BrainReactions News » BrainReactions: Innovation generation- Brain Reactions Gen Y brainstorming, product innovation, marketing innovation, brainstorm facilitation and innovation training services

Special Resources:

FREE Innovating HR Whitepaper
FREE Outside Insights Whitepaper
BrainWaves E-magazine

Innovation Training
Brainstorming Techniques
Idea Communication

February 25, 2011

BrainWaves: February 2011 Issue

By BrainReactions

BrainWaves: The Innovation and Idea Generation Emagazine

BrainWaves is an e-periodical for people who are interested in how organizations cultivate individual and group creativity. Each issue of BrainWaves features information and perspectives about individual and group ideation; how businesses and not-for-profits actuate the best ideas; and reports on remarkable innovations that promise novel solutions to intractable problems. Brainwaves is produced and edited by BrainReactions, producer of “outside insight” — ideas for organizations conceived by outside professional brainstormers and from online brainstorms using BrainReactions.net. BrainReactions also provides innovation training to help companies and individuals generate more and better ideas.

SUBSCRIBE TO BRAINWAVES

FORWARD TO A FRIEND

In This Issue

Showing Systematic Innovation to the Public: The IDEO Nightline Special

By BrainReactions

by Darin Eich, PhD.

Whenever I have described to people what it is that I do, I always expect them to ask me if I’ve seen a Nightline special about the shopping cart. It has happened time and time again. The Nightline Special these people are speaking of is this video about an organization in Silicon Valley called IDEO. This “Deep Dive” special showed people the world of systematic innovation in the context of redesigning a shopping cart. It wasn’t just starting with an idea but rather people saw that there is a deeper design process involved that started much earlier with problems and needs and involved a world of multiple ideas and prototypes. This video helped people to get it and it is clear now that it has stuck over the years. This IDEO process is still relevant and innovative today.

We facilitated a program called “Innovation Trip” where we brought a group of professionals to IDEO in Palo Alto. This was a highlight of the trip. As I talked to many people young and old about their dream career…working at IDEO seems to be the ultimate job for many innovators, inventors, and designers. If this video is still on the top of the mind there must be a good reason why. I am passionate about helping people to learn how to innovate. This starts with having a passionate interest in innovation…and this IDEO Nightline video lit the fire for many people.

Generate Ideas while you Sleep, Shower, and Exercise: Subconscious Ideation

By BrainReactions

by Darin Eich, Ph.D.

If I really want solutions, decisions, or insights I will sleep on the challenge, dream on it in the morning while half awake and half asleep, shower on it, bike to the woods with it in mind, and then hike through the trees and sit on a tree stump to visualize the challenge. I do this all with my idea journal at my side to capture the insights I get. Many people say they get their best ideas when they have thought about the challenge a lot but then stop thinking about it. They sleep, shower, or workout and then great ideas come to them. They disengage from a high level of mental engagement on their problem and let their subconscious mind work on the challenge for them while they do something else…like sleep, shower, or workout! Try some of these techniques for generating ideas. Many times I find that the ideas you get are more highly developed…they are a concept that is more helpful for a solution or decision related to your challenge.

1. Sleep on it. Have your idea journal and a pen next to your bed. Think about your challenge in your mind. Jot down ideas you get in the morning or if waking in the middle of the night.

2. Wake on it. Don’t have to be up early? Linger in bed in a half sleep-half awake state and play with your challenge in your mind. Jot down your ideas in your journal. This is related to lucid dreaming where you have a little bit of influence in your dreams.

3. Bathe on it. Many people say they get their best ideas in the shower. Archimedes had his “eureka” moment in the bathtub. Place your challenge in your mind and then focus on relaxing and bathing. Jot down your ideas when you towel off.

4. Exercise on it. Go for a walk, jog, bike ride, or hit the cardio machine at the gym with your challenge in mind. Have your idea journal handy to jot down ideas.

5. Visualize on it. Get into an awake but relaxed meditative state with your challenge and see where your mind takes you. Jot down ideas.

The key with all of these techniques that are more subconscious/disengaging in nature is that you have your idea sheet ready to capture your ideas at hand because you may not remember them long. What techniques do you use to get your best ideas? How can you let your subconscious mind work on the challenge for you?

The U.S. National Priority to Out-innovate, Outeducate, and Outbuild

By BrainReactions

by Darin Eich, Ph.D.

“We need to out-innovate, outeducate and outbuild the rest of the world.” This was President Obama’s memorable quote from the 2011 State of the Union Address that summed up what we need to do as a country. Innovation is critical. It is at the center of the radar. But first, we need to teach people how to do it. From the hundreds of groups that I’ve worked with to teach innovation to, I’ve found that many know that innovation is very important, but they aren’t exactly sure what it entails and how to do it. You are on the right website. Awareness is the first stage. We need to increase innovation literacy amongst general citizens, not just directors of product development or startup CEOs. It is imperative for us all to learn how to innovate in our own work. The call is coming from the top now. I dare you to count how many times Obama says “Innovation” in this video of his speech.

