the
innovative LEDGER
An e-Newsletter from The Innovative Edge™ Inc.
Vol.
5, No. 8, August 2005
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Creative
Power of the (Not So) Many - Part 2
By Jeff Govendo
In
the last issue of this newsletter, I wrote about the explosion of
highly collaborative sites on the Internet, such as Wikipedia, the
online encyclopedia in which readers can add new items or build on
existing entries, or InnoCentive, where independent “inventors”
can come up with ideas for new products and technologies. I observed
how difficult it might seem for leaders of modest-size businesses
– small to medium-sized manufacturers or retailers, for instance
– to match the creative potential of these giant, web-based enterprises
visited daily by millions of idea contributors.
I
also noted, however, that such leaders have one distinct advantage:
their employees know more about their business than anyone else.
The trick, then, is how to couple this deep knowledge and wisdom with
their innate creative powers, in order to come up with more –
and more innovative – ideas for addressing the real-life challenges
they face.
No,
you won’t come up with the sheer number of ideas of, say, a blog
visited by three or four million people per day, or web-based “think
tanks” like InnoCentive. But under the right conditions and with
proper encouragement, you can vastly improve the quality and quantity
of ideas offered by your own people against your business’s toughest
challenges.
Here,
then, are five guidelines you can follow as a business leader to raise
the “innovation quotient” in your organization:
1.
Make it safe to share creative ideas. Creative thinking is imprecise
thinking. It means taking guesses and speaking in the hypothetical.
Therefore, employees must feel safe in pushing the envelope, particularly
those who are lower in the corporate hierarchy. Immediate negative
responses to an idea will kill it, along with any desire to offer
another. It is important that those leading the group or sponsoring
the meeting convey openness to ideas that are untested or unfamiliar
to their ears.
2. Mix and match your thinkers. It is all too common to put
the same group of problem-solvers on every challenge, leaving untapped
the diversity of perspectives and experience found in the rest of
your workforce. Try putting new combinations of people together in
brainstorming meetings – including some with expertise in the
problem area, and others whose knowledge is more peripheral. Bring
in trusted customers for their perspectives. Creativity thrives
on diversity, and even small companies have that.
3. Use “irrelevant” stimuli to spark more ideas. We
humans, when allowed to relax our critical, judgmental functions,
are natural connection-makers. Some of our most creative ideas come
when they are least expected, when we have stopped focusing directly
on the problem and use other material to get “clues” for
solving the problem. Besides all that, it makes problem-solving more
fun!
4. Turn points of disagreement into new ideas. Inevitably there
are areas in which people will have opposing points of view. These
differences can do wonders for the mix of ideas the group produces
… unless the conflicts take center stage and become the focus
of discussion. When contributors feel compelled to defend their
ideas, productivity takes a dive. Remember that behind every disagreement
there is yet another idea, and that’s what you’re trying
to do: collect ideas. Points of contention, therefore, should be viewed
as opportunities to increase the group’s output.
5. Explore unusual ideas for their potential. When people are
asked to be creative, their ideas should be considered starting points
– the raw material for potential, innovative working concepts
– rather than finished products. The more imaginative the idea,
the more it will require further exploration and development. At
least as much time should be devoted to fleshing out some of the more
intriguing ideas as on the initial idea generation itself.
You
don’t have to look into cyberspace to find your innovators. “Corporate
genius” resides right down the hallway, on the factory floor,
in the shipping room – wherever dedicated employees can be found.
Get them thinking together under the right conditions, and there’s
no end to the creative ideas they’ll come up with!
And
you won’t even have to turn on the computer.
