea is to develop an Action Plan for the transformation. This may lead to creation of a Business or Marketing Plan. Once you have done this, the work of implementation begins!
DO IT was devised by Robert W Olsen in his book 'The Art of Creative Thinking'.

Key Points
DO IT is a structured process for creativity. Using DO IT ensures that you carry out the essential groundwork that helps you to get the most out of creativity tools.
These steps are:

Problem Definition: During this stage you apply a number of techniques to ensure that you are asking the right question.
Open Mind: Here you apply creativity techniques to generate as many answers as possible to the question you are asking. At this stage you are not evaluating the answers.
Identify the best solution: Only at this stage do you select the best solutions from the ones you came up with in step 2. Where you are having difficulty in selecting ideas, use formal techniques to help.
Transform: The final stage is to make an Action Plan for the implementation of the solution, and to carry it out. Without implementation, your creativity is sterile.

Read more…

When you're stuck on a problem, it often helps to look at it from another perspective. This can be all that you need to do to come up with a great solution.
However, it is sometimes difficult to think about what these perspectives might be.
This is when a tool like the Reframing Matrix is useful. In this article, we'll look at how you can use it to look at problems from different perspectives.
About the Matrix
The Reframing Matrix tool was created by Michael Morgan, and published in his 1993 book, " Creating Workforce Innovation ." It helps you to look at business problems from various perspectives. Using these, you can come up with more creative solutions.
The approach relies on the fact that different people with different experiences are likely to approach problems in different ways. The technique helps you put yourself into the minds of different people, imagine the way that they would face these problems, and explore the possible solutions that they might suggest.
How to Use the Tool
The Reframing Matrix is very easy to use. All you'll need is a pen and paper to get started.
Step 1: Draw the Grid
Start by drawing a simple four-square grid, like the one pictured in figure 1 below.
Leave a space in the middle of the grid to define your problem, and then write the problem that you want to explore in this space.
Figure 1 – Reframing Matrix Step 1




Tip:
The boxes around the grid are there for your different perspectives. If this four-box approach doesn't suit you, feel free to change it.

Step 2: Decide on Perspectives
Now, decide on four different perspectives to use in your matrix. Two useful approaches for doing this are the 4Ps Approach and the Professions Approach.
The 4Ps Approach (not to be confused with the 4Ps of marketing ) helps you look at problems from the following perspectives:

Product perspective: Is there something wrong with the product or service? Is it priced correctly? How well does it serve the market? Is it reliable?
Planning perspective: Are our business plans, marketing plans, or strategy at fault? Could we improve these?
Potential perspective: How would we increase sales? If we were to seriously increase our targets or our production volumes, what would happen with this problem?
People perspective: What are the people impacts and people implications of the problem? What do people involved with the problem think? Why are customers not using or buying the product?

(These are just some of the questions that you can ask as you look at your problem using these four perspectives.)
The Professions Approach helps you look at the problem from the viewpoints of different specialists, or stakeholders . For instance, the way a doctor looks at a problem would be different from the approach that a civil engineer or a lawyer would use. Or the way a CEO sees a problem may be different from the way an HR manager would see it.

This approach can be especially useful when you're trying to solve a problem that involves many different types of people, or if you need step away from your usual way of thinking so that you can be more creative.
Step 3: Brainstorm Factors
Finally, brainstorm factors related to your problem from each perspective, and add these in to the appropriate quadrant of the matrix.
Once you've completed the matrix, you'll have a better understanding of your problem, and you'll be able to generate more solutions.

Tip 1:

The
Perceptual Positions

technique can be useful when you want to see things from other people's viewpoints.
Tip 2:

See our article on
CATWOE

for a similar approach. This asks you to look at a problem from the perspectives of Customers, Actors, the Transformation process, the World view, the Owner, and Environmental constraints.

Example Reframing Matrix
In the example in figure 2, below, a manager has used the 4Ps approach to explore why a new product is not selling well.
Figure 2 – Example Reframing Matrix





Key Points
The Reframing Matrix tool was originally created by Michael Morgan, and published in his book "Creating Workforce Innovation." It helps you to look at a problem from different perspectives.
You use the tool by drawing a simple four-square grid and putting your problem or issue in the middle of the grid.
You then choose four different perspectives that you will use to look at your problem, and brainstorm factors related to your problem, starting with each of those perspectives.

Read more…

Attribute Listing, Morphological Analysis and Matrix Analysis are good techniques for finding new combinations of products or services. They are sufficiently similar to be discussed together. We use Attribute Listing and Morphological Analysis to generate new products and services.
How to Use the Tools
To use the techniques, first list the attributes of the product, service or strategy you are examining. Attributes are parts, properties, qualities or design elements of the thing being looked at. For example, attributes of a pencil would be shaft material, lead material, hardness of lead, width of lead, quality, color, weight, price, and so on. A television plot would have attributes such as characters, actions, locations, and weather. For a marketing strategy you might use attributes of markets open to you, uses of the product, and skills you have available.
Draw up a table using these attributes as column headings. Write down as many variations of the attribute as possible within these columns. This might be an exercise that benefits from brainstorming .
The table should now show all possible variations of each attribute.
Now select one entry from each column. Either do this randomly or select interesting combinations. By mixing one item from each
column, you will create a new mixture of components. This is a new product, service or strategy.
Finally, evaluate and improve that mixture to see if you can imagine a profitable market for it.
Example
Imagine that you want to create a new lamp. The starting point for this might be to carry out a morphological analysis. Properties of a lamp might be power supply, bulb type, size, style, finish, material, shade, and so on.

You can set these out as column headings on a table, and then brainstorm variations. This table is sometimes known as a "Morphologial Box" or "Zwicky Box" after the scientist Fritz Zwicky, who developed the technique in the 1960s.



Power Supply
Bulb Type
Size
Style
Finish
Material




Battery
Halogen
Very Large
Modern
Black
Metal


Mains
Bulb
Large
Antique
White
Ceramic


Solar
Daylight
Medium
Roman
Metallic
Concrete


Generator
Colored
Small
Art Nouveau
Terracotta
Bone


Crank
 
Hand held
Industrial
Enamel
Glass


Gas
 
 
Ethnic
Natural
Wood


Oil/Petrol
 
 
 
Fabric
Stone


Flame
 
 
 
 
Plastic



Interesting combinations might be:

Solar powered/battery, daylight bulb – possibly used in clothes shops to allow customers to see the true color of clothes.
Large hand cranked arc lights – used in developing countries, or far from a mains power supply.
A ceramic oil lamp in Roman style – used in themed restaurants, resurrecting the olive oil lamps of 2000 years ago.
A normal table lamp designed to be painted, wallpapered or covered in fabric so that it matches the style of a room perfectly.

Some of these might be practical, novel ideas for the lighting manufacturer. Some might not. This is where the manufacturer's
experience and market knowledge are important.

Key Points
Morphological Analysis, Matrix Analysis and Attribute Listing are useful techniques for making new combinations of products, services and strategies.
You use the tools by identifying the attributes of the product, service or strategy you are examining. Attributes might be components, assemblies, dimensions, color, weight, style, speed of service, skills available, and so on.
Use these attributes as column headings. Underneath the column headings list as many variations of that attribute as you can.
You can now use the table or "morphological box", by randomly selecting one item from each column, or by selecting interesting combinations of items. This will give you ideas that you can examine for practicality.
Notes:

Attribute Listing focuses on the attributes of an object, seeing how each attribute could be improved.
Morphological Analysis uses the same basic technique, but is used to create a new product by mixing components in a new way.
Matrix Analysis focuses on businesses. It is used to generate new approaches, using attributes such as market sectors, customer needs, products, promotional methods, and so on.

Read more…

It can often be difficult to come up with new ideas when you're trying to develop or improve a product or service.
This is where creative brainstorming techniques like SCAMPER can help. This tool helps you generate ideas for new products and services by encouraging you to think about how you could improve existing ones.
We'll look at SCAMPER in this article.
About the Tool
SCAMPER is a mnemonic that stands for:

Substitute.
Combine.
Adapt.
Modify.
Put to another use.
Eliminate.
Reverse.

You use the tool by asking questions about existing products, using each of the seven prompts above. These questions help you come up with creative ideas for developing new products, and for improving current ones.
Alex Osborn, credited by many as the originator of brainstorming, originally came up with many of the questions used in the SCAMPER technique. However, it was Bob Eberle, an education administrator and author, who organized these questions into the SCAMPER mnemonic.

Note:
Remember that the word "products" doesn't only refer to physical goods. Products can also include processes, services, and even people. You can therefore adapt this technique to a wide range of situations.

How to Use the Tool
SCAMPER is really easy to use.
First, take an existing product or service. This could be one that you want to improve, one that you're currently having problems with, or one that you think could be a good starting point for future development.
Then, ask questions about the product you identified, using the SCAMPER mnemonic to guide you. Brainstorm as many questions and answers as you can. (We've included some example questions, below.)

Finally, look at the answers that you came up with. Do any stand out as viable solutions? Could you use any of them to create a new product, or develop an existing one? If any of your ideas seem viable, then you can explore them further.
Example Questions
Let's look at some of the questions you could ask for each letter of the SCAMPER mnemonic:
Substitute

What materials or resources can you substitute or swap to improve the product?
What other product or process could you use?
What rules could you substitute?
Can you use this product somewhere else, or as a substitute for something else?
What will happen if you change your feelings or attitude toward this product?

Combine

What would happen if you combined this product with another, to create something new?
What if you combined purposes or objectives?
What could you combine to maximize the uses of this product?
How could you combine talent and resources to create a new approach to this product?

Adapt

How could you adapt or readjust this product to serve another purpose or use?
What else is the product like?
Who or what could you emulate to adapt this product?
What else is like your product?
What other context could you put your product into?
What other products or ideas could you use for inspiration?

Modify

How could you change the shape, look, or feel of your product?
What could you add to modify this product?
What could you emphasize or highlight to create more value?
What element of this product could you strengthen to create something new?

Put to Another Use

Can you use this product somewhere else, perhaps in another industry?
Who else could use this product?
How would this product behave differently in another setting?
Could you recycle the waste from this product to make something new?

Eliminate

How could you streamline or simplify this product?
What features, parts, or rules could you eliminate?
What could you understate or tone down?
How could you make it smaller, faster, lighter, or more fun?
What would happen if you took away part of this product? What would you have in its place?

Reverse

What would happen if you reversed this process or sequenced things differently?
What if you try to do the exact opposite of what you're trying to do now?
What components could you substitute to change the order of this product?
What roles could you reverse or swap?
How could you reorganize this product?


Tip 1:
Some ideas that you generate using the tool may be impractical or may not suit your circumstances. Don't worry about this – the aim is to generate as many ideas as you can.
Tip 2:

To get the greatest benefit, use SCAMPER alongside other creative brainstorming and lateral thinking techniques such as Random Input , Provocation , Reversal , and Metaphorical Thinking .


Key Points
SCAMPER helps you develop new products and services. Many of the questions used in SCAMPER were created by Alec Osborn, but Bob Eberle developed the mnemonic.
SCAMPER stands for:

Substitute.
Combine.
Adapt.
Modify.
Put to another use.
Eliminate.
Reverse.

To use SCAMPER, you simply go down the list and ask questions regarding each element. Remember, not every idea you generate using SCAMPER will be viable; however, you can take good ideas and explore them further.

Read more…

Reversal is a good tool for improving a product or a service.
To use it, ask the opposite of the question you want to ask, and apply the results.
Example
Imagine that you want to improve the response of a service center. Using Reversal you would ask 'How would I reduce customer
satisfaction?'. After considering this question you might give the following answers:

Not answering the phone when customers call.
Not returning phone calls.
Have people with no product knowledge answering the phone.
Use rude staff.
Give the wrong advice.


After using Reversal, you would ensure that appropriate staff members were handling incoming phone calls efficiently and
pleasantly. You would set up training programs to ensure that they were giving accurate and effective advice.

Key Points
Reversal is a good, easy process for improving products and services. You use it by asking the exact opposite of the question you want answered, and then apply the results appropriately.

Read more…

Martin has two days to come up with new product ideas before the next team meeting.
However, he's stuck.
No matter what he does, he keeps having the same, tired ideas.
The clock is ticking!
Have you ever been in a situation like this? Many of us need to come up with innovative ideas from time to time. However, it's easy to get stuck in the same thinking patterns, which can limit our creativity. This is why using a technique like provocation can be useful.
Provocation is a lateral thinking technique. It works by disrupting established patterns of thinking, and giving us new places to start.
A key way that we think is by recognizing patterns and reacting to them. These reactions come from our past experiences, and from logical extensions of those experiences; and it's often hard to think outside these patterns. While we may know a good answer as part of a different type of problem, the structure of our brains can make it difficult for us to access this.
Provocation is a tool that we can use to make links between these patterns. In this article, we'll review Provocation, and discuss how you can use it to come up with creative ideas and solutions to problems.
About the Tool
The Provocation technique was developed and popularized by psychologist Edward de Bono.
You use provocation by making deliberately wrong or unreasonable statements (provocations), in which something you take for granted about the situation isn't true.
For instance, the statements "Cars have square wheels" or "Houses have no roofs" can be provocations.
Statements need to be outrageous like this to shock your mind out of existing ways of thinking. Once you've made a provocative statement, you then suspend judgment and use that statement to generate ideas, giving you original starting points for brainstorming and creative thinking.
Understanding Provocation
Here's a useful way of thinking about the technique.
Imagine you take the same route to work every day. You're so used to it that you stop noticing the scenery, and you don't even have to think about which route to take to get to your office.
We can use this as an analogy for our normal approach to brainstorming, where we habitually follow the same track, or steps, when we brainstorm. This limits our creativity, because any forward movement is based on the step or idea we had before.
Now, imagine that you're leaving for work and, suddenly, you're magically transported to an entirely new location. You've never been to this place before, and nothing is familiar! If this happened, you'd have to start figuring out where you were, and how you were going to take a new route to work.
This is what provocation does, and it's why it can be so useful. Its purpose is to take you outside the routes that you normally think along, and put you in an entirely new place. Then, it's up to you to work back to where you want to be.
When you do this, you're addressing problems from a new perspective, and, hopefully, you'll generate new ideas.
Using the Technique
Provocation is quite straightforward to use, although it can be challenging when you first start.
All you do is make a shocking or outrageous statement about the problem you're trying to solve. Then, you begin to work back through several further steps.

Note:
The technique is most useful when your provocations are far-out. De Bono suggests that at least 40 percent of your provocations should be completely unusable. If you make "safe" statements, you won't get the full value of the technique.

Step 1: Create the Provocation
It can sometimes be difficult to come up with a provocation, simply because our brains are hard-wired to come up with sensible solutions.
One way to get started with provocations is the "escape method." Here, you make a statement that everyone takes for granted. This "take for granted" statement should be related to the problem you're trying to solve. Once you've created a take for granted statement, you can then come up with a provocative statement to counter it.

Example:
Due to severe budget cuts, you need to come up with ways to bring in more revenue to your department for things like staff gifts, holiday parties, and little extras for the office. So, your take for granted statement would be: "We take for granted the fact that the department needs to bring in more money."
The provocation to this assumption would be: "The department doesn't need to earn money".

Step 2: Create Movement/Ideas
Once you've made a provocation, you need to imagine what would come next. This is called the "moment-to-moment" technique. Essentially, you're going to imagine, on a moment-by-moment basis, what comes next.

Example:
Provocation: The department doesn't need to earn money.
Moment-by-Moment: Employees are coming to work, but not to make money. Because they're no longer trying to make a profit for the department, they decide to start working on creative pursuits during the day.
Because the employees feel so free to be creative, they begin to come up with all kinds of product ideas, artwork, and volunteer opportunities. They start to improve the department to make it a more pleasant and stimulating place. Morale and camaraderie improves since competition isn't an issue any longer, and the hierarchy of the department breaks down since there's no difference between entry-level workers and management.

Keep in mind that as you use the moment-by-moment technique, you don't have to follow one line of thinking. You'll get the greatest value from provocation if you try to come up with several alternative ideas, stemming from your initial provocation.

There are several other ways that you can create movement and ideas from your provocation. Examine:

The consequences of the statement.
What the benefits would be.
What special circumstances would make it a sensible solution.
The principles needed to support it and make it work.
How it would work, moment-to-moment.
What would happen if a sequence of events was changed.
The differences between the provocation and a sensible solution.

You can use this list as a checklist to help you brainstorm.
Step 3: Extract Value
Keep in mind that your goal is not to prove that your provocation is useful or justified. Your goal is to generate ideas that are separate from the provocation.
You extract value from the provocation by taking one of those ideas, and turning it into a viable solution to your problem.

Example:
Your initial problem was to come up with ideas that would add revenue to your department. And, you came up with a few possible solutions once you used the moment-by-moment technique.
You could give employees days off from their regular work to pursue some creative ideas within the department. They might come up with some innovative products or processes that would add revenue.
Another out-of-the-box solution might be to make full use of your team's creativity. For instance, you could encourage your team to create some art and donate to a team "art sale" for the rest of the company. The profits from each sale would go in a department fund used for holiday parties.

Provocation in Groups
Provocation is also a useful technique for encouraging team creativity .
When using the provocation technique with someone else, or with a group, de Bono suggests using the word "Po." This stands for "Provocative Operation." The term is also a partial root of other words such as "possible", "hypothesis", "suppose" and "poetry" which, according to de Bono, all indicate forward movement, which is the purpose of the provocation technique.
De Bono suggests that when we make a provocative statement in public we label it as such with "Po" (for instance, "Po: the earth is flat"). "Po" acts as a signal, alerting everyone that the statement is a provocation and not one to be seriously considered. However, this does rely on all members of your audience knowing about provocation!


Note:

As with other lateral thinking techniques, provocation doesn't always produce good or relevant ideas. However, sometimes it does, because it forces you to think in different and original ways. Ideas generated using provocation are often fresh, creative, and original.


Key Points
Provocation is a useful lateral thinking technique that can help you generate original starting points for creative thinking.
To use provocation, make a deliberately outrageous comment relating to the problem you're thinking about. Then suspend judgment, and use the statement as the starting point for generating ideas. You can then move forward using the moment-by-moment technique, imagining how it would play out in the real world.
Last, you extract value from picking the ideas that might be feasible, and by developing them further.

Read more…