Contributed By Darin J. Eich, Ph.D.

We hear from many organizations that they desire a positive culture of innovation within their organizations that relies on the collaboration, contribution, and shared leadership of all employees. At BrainReactions, we have created a program to achieve positive outcomes in this area. During the final three years I worked on my doctoral dissertation studying high quality leadership programs, I was also creating and testing an innovation program for BrainReactions. This was a leadership program designed to help participants learn and engage in ideation and innovation for real purposes.

Like many companies, we highly value creating and sustaining a positive culture of innovation in our organization. Achieving this requires an intentional approach to develop the people of your company as exemplary creators, innovators, and leaders. Our vision with our leadership training program at BrainReactions involved moving from brainstorm sessions to a front end of innovation leadership program. This moves from just generating the ideas to also including training and development of the people who innovate.

In addition to the research of high quality programs, which included interviews of 62 stakeholders across four different exemplary leadership programs, the researcher developed and tested a new innovation program and individual program sessions with BrainReactions brainstormers. During a three-year period of research and testing, approximately 100 sessions where conducted, assessed, and improved accordingly. Sessions were qualitative and consisted of 5-12 individuals per session. Sessions were recorded, transcribed, and assessed for participant engagement, idea quantity and quality. The researcher employed the constant comparative method, an analytic induction grounded theory data analysis technique, to explore the data and construct a theory.

The theory of high quality leadership programs developed in the dissertation study is grounded in those programmatic attributes that, when enacted, contribute significantly to enhancing learning and leadership development. The data analysis revealed 16 attributes of high quality leadership programs organized into three clusters: a) participants engaged in building and sustaining a learning community; b) student-centered experiential learning experiences; and c) research grounded continuous program development. Through the program attributes, participants learn about innovation, leadership and themselves in the course of engaging in the leadership process while reflecting on and applying their new learning and skills in collaborative action with others.

The results of this multi-case grounded theory study of high quality leadership programs could be applied and adapted to enhance leadership development and innovation in a wide range of organizations. This theory will allow organizations to enhance their programs and participants’ leadership development by helping participants improve themselves through self-discovery, personal development, reflective practice and collaborative leadership action with others. This leadership action and learning can be directed towards idea generating for innovation to meet changing needs and opportunities for the organization though helping individuals contribute to and share leadership in an organizational culture of innovation.

To be a high quality program involves anchoring the systems and program in research, both what has happened elsewhere and what you have discovered internally. Our high quality leadership program for innovation that has yielded numerous positive individual, organizational, and client outcomes involves three clusters of attributes for program development. Both the diverse and engaged participants cluster as well as systems learning for continuous program improvement cluster are leveraged for development in addition to the individual centered experiential brainstorming experience cluster.

In essence I recommend more organizations to implement a leadership program that allows all employees to contribute to a positive culture of innovation through participating in innovation together. Programs can be constructed and facilitating using the identified clusters of attributes that matter most for learning and development.

There is a report identifying attributes of high quality leadership programs and how BrainReactions put these attributes into practice for their own innovation program and programs they develop for clients. Email Darin Eich at darin.eich@brainreactions.com for more information or to receive the report.

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Contributed by Shahira Raineri, GE Global Imagination Breakthrough Leader
(See complete bio below the article)

Throughout it’s 115-year history, GE has introduced world-changing technologies and processes. As the company continued to grow into one of the world’s largest companies, GE needed a powerful mechanism to transform potentially market-changing ideas into a portfolio of products to meet the needs of an ever-expanding global market.

In September 2003, GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt introduced a new process to build innovative solutions addressing global-scale challenges. These innovations, called “Imagination Breakthroughs”, receive special nurturing and investment to drive the solutions to maturity. To qualify as an Imagination Breakthrough (IB), each product idea must be directed at market transformation and must have the potential to achieve more than $100 million in incremental revenue.

IBs are delivering for GE. The current IB portfolio contains more than 45 IB projects in development around the globe. Since its inception, the IB program has consistently delivered $2-3B of incremental revenue annually.

Imagination Breakthroughs take two forms:

• Commercial products: designed to provide customers with products and processes that create new ways of conducting business, while maintaining GE efficiency and quality.
• Technology products: designed to provide customers with new technologies and solutions that help transform their marketplace.

IB Development: The Creative Process
In the early development phase, GE business units surface key ideas and innovations to the CEO in a formal IB review meeting. Once approved, the sponsoring business follows a regimented process to ensure development and delivery of a successful product to market.

CECOR: Turning Creative Ideas into Business Applications
Throughout their life, IBs follow the CECOR (Calibrate, Explore, Create, Organize, Realize) model, a GE-developed strategic framework that helps convert innovative thinking into tangible and practical business solutions.

A disciplined process that guides all GE business through shared marketing practices, CECOR is a series of 5 analyses designed to push an Imagination Breakthrough to achieve it’s greatest potential.

Calibrate … Business Performance
What is our business?
Who are our customers?
What do they need/want/prefer?

Explore … Avenues for Growth
What are our avenues for growth?
How do customers make money?

Create … New Ideas
What are our best ideas?
What is the customer value?

Organize … For Execution
Have we aligned resources?
Are we collaborating with customers?

Realize … Value
What is our revenue and income plan?
How will we measure customer and GE impact?

Throughout this series of reviews, the customer’s needs and requirements are kept squarely at the center of the IB development to ensure that not only is an IB innovative, but, that it also accomplishes the goals of the customer. Once an IB evolves through the full process, it is ready to be launched.

The IB portfolio is dynamic – it is not only one of the ways that GE achieves growth, but it is in line with the company’s strategic intent which ensures that these breakthroughs are enabling our reach into new markets and important adjacencies.

About the Author:


Shahira Raineri
GE Global Imagination Breakthrough Leader

Shahira joined GE in early 2003 as the Global Marketing Leader for the Healthcare Vertical Initiative. In this role she was responsible for analyzing healthcare needs, articulating the value proposition of our broader healthcare offer, creating company-wide sales tools and marketing communications materials. Now the Corporate Imagination Breakthrough Leader, Shahira leads a variety of strategic marketing projects and works closely with the GE Global Research Center and the businesses to enable the commercialization of breakthrough innovations.

Prior to GE, Shahira was at Siemens Medical Solutions where she worked as Marketing Director. During her tenure at Siemens, she was also Vice President of Marketing for the Optical Networking division of the company’s Information and Communications Network.

Shahira previously led various teams at Lucent Technologies and AT&T Bell Labs. During her tenure at AT&T and Lucent, Shahira led global teams in the areas of Product Management, Systems Engineering and Market Development. Shahira began her career as Chief Biomedical Engineer at Berlex Laboratories.

Shahira received a B.S. and a M.S.E.E. from Rutgers University.

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Contributed by Peter Erickson, Senior Vice President of Innovation, Technology & Quality, General Mills
(See complete bio below the article)

For an entrepreneur, the idea of taking your innovation and sharing it with someone else – let alone a large corporation – can be an intimidating, if not daunting, task. Which company would be the best partner? How do you ensure you’re protected from a legal perspective? How will you benefit? If your goals are to take your product or technology to the next level, speed its time to market and grow its distribution to have a national or even global reach, then you may find value in exploring a partnership with a larger company.

There are several variables to consider when venturing into this type of partnership. Based on General Mills’ experience in working on a wide range of projects with partners of all sizes, we have identified the following nine tips for entrepreneurs seeking to develop a successful partnership with a larger company.

Nine Tips for Entrepreneurs

1. Create a differentiated opportunity. Articulate the unique and proprietary aspects of your product. How is it different and how is it better than anything on the market? Is there an opportunity to be first to market with a breakthrough new product? Explaining the unique benefits of your innovation up front will give the company a reason to take a closer look at your proposal.

2. Test your innovation. Develop a pedigree for the product. You will be ahead of the game if you are able to get your innovation into the hands of its end user. This will allow you to speak to the in-market performance and the consumer or retailer reaction. Some of our partners, for example, came to us with insights from selling their products on the Internet, in small regional grocery chains or on college campuses. That learning can go a long way toward helping a company understand the unique consumer benefits of your product.

3. Be selective. Focus on your lead candidate and avoid courting multiple partners at once. A company wants to know you are committed and willing to work together to ensure that the opportunity will produce competitive advantages in the marketplace. And remember, most companies, including General Mills, want to create relationships for the long term. Take the time and do it right.

4. Find a contact to be your champion. Navigating the politics and processes of a large corporation can be challenging. Having a tour guide is very helpful. For example, at General Mills your key contact will be a member of the General Mills WIN (Worldwide Innovation Network) team, our company’s external innovation group. The G-WIN team is always available to answer potential partners’ questions about our organization, our processes and about partnerships in general.

5. Do your homework on the potential partner. Use available public information to educate yourself on your potential partner’s lines of business, key strategies, industry and competitors. You should also familiarize yourself with the economics of the industry so you are well-versed in the financials before getting into any conversations about important details such as licensing fees. For example, potential partners can obtain company background and information on our approach to external partnerships from a video located on our G-WIN Web site (www.generalmills.com/WIN).

6. Connect the dots. Make the connection between your proposed innovation and the company’s business model and brand. For which product platform or division do you envision it to be a good fit? How would this help the company’s bottom line?

7. Demonstrate you can deliver. Describe your team’s experience in the industry. Prove that your product is scalable to the volume demands of the partner’s business. Have any claims you make about the product validated (e.g., health claims), and be sure to speak to the company’s priorities. For General Mills, food quality and safety are important, and our company wants to know you share the same values. If you do not have the expertise in a certain area – manufacturing, safety, etc. – don’t be afraid to tap outside consultants to develop those capabilities within your operation.

8. Have a business model in mind. Communicate the type of opportunity you are looking for, but stay flexible. Oftentimes, it makes the most sense to start with a smaller opportunity and then grow that into a broader, deeper partnership.

9. Part on good terms. If either or both companies in the partnership decide to pass on an opportunity, walk away gracefully and leave the door open to future collaborations. Often it is just a matter of timing – the best opportunity for collaboration may not be the first proposal, so maintaining rapport is an important element of eventual success.

Open innovation is an emerging trend, so be on the lookout for opportunities to grow your business through this type of joint venture. Regardless of whether you are in the food industry or another trade, stay mindful of the above suggestions and you will be well-prepared to enter into a mutually beneficial partnership with another company.

If you think your innovation is a good fit for General Mills’ business, our G-WIN team would like to hear from you. Through G-WIN, we seek external partners with patented or patent-pending technologies or commercialized products that would be complementary to our brands and businesses. Prospective partners may submit patented or patent-pending innovations to the G-WIN team through a Web portal at www.generalmills.com/WIN, or may contact the team with other inquiries by calling 763-764-4946 (GWIN).

About the author

Peter Erickson

Peter Erickson is senior vice president of innovation, technology and quality for General Mills.
As the head of General Mills’ innovation and technology organization, Mr. Erickson is responsible for the invention and commercialization of new food products and technologies that can help in nourishing the lives of its consumers by providing increasingly higher levels of health, taste and convenience. Mr. Erickson’s responsibility for the General Mills quality organization is focused on delivering brands that its consumers can trust and value through its global leadership in consumer and product safety.

Mr. Erickson has been employed by General Mills for the past 19 years. Prior to that, he worked in product development as a senior food scientist at General Foods Corporation in White Plains, N.Y. Mr. Erickson received both B.S. and M.S. degrees in food science at the University of Massachusetts, where he continues to serve as a member of the university’s food science external advisory board.

Headquartered in Minneapolis, General Mills is a leading global manufacturer and marketer of consumer foods products with significant operations located around the world. Its global brand portfolio includes Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Green Giant, Häagen-Dazs, Cheerios and more. In the United States, General Mills consumer brands are sold in every section of the retail grocery store, with a No. 1 or No. 2 leading share position in nearly every food category in which it competes. General Mills also is a leading supplier of baking and other food products to the foodservice and commercial baking industries.

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Contributed by Anand Chhatpar

I had the chance to interview Dominick Martinetti, CEO of Slappa Distribution, a small but rapidly growing company that is making a great name for itself among DJs and music junkies as an innovative product company. Dominick is an inspiring young man, and I have shared in this article, excerpts from our conversation that reveal his thinking and journey into market leadership.

Slappa has been in business for four years now, and it started with an initial product range consisting of CD cases. It was not a particularly “sexy” business to get into. CD cases had been around for 15 years, and the CD business was not growing aggressively any more. DVDs, computer software and video games still used CD cases, but the margins had been declining for most companies in this space. Also, brands before Slappa had commoditized the product — there was no real choice available to the consumers. Most of the people using these disc cases were forced to not have choices… outside of cosmetic colors, no one was building quality and variety into the cases. Therein lay a problem with CD cases from the consumer’s perspective, which Dominick was able to spot.

To conduct his market research and with an Open Innovation mindset, Dominick went to online bulletin boards and chat rooms for audio professionals like Audiophile, Audio Asylum and Audioreview.com. He sought advice on what these target consumers needed from the ultimate CD case.

He heard back two major things from them:
1. More Protection: A majority of CD cases available in the market were not providing any real level of protection for a person’s disc collection. People wanted to protect discs even while moving formats towards MP3. They wanted to protect their investment. An individual’s music collection alone can amount to anywhere between $3,000 and $10,000 over 15 years depending on whether one is a general consumer or a DJ.

2. People wanted to keep their discs and covers together: People did not like jewel cases because they cracked and then one could not keep their CD artwork (cover) together with the disc.

Dominick created a series of prototypes and sent them to influential journalists who write product reviews for well read magazines and blogs and asked for their feedback and advice on the design. He kept iterating and improving the design based on feedback from these reviewers. After 2 years of prototype iteration, Dominick finally heard “Its perfect!” from several reviewers and he knew he had a winning product in his hand. Dominick had designed the D2 patented pocket system which has a rear pocket for the disc and a front pocket for the cover along with a 5-7 mm opening. The shell for the D2 was made out of X-EVA, a fire resistant, water resistant material.

Launching the product now became much easier for Dominick. He put up a website at slappa.com and told all his friends and the product reviewers he was in contact with that his product was now available for purchase. The reviewers wrote rave reviews of his $49.95 CD-case next to reviews of top of the line $2,000 music systems. Slappa’s products achieved very quick acceptance among the “Pro Audio” market, and Dominick has expanded into distribution via retail, mail order, catalogs and other media where people can pay attention to details of the product.

Dominick’s inspiration is the Fossil Watch Company that made people think they were getting a better deal with a $79 designer watch from Fossil in a tin can than with a $20 watch from Walmart. He already has plans to expand his product line into backpacks, high end bags, and other products, while also expanding distribution globally.

When asked about why Slappa’s customers become huge fans of the company, Dominick says, “We’ve made ourselves a customer focused company. Each customer is our most important customer. You CAN please everyone, in a million ways. You just have to find a different way for every person.”

1 Comment | Innovation Techniques, Generation-Y wants, Gen-Y ideas, Marketing to college students, Marketing to young women, Open Innovation, Voice of the customer, New Concepts & Ideas, BrainWaves Emagazine | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this

Facebook is an incredible social phenomenon that I am sure most of you have heard about. If you have not yet experienced Facebook, consider joining it at http://www.facebook.com

BrainReactions has recently launched an application within Facebook called the “Most Creative People“. It allows you to view and connect with the most creative people on Facebook and vote for your friends who are very creative. You can join the application and nominate any of your friends from Facebook to provide them further global recognition for their creativity.

The application is available at
http://apps.facebook.com/fbcreative/

Our network now consists of over 35,000 highly creative people from 142 countries. If you’d like to leverage our network for brainstorming with your target market, product testing with a particular demographic, online focus groups, product launch marketing, or any consumer-focused needs, please contact us here.

No Comments | BrainReactions News, Creativity & Brainstorming, Generating Ideas & Ideation Techniques, Managing Ideas, Innovation Techniques, Generation-Y wants, Gen-Y ideas, Marketing to college students, Marketing to young women, Open Innovation, Voice of the customer, New Concepts & Ideas, Corporate Innovation, BrainWaves Emagazine | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this

Contributed by Anand Chhatpar

The Internet has become a powerful resource for any innovator, and there are a variety of online tools available to help you with various stages of the innovation process.

Let’s go down each step of the process and see examples of tools on the web that can be used along the way:

1. Opportunity Identification: For discovering opportunities to innovate and for finding areas of need and untapped demand, use the following websites:
ePinions.com: Reading consumers’ reviews and complaints about certain products tells you which problems could be valuable to solve.
Inventory.Overture.com: Searching for keyword terms and phrases on this website tells you how many people searched for that phrase and similar phrases last month on the Yahoo network. When you get the number of searches, you can triple it to get the approximate number of total searches worldwide. If you find an interesting phrase that has high searches but not too many websites serving the need, you’ve found a good niche to innovate within.
Trendwatching.com: This website tells you about trends happening in the business world today that you could align yourself with to take advantage of their popularity. Every trend highlights the opportunities for business that lie within.
SpringWise.com: Another great website from the people who run trendwatching.com, which features interesting new businesses starting up around the globe. If you see a successful business in another country that could apply to your country, it is a clear-cut opportunity and you have lower risk because the business model is proven in another market.
Emily Chang’s Ehub: Emily does a great job of cataloging the latest Web 2.0 applications in her Ehub database. Many of these applications have become instant hits with the online audience and one can detect amazing opportunities by looking at the adoption rates of applications like Twitter.
Ethnography using YouTube.com: Who said watching YouTube videos all day doesn’t have business value? If you watch enough videos of people on YouTube using everyday products like skateboards or brooms or any personal care products, you will start observing trends and opportunities. For example, why do people still fall on ice during the winter? Shouldn’t this several thousand year old problem be solved by now?
BrainReactions.net: Using our online tool at BrainReactions.net, you could do a survey with your target audience to ask them what new products or services you could create for them. You’d be amazed at the number of opportunities you can uncover by directly getting in touch with your target customers. People like to talk, give feedback and brainstorm. Just launch your question and invite them into the conversation to see the results!
PewResearch.org: This website has an incredible database of research polls conducted across dozens of categories on hundreds of topics. Their reports uncover trends that can be used to pinpoint new opportunities.

2. Brainstorming: Once you’ve found areas of need and opportunity, your next step would be to brainstorm solutions that you can create to meet the need:
BrainReactions.net Brainstorming Rooms: You can use private online brainstorming rooms to brainstorm ideas with your friends, coworkers and even your target customers. You can not only add your own ideas but also sort and rank them. Simply launch a new brainstorm within your brainstorming room, invite the participants and let everyone collaborate.
If you prefer making mind-maps instead of group brainstorming, there are alternatives to BrainReactions.net like Mindmeister.com, bubbl.us, and MindJet.

3. Research: Once you have brainstormed a list of ideas and sorted them into top concepts, you probably want to do some more research on the most promising concepts in order to finalize on the top concepts you will create prototypes for. The following tools will help you with further research:
Wordtracker.com: Entering a keyword or keyphrase into wordtracker gives you a list of similar terms people search for online, and also provides you with an analysis of which of those keywords has the least competition, so you can easily get the highest search engine ranking for that term.
Patentmonkey.com: A much nicer interface than USPTO’s own patent search, which allows you to not only check out the patents related to your idea, but also find out their status to know whether the patents are currently active, abandoned or expired. Google also has Google Patent Search, but it does not tell you the status of the patent yet.
SpyFu.com: Competitive intelligence for your keywords that tells you approximately how much money your competitors are spending on pay-per-click ads and what terms they are using for advertisement.

4. Prototyping: With your research, hopefully you have narrowed down your concepts into the top 3 to 5 that you will take to the prototype level and test with the market. The following websites will make your prototyping task easier:
eMachineShop.com: Website that provides you a free CAD tool to design your product and to upload your design to them so they can actually manufacture it and ship it to you. You can order just one piece or a thousand, and the pricing varies according to materials used. The beauty of this software is that it gives you instant quotes when you are designing the prototype, so you can adjust it to make it cheaper.
eLance Photoshop artists: The eLance freelance talent market has a number of photoshop artists who can make a life-like looking image of your product or service idea using photoshop and image manipulation. Making the poster for a product in this way is much cheaper than making the actual product and allows you to test the market quickly and cost effectively.

5. Validation: Now that you have your prototype, your next step would be to show it to your target customers and see if people would like to buy it. You would do this before spending large amounts of money on R&D to make the product.
Kancept.com: Brilliant website made by master inventor Osman Ozcanli that allows you to upload a product concept photo and see an approval rating from a broad target audience. This website is like hot-or-not for product concepts.
Vizu.com: If you need more sophisticated answers and more granular survey audience targeting, you can use Vizu.com that allows you to conduct a distributed survey on the web for a very low cost.You can upload your product concept image and ask any question to your survey audience, so this tool can also be used to determine target pricing and other factors.
eBay.com: Here’s a brilliant idea coming from Timothy Ferris, author of the Four Hour Work Week. Ebay.com, the popular auction site, can be used to test your concepts quickly. Tim uses Ebay to post pictures of the concepts and guages the interest from the market by looking at how many bids he receives and what prices people are willing to pay for this product. He cancels the auction just before it ends and pays a small fee to eBay for doing so, but gets a lot more valuable market research in the process.

6. Implementation: Arguably, the hardest part of any innovation process is to fund, staff and execute the implementation plan for the product concept. Here are some online tools that can help:
Prosper.com and Zopa.com: Online markets for loans that allow people to get personal loans at reasonable prices from a large number of individual lenders. You can post your product concept here along with your funding request and if you find many “investors” who believe in the product, you will get the funding for it, upto $25,000.
GoBigNetwork.com: This online community connects entrepreneurs with angel investors and other people who can help with implementation of a new business.
eLance.com: If you can break down the implementation plan into a series of detailed steps, chances are that you can outsource most of those steps to highly qualified yet cost effective freelancers you can find on eLance.com or similar talent websites.
LinkedIn.com: The largest online professional network, LinkedIn has experts in every given area you can imagine.
Amazon Web Services: Jeff Bezos & Company have done a great job of providing a group of web services that can be very useful to entrepreneurs and innovators. In additional to scalable storage and computing, Amazon.com also has a drop shipment service they call Amazon Fulfillment. So, if you have a product that sells online, you can ship the container to Amazon, they will store it, package it and ship it directly to your end customer for reasonable costs. You can even automate the process programmatically because Amazon has a powerful web services API.

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Contributed by Julia Styles

Ever since I heard about One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and the $100 laptop a few years ago, I have been excited about where innovation trends are leading us as a global community, towards opportunities for better access to education and means of poverty alleviation. Although this may be a utopian thought, I appreciate any real step in the right direction. I applaud Nicholas Negroponte for his vision and further more for the execution of the $100 laptop. According to BBC columnist Jonathan Fildes, OLPC is finally putting the $100 laptop (which currently costs $176) into mass production, and should be in the hands of Children as early as October 2007.

Even critics are joining the cause. Intel, whose chairman once called the laptop a “gadget,” recently partnered with OLPC to manufacture its memory chip. Other partners include Google, Red Hat, and AMD.

OLPC designed the laptops with developing world conditions in mind, and has been testing them in Nigeria and Brazil. I recently read a news report titled “Nigerian school without power receives 300 laptops.” The article highlighted the pitfalls of having laptops where electricity is scarce and irregular. The article confused me considering the $100 laptops can be charged with solar or human power. They have also been designed to use as little power as possible, with no hard drive and a low-power screen.

I am excited to see how the One Laptop Per Child movement takes off. Please read “$100 laptop production begins” at the BBC to learn more. Or visit the OLPC website. OLPC is a nonprofit organization with a mission to advance education in developing countries. If you would like to support OLPC click here.

Other organizations are also finding ways to improve conditions in developing and war torn countries. Check out Concrete Canvas, the winner of the Saatchi and Saatchi Award World Changing Idea of 2005.

Please email BrainReactions if you know of other innovations that are helping developing countries.

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Contributed By Darin Eich, Ph.D.

In the true spirit of online brainstorming, I created a brainstorm on BrainReactions.net and used it as a tool to write this article. I keep the article format as an organized list of tips. You can view the original brainstorm process I used at http://www.brainreactions.net/brainstorms/1556 and even suggest your own ideas or tips.

1. Brainstorming is different than Q&A. It is about multiple ideas instead of a single answer, so approach the process with quantity in mind.
2. Each individual submits multiple ideas.
3. Multiple individuals submit multiple ideas.
4. The person who creates the brainstorm should start it off with at least 5 ideas.
5. Follow the traditional brainstorming rule of going for a high quantity of ideas.
6. Set an individual goal to create 20 ideas (like I’m doing here).
7. Understand that a concept can be broken down into smaller ideas and these ideas can be mixed and matched…so the parts have value.
8. When creating a brainstorm invite others to join.
9. Set an actual structured time for people to log in and brainstorm live.
10. During a live brainstorm it is exciting to see other ideas being added alongside yours, this motivates people to generate more ideas.
11. Set a goal to involve at least 8 people in the brainstorm.
12. Show a previous great brainstorm example to people.
13. Allow people to click a link that shows them an example of a quality brainstorm while they are brainstorming, this will give them a model.
14. Do not judge or put down ideas while you are brainstorming.
15. Click on the “good idea” button for good ideas.
16. Take one of the good ideas you select to the next level.
17. Build and extend on ideas presented earlier in the brainstorm.
18. Quantity is needed first to be able to unleash the power of building and extending, so add a number of ideas even if they may already exist.
19. Google for insights while brainstorming.
20. Stay focused on the question and topic.
21. If an idea is off topic, though, accept it because the focus is on the process.
22. Take a risk by submitting a pretty far out idea…do this intentionally as a part of the process.
23. Submitting a far out idea is fun and motivating and can encourage creativity.
24. Put some motivating music on in the background while brainstorming (see ideas of songs to try in the most ideated brainstorm on the BrainReactions.net website).
25. Drink some coffee while brainstorming!
26. Call a friend for ideas.
27. Try to synthesize previous ideas into a theme to brainstorm from.
28. Try to synthesize a couple of ideas into a further developed concept.
29. Practice brainstorming tools to help you generate ideas, like SCAMPER.
30. Brainstorm from your laptop in a place that is creative and energizing for you…I’m doing this now from my favorite coffee shop.
31. Look around your environment for ideas.
32. Accept the same idea from multiple people, this still has value, it tells you it could be important.
33. When brainstorming online, organize your thoughts and ideas into a logical sequence and present them in that way.
34. Create a mindmap of ideas relating to the topic or question and add them online in a more developed way.
35. Focus on process, your individual process for generating a high quantity and quality of ideas, and the brainstorm process as a whole that encourages different people.
36. Seek a diversity of individuals to submit ideas.
37. Create a question that is open enough that many idea alternatives are possible.
38. Give more background to the question in the space provided; this will help people understand the desired outcome for doing the brainstorm.
39. Use a few ideas here and there to model good ideas that match the question; they can even be existing ideas.
40. Step away from the question for a moment to let your mind recharge and reload ideas and return to power them out.

No Comments | Creativity & Brainstorming, Generating Ideas & Ideation Techniques, Managing Ideas, Innovation Techniques, Gen-Y ideas, New Concepts & Ideas, Corporate Innovation, Innovation Training, BrainWaves Emagazine | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this

Contributed By Julia Styles

Crowdsourcing has been the buzzword of the summer. With the continued growth of Web 2.0, crowdsourcing has become a viable method of obtaining information and skills from the masses.

What is crowdsourcing?
According to wikipedia, “Crowdsourcing is a neologism for the act of taking a job traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an open call.”

It is essentially outsourcing to customers and other average people, usually via the web or an organization.

Who uses crowdsourcing?
Famous users of crowdsourcing include YouTube, Threadless, Lego, iStockphoto, Digg, and Procter and Gamble.

As discussed in Connect + Develop, P&G employs more than 9000 scientists and researchers in corporate R&D and still has many problems they cannot solve, so they go to the crowds. P&G posts challenges on InnoCentive, offering large cash rewards to more than 90,000 “solvers” who make up this network of backyard scientists, according to Open Innovators. P&G also works with organizations that provide crowdsourcing or outside innovation, including NineSigma, YourEncore, Yet2, and BrainReactions.

BrainReactions and crowdsourcing
BrainReactions essentially is organized and controlled crowdsourcing. Companies invite us to participate in their front end of innovation, or idea generation phase. Not only do we provide them with the voice of the customer; we help them develop new products, packaging or marketing messages all under an agreement of confidentiality. This type of outside innovation works very well, because it comes from the customer, and it is less expensive than internal R&D.

Now BrainReactions offers crowdsourcing to anyone through our online social network for brainstorming — BrainReactions.net. Post your challenge in an open brainstorm room and invite friends and users to give ideas. Someone from the crowd might have the perfect idea for you.

Read more about crowdsourcing
The word crowdsourcing was first coined by Jeff Howe in a 2006 article in Wired magazine. Needless to say, Wired journalists have become experts on the topic. To read more on crowdsourcing check out all of these articles from Wired Magazine.

The Rise of Crowdsourcing.
Look who’s Crowdsourcing.
What does Crowdsourcing Really Mean?
Creative Crowdwriting: The Open Book.
Using Crowd Power for R&D.
News the Crowd Can Use.
The Experts at the Periphery.

To learn about specific strategies of crowdsourcing, check out Sami Viitamaki’s FLIRT model.

No Comments | Generating Ideas & Ideation Techniques, Innovation Techniques, Open Innovation, Voice of the customer, New Concepts & Ideas, Corporate Innovation, BrainWaves Emagazine | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this

For centuries, many of our world’s greatest leaders, philosophers, entrepreneurs, and thinkers have lived by a simple, but yet provocative law. The Law of Attraction — which simply means believing in one’s own goals and self, will essentially create your destiny and life. Many of us wake up daily without a positive attitude, and without a path to success. We simply go about our day not really giving much thought to the positive things around us and our own imaginations. Just think back when you were a child, always thinking of new games, ways to beat boredom, and you actually brought those creative ways of thinking to life. Yet as you got older, you simply let the problems of the world push you down and halt your thinking and imagination. You let the negative overtake the positive, and you simply lived day by day without giving any thought to what tomorrow held for you.

However, I have very good news for you; it is never too late to turn back the clock of negativity, sadness, hopelessness, and loss of imagination. Great people such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Einstein, Jesus, Henry Ford, Winston Churchill, I could go on and on… lived by this law and this philosophy of life. As kids, growing up we read about them throughout our classes in amazement. We wondered how could these individuals invent such things, create such hope, and inspire so many people. These great individuals followed their dreams, hopes, and aspirations without regard to the trials and tribulations they would face or the failures they incurred on their way to success. They believed in something, they put one foot out in front of the other, even when they did not have the answer and they made their imaginations come true. See, each and everyday we are all capable of doing great things, as well as bringing our hopes and dreams crashing down.

We can go about each and everyday complaining, moaning, and blaming everyone else for our problems in life. We can go to work not liking our job, we can stay in a relationship that just is not working, or we can bring about positive change in our lives and start over. You, all of us, have the power to essentially bring about a new and improved us, which in the end brings about a better world. What you think and believe is what will come about. So think positive, do positive things, give to others, work daily towards short and long-term goals, and most importantly never quit imagining. Look around you—your computer, phone, books, desk, etc. are all created items from the imagination and hands of man. Never forget that you to are capable of great things!

I challenge you to start that business idea you have always had, to finish the poem you never finished, and most importantly do not make excuses. What you have today is enough to bring about the imaginative and powerful change that we are all capable of doing. I find it very funny and interesting at the people who win the lottery. They always seem to be those who are less off, poor, but at the same time, they are happy, thoughtful, and they have played for years upon years always hoping, dreaming, and knowing that one day, they would win. In addition, when that day comes, we see them on the news and we ask ourselves, wow I wish that was me! That is the attitude we cannot have. YOU can BE and DO anything you believe in. That does not mean it is going to happen overnight, but I guarantee you, what you imagine, can and will come true through positive thinking and dedication. Your life can start anew today—stop looking at those that have more than you with envy, why not look at those people for inspiration—for the drive to empower your own life to do great things. Remember that your thoughts of hope or failure are essentially, what you will get. So think and do on the hopeful side, because that is where greatness of life will show its amazing glory.

No Comments | Creativity & Brainstorming, Managing Ideas, New Concepts & Ideas | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this