Obama visits Orion Energy Systems in Manitowoc, Wisconsin just after his State of the Union Address to show people a company that is innovating and helping the US economy improve. Innovation and Education is at the center of the radar and it looks like he will continue to showcase organizations that are taking innovation seriously and having success doing it. Check out his first weekly address after the State of the Union Address to see how he still reiterates strongly the call for innovation.

June 1, 2010

BrainWaves: June 2010 Issue

By BrainReactions

SUBSCRIBE TO BRAINWAVES

FORWARD TO A FRIEND

In This Issue

How to Stimulate Innovative Thinking in your Organization to Sustain your Innovation Pipeline for Growth

By BrainReactions

Contributed by Darin Eich, Ph.D., President, BrainReactions LLC http://www.brainreactions.com

If growth is priority number one, innovative thinking skills should be encouraged and developed at all levels of an organization. Sure, there should be a great emphasis on external or open innovation and many of innovative ideas can come from your customers or other subject matter experts. Nonetheless, it is the employees of your company who will connect those ideas and develop their own ideas within your innovation system in order to fill your pipeline on a continuous basis. The first place to open innovation is within your organization. Imagine what kind of culture of innovation your firm could have if every employee contributed to the innovation process at a place where his/her unique strengths aligned with your needs? A variety of employees can contribute to each stage of innovation by:

Providing insight to your research on problems and opportunities — the starting points of innovation—by sharing the voice of the customer with you.
Helping to clarify opportunities and focus on specific problems identified by the research.
Providing ideas through brainstorming sessions, individual submissions, or company wide idea generating events.
Helping to analyze and synthesize the massive amounts of idea collected by using specified criteria or their own wisdom.
Participating in a live or interactive web event where employees can view the concepts they developed, and then help select which ones reach the innovation pipeline.
Helping to communicate and advance the leading concepts by contributing their thinking to make the message a memorable one.

Do your team members know simple activities they can do in each of these stages? From our experiences, we have found that it is simple and even empowering to equip people with these tools and show them how to utilize them by practicing with real-life challenges. Participating in innovation is something we all enjoy doing—often a reason for choosing our career. People want to develop ideas! In our program, we have turned college students into innovators for innovation leader P&G™ in a handful of training sessions. By doing this, we increase the number of tools they have in their “innovation thinking” toolbox, and build the strength of those tools, resulting in more and better ideas!

How is “innovation thinking” happening in your organization? Who is doing the “innovation thinking”? The simple vision of an organizational innovation culture is to engage as many people as possible — from within their organization as well as outside of their organization — in “innovation thinking” about the opportunities and challenges that they face. Innovation — for those that practice it at its best — is not about one guy in a garage working on an invention, but rather a process where multiple people are collaborating to develop and validate ideas. The opportunity from the top of the organization is to open and catalyze this innovation engagement.

If opening up innovation and innovative thinking within your organization is an opportunity, how do you develop it at all levels and places? We have found that the best way to do this is not to read a book or to listen to a lecture, but instead to engage in developing real-world innovation. Facilitate employees — step-by-step, activity-by-activity — while utilizing different innovative thinking tools, to create and develop their own ideas. What if each individual in your organization had their own personal innovation project? What if employees, along with their colleagues, were invested in the development process of small group projects on a regular basis? We bet it would be good for the innovation culture, employee retention and, most importantly, growth!

From our experience training innovators for Fortune 500 projects, we have found that the most prolific innovators exhibit many innovation thinking skills, including:

Systems Viewing
Rapid Iterating
Quantity Making
Judgment Suspending
Idea Funneling
Deconstructing and Constructing
Building and Extending
Connection Making
Outside Insight-ing

If your organization is at a place where employees at all levels are engaging in innovation in many contexts — such as organizational improvement, product development, communications, etc. — then the next opportunity is to engage the people outside of your organization to collaborate with the developed and engaged innovators on the inside. This collaboration can be powerful for enhancing both “innovation thinking” and results at all stages.

Dell is engaging customers in submitting ideas to them at Ideastorm.com. Intuit has created IntuitLabs.com to show lead users the prototypes they are working on. This effort provides validation and encourages feedback for further development.

In sum, to grow, you need to innovate continuously and sustain this innovation so new and better ideas flow through the pipeline. To have better ideas you need to have a higher quality of innovation thinking from more innovation thinkers both inside and outside of your organization. You can develop this capacity through simultaneously teaching and engaging employees and other individuals in your innovation projects. Start by having a common innovation system that a variety of employees know how to use. Also, have a common format for ideas and how they advance down the innovation pipeline. Then, provide a wide variety of employees with opportunities for real challenges to help them contribute to innovation for actual projects.

About the author: Darin Eich, Ph.D. is President of BrainReactions LLC and founder of InnovationTraining.org. BrainReactions Innovation Training can help you create a program to teach, facilitate, engage, and guide your team step-by-step through this innovation system and over 30 different interactive activities to help you generate ideas and solve your challenges. Email Dr. Darin Eich at darin.eich@brainreactions.com

The importance of idea communication: A simple visual story of what worked

By BrainReactions

Contributed by Darin Eich, Ph.D., President, BrainReactions LLC http://www.brainreactions.com

We have heard from many people that the importance of communicating your idea is becoming of critical importance! It is the communication that takes the idea into action. Many times, we have a great idea, and we’ve developed it thoroughly, but we are unable to communicate it so that it gets advanced. Odds are, we didn’t communicate it in a way that works with people’s minds. They didn’t get it so they didn’t feel comfortable being a part of it. The answer is simpler. Tell a story. Make it visual. Make it understandable. Help them get it. You should be able to do it in one sheet.

Here is an example. We launched a new training program on idea communication. People had to “get it.” To convey the concept, I had the idea of telling a simple visual story, with me as the main character, through a comic. I chose myself because I know that character well and because I had a few photos of myself! You innovate with the resources you have, right? The comic was easy to make with a few pictures that could convey some situations that we can all relate to. I knew the comic would gather attention because as I was building it at a San Francisco coffee shop, I had two strangers come up to me to ask me what I was doing. This has never happened with writing text! Here is what I created:

From this one visual sheet a person should understand the value of this training. See how we communicated this new training workshop and even participate in the webinar program in a simple visual website at http://ideacommunication.org. Once you create the story and visual, you can use it for articles, the web, live presentations, etc. We launched the training program and it was our most successful yet — so the communication achieved the real ultimate action outcomes we needed.

If you are taking idea generation and innovation seriously, you should take idea communication really seriously because it is what prevents our ideas from happening! These are idea communication problems you may face in your work or organization:

• A great idea doesn’t go anywhere because people don’t understand it or are not motivated to collaborate on it.
• New ideas don’t get put into action internally or externally.
• A new product or service launch requires new and more creative ideas than before.
• Change is happening faster and new communication ideas are continually needed.
• You need to present and persuade with your ideas simply and memorably so others can take a risk.

We would like to help you not only with your idea generation & development but now with your idea communication too so you can bring your innovation into action. Visit http://ideacommunication.org to see more about our training on this important topic. We can bring it live to your organization or you can participate in the recorded webinar program whenever you are ready.

December 16, 2009

BrainWaves: December 2009 issue

By BrainReactions

BrainWaves is a quarterly e-periodical for people who are interested in how organizations cultivate individual and group creativity. Each issue of BrainWaves features information and perspectives about individual and group ideation; how businesses and not-for-profits actuate the best ideas; and reports on remarkable innovations that promise novel solutions to intractable problems. Brainwaves is produced and edited by BrainReactions, producer of “outside insight” — ideas for organizations conceived by outside professional brainstormers and from online brainstorms using BrainReactions.net. BrainReactions also provides innovation training to help companies and individuals generate more and better ideas.

SUBSCRIBE TO BRAINWAVES

FORWARD TO A FRIEND

In This Issue

Warren Buffett talks to Charlie Rose about Innovation in America

By BrainReactions

Contributed by Anand Chhatpar, CEO, BrainReactions LLC http://www.brainreactions.com

A couple of years ago, BrainReactions brought senior executives from developing countries in Asia, South America, and North America together in Boston and Silicon Valley to learn from some of the top innovators in America as part of our Innovation Trip program. The idea was based on the observation that India has access to thousands of engineers, with the same engineering resources online, and even the same engineering text books used in universities as in the U.S., and yet Indian engineers are not able to produce the same innovations in India that take place in Silicon Valley. Google has a number of Indian engineers and even an Indian-American investor, but this innovative company was not created in Bangalore. It was created in California, U.S.A. Our belief is that this phenomenon is due to the ecosystem that exists here in the United States.

Warren Buffett, one of the richest people in the world, re-iterated this same belief on the Charlie Rose show recently. Buffett has been a guest on the Charlie Rose show several times, and he is always insightful. His most recent interview in November 2009 was no exception. You can view the complete interview if you search for “Warren Buffett” on http://www.charlierose.com

One of the most inspiring parts of the interview was Buffett’s firm belief in America and how the American system fosters innovation by “[unleashing] more of the human potential.” In Buffett’s own words, “And what does that? Well, a rule of law helps. A market system helps. Equality of opportunity helps. All of these things that are still a fundamental part of the American system. As a matter of fact, the American system is now better than it was a couple of hundred years ago, because until the 19th Amendment, we’ve had half the talent in the United States that wasn’t entitled to do much. So we’ve got a great system.”

Buffett’s belief in America’s innovation system was further explained by him later in the interview as well. He mentioned the recession in the early 1980s, when nobody would have guessed that during a time of 10% unemployment in the country, two young entrepreneurs named Bill Gates and Paul Allen would be working in Albuquