How to Avoid Premature Evaluation

The creative process takes time. Innovation has its time. This means that we can't reject an idea because it doesn't work at that particular time, in that particular place or in that particular guise. Give it time to develop and for the environment to change around it and it will evolve.

Consider the classic case study any MBA student will be able to tell you about - 3M. This chemicals company spent millions of research dollars on trying to develop a new glue that was super strong but at the same time less messy and dangerous than the other "super glues" on the market at that time. However, no matter how many techno-geeks they threw at the problem, the glue they produced was either too messy or not sticky enough. After years of trying and a massive development budget had been poured down the drain, the company gave up on the project.

One scientist with an acute brain for business saw his opportunity and agreed to buy the rights to the last failed batch of glue and the machinery required to manufacture it. 3M pleased to recoup a minute portion of their otherwise wasted outlay were only too happy to oblige. However, our boffin had an inspirational idea of what to do with the glue. He simply pasted it on the back of small, brightly coloured bits of paper. These could then be written on and stuck to computer screens, notice boards, fridges, doors, notebooks - anywhere. The beauty was that because the glue was not sticky (not sticky enough for 3M's super glue remember) the notes could be removed and re posted somewhere else. The Post-It Note was born. As the telephone became a ubiquitous item on every desk in every office, and voicemail was practically unheard of, the Post-It Note became a necessity for the busy executive who didn't want to miss any calls but wasn't nailed to his or her desk.

In the end, 3M saw the potential in this new product and bought back the rights for millions of dollars. The glue, which was utterly useless at the wrong time and in the wrong application was a revelation waiting to happen and Post-It Note has become a part of everyday language.

In this example, 3M could be said to have been guilty of 'premature evaluation' - not giving a new innovation time to evolve and find its place in the world. During brainstorming sessions we do this all the time. Someone shouts out a great idea and everyone suddenly sees the solution to their problem. This then quickly gets adopted as the successful output of the meeting and everyone goes back to their desks happy. But stop right there... Research tells us that the best ideas, those that are most likely to be adopted and add value to a business, come in the last 25% of any brainstorming session. Generally, the most obvious ideas come out first. The least obvious one's struggle out later and it's these ones we're after as if a solution was so obvious, we probably wouldn't need a brainstorming session in the first place would we?

Creative Copying is another example of the timeliness of innovation. This is the process of taking someone else's idea and then manipulating it to suit a particular purpose or re-introducing it when the time is right. Think of Da Vinci's helicopter. It was never going to work - a great idea, but we just did not have the materials or manufacturing technology to realise his designs. I also remember Jeremy Clarkson on the BBC's Top Gear programme slating the new satellite navigation systems because, frankly, it didn't work. The annoying robotic voice of the very expensive system took him miles out of his way on what should have been a relatively simple journey. But look at the SatNav device now and another household name in TomTom. The idea was great, the technology and the market just wasn't ready for it at that time.

In summary, give innovation time to develop. Innovate for the future and remember "tomorrow will be forgotten by the middle of next week" and in any case "tomorrow never comes".

Curiosity and Six Honest Serving Men

In this post I want to go through one of my ideas on what makes an individual effective during brainstorming - what makes some people more creative than others…

One competence that any creative person should have is a vivid sense of curiosity. I think it was Emerson that once said “to the dull mind nature is leaden. To the illuminated mind the whole world sparkles with light”. I like this, it sums up how a curious person will feel compared to someone who walks around with the weight of the world on their shoulders, constantly looking at their feet and consequently missing out on a whole raft of opportunities and stimulants. If you walk around looking at your feet, sooner or later you’re going to bump into something and fall flat on your face… Sure, if you’re doing the opposite and always looking up at the sky, the rooflines of buildings, at the faces of passers-by, at some point you might trip over an unexpected crack in the pavement - but you’ll go down happy, illuminated and full of reasons why to get back up again…

So, to be curious we need to be receptive to the world around us. Soak up information, seek out new knowledge - have you ever come across a word you didn’t understand - did you look it up in the dictionary or encyclopaedia? Why not, with the advent of free online encyclopaedia like Wikipedia, there’s no excuse. Aim to learn at least one new thing every day.
The best learners are our kids. They also happen to be the most creative individuals on earth. Copy them - lock up the adult brain for a while and let out the child in you. Do your kids drive you crazy with the constant question of “why?” … Try using Serial Questions such as “Why did X happen? Because Y happened. And why did Y happen? Because Z happened. And Why did Z happen? Because… (etc…). At some point the damp squib will run out of excuses and reasons as to why not. Next time you come across something you‘re told is “just so“, ask yourself the 5 W’s and an H. Kipling put it better than I ever could so listen to what he says:

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I know)
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who
(Kipling, 1902)

You’ll annoy the hell out of the people your asking the questions of but remember what you tell your kids “if you don’t ask, you don’t get” and in this case it’s knowledge and inspiration we’re after…

Right. There’s lots more on my website about Curiosity and how to engender it into our everyday lives, but in the meantime I’m going to leave you with a quick win, something you can do right now to make yourself more curious and hence more effective in brainstorming…
Make room to give yourself 20 minutes of undisturbed time. Sit down in a quiet room, or better still your favourite location - at the beach, in the forest, in an empty football stadium wherever… Sit and listen. What can you hear? Now really focus on listening. Close your eyes so you shut down one of your other senses. Listen hard and carefully. After a period of time you’ll start to hear a multitude of noises you never heard in that place before. You can repeat this exercise using your other senses - really study your favourite painting, building, photograph or even your living room floor. What can you see that you couldn’t before. Try examining a peanut in its shell for 20 minutes. You’ll be amazed at how complex it’s structure and texture is. The idea here is that you’re training yourself to be receptive to your environment, to see and hear stimuli that you’d missed before. So, when the next great idea or inspiration comes along, you’ll see it before anyone else does…

Be curious.

How to run a Classic Brainstorming Session Better

Welcome to part two of my Better Brainstorming blog which looks in more detail at Osborn’s Classical approach to idea generation. Even the classical method can reap amazing rewards if applied effectively.

This blog is brought to you by Innovativo.

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In part one of the Better Brainstorming blog I talked about preparing the physical environment in which brainstorming is to take place. If we get this right, then even the classical brainstorming techniques can be very powerful.

Later in this part of the series I’ll be suggesting some alternative approaches to brainstorming, building on Osborn’s original ideas. For now though I’m going to stick to the basics and help you get more out of your classical brainstorming sessions.

First, follow my advice and arrange the meeting for a group of around 6 to 8 people, less or minus two. Nominate someone as the facilitator or take on the role yourself.

It is the facilitator’s responsibility to ensure everyone is aware of the rules of brainstorming (of which more later) and that these rules are adhered to. The facilitator can take part in the generation of ideas unless the group is large, in which case facilitating the session will be more or less a full time job.

Ideally you’ll have a scribe. The scribe’s role is key as he or she will need to write down everything that’s said, verbatim. This means writing down exactly what was said when a particular idea is put forward or shouted out. Don’t try to interpret what was said at this stage, that’s for the evaluation and analysis phases. If the scribe doesn’t understand (or didn’t hear properly) what was said, they should ask the idea generator for clarification – but don’t spend too long doing this or the creative flow will be interrupted. Instead, if the idea generator can’t quickly and succinctly clarify what their idea is, move on and come back to it.

This emphasises an important part of the idea generation process. It’s key that the creative flow isn’t interrupted by having to wait for ideas to be written down or, worse still, interruptions from buzzing Blackberry’s or mobile phones. If the process is delayed or interrupted even slightly, an idea that was evolving in someone’s head might be forgotten and never aired in the light of day. And what if that idea that was lost due to interruption was the killer idea that solved your business’ problem?

So the scribe must write everything down, verbatim without interrupting or delaying the session. Not easy, especially if the creative flow is at its peak and ideas are flying out at machine gun pace. In this case, the facilitator can help by becoming a second scribe, with each of the two scribes now taking it in turns to capture ideas in writing on their respective flip charts.

Getting back to the facilitator, another key role of theirs is to ensure that the group are fully aware and understand the problem that they’re trying to solve. I’ll come onto how we can better define (and refine) the problem statement in a later post in this series, but for now we can ensure the session is more focussed by writing the initial topic or problem statement on a flipchart, whiteboard or other system where everyone can see it throughout the brainstorming session.

The better defined and more clearly stated the problem, the better the session tends to be.

Check that everyone understands the problem statement before you start generating ideas. Businesses waste large amounts of time by expending creative energies on the wrong problems. Be sure that you know what problem you’re trying to solve and that it’s the right one before you start. For example – you might think the problem that needs solving is a lack of sales for your new super product X. But in reality, there’s nothing wrong with the product, the real problem is that your brand doesn’t have the right kudos in Product X’s market space. Be sure you know what the problem is before you solve it. Again, more on how to do this another time.

Next in the classical brainstorming session the facilitator needs to review the ground rules with the participants. These rules build on Osborn’s originals and are:

• Avoid criticising any of the ideas put forward and suspend all judgement until the evaluation stages. Remember that all ideas are as valid as each other and if anyone is criticised they may be put off from contributing further ideas.
• Quantity not quality is the aim of the game. The more ideas that are generated the more likely the solution to your problem is found. Research proves that the best ideas are generally generated between the 70th and 90th ideas to be contributed. So don’t stop the session too soon and encourage everyone to contribute any idea that comes into their heads. Encourage participants to put forward anything that comes into their heads. Quite often the most whacky off-the-wall ideas are the best, or at least are triggers for creative thought, which lead to the best ideas.
• Building on this rule, ensure the session is free-wheeling. Don't censor any ideas, and keep the meeting flow going. The more rapidly ideas are generated; the less likely individuals are going to filter them and only put forward the best, well thought out ideas – and neglect to mention the more whacky and creative ideas swimming around their right brain.
• Listen to other ideas, and try to piggy back on them to other ideas.
• Avoid any discussion of ideas or questions, as these stop the flow of ideas.

A good facilitator will enforce these rules in a humorous, light-hearted way throughout the session and this will ensure that the maximum volume of ideas are generated.

Talking of which, what’s the best way to actually generate ideas?

This can be achieved in either an unstructured way (where anyone can shout out an idea at any time, as they think of it) or by following a more structured approach (such as going round the table, allowing people to pass if they have no new ideas).

My recommended approach is to start with the structured approach, getting each person in turn to provide an initial idea. This way everyone becomes involved from the start and you’re less likely to get individuals shrinking into the background and no taking part. Only go around the table once or twice before opening up to a free-flow of ideas.

In the next episode I’ll provide you with some techniques that improve the classical approach by ensuring everyone is constantly involved and that keep the session dynamic and the creative flow moving.

Finally, when you’re all out of ideas clarify and conclude the session. Thank the participants for a fantastic idea generation session and ask them for feedback on how they thought it went.

Spend some time reviewing the best ideas that the scribe wrote down, and identify any that are identical or can be combined. All of the other ideas should be kept for further analysis, don’t try to rationalise them now. Don’t forget to inform the group what will happen next and that you’re going to evaluate their wonderful contribution and select the best ideas to be considered for implementation.

This concludes Part Two of my Better Brainstorming series. Just by adhering to some of the guidelines given above you will notice an improvement in the way your idea generation meetings are run. This will be evident in the sheer volume of ideas generated and the increased likelihood that one of those ideas may help make your business more successful.

If you have found the series so far tantalising and inspiring, please visit my website at http://www.innovativo.co.uk/. Not everyone is cut out to be an effective facilitator, and quite often you need to be totally immersed in generating ideas and not leading the session or scribing. If this is the case, or you need general help and advice on how to enhance innovation in your organisation, please contact Innovativo via the website and we’ll gladly assist.

Next time – An introduction to techniques for improving idea generation and keeping the creativity flowing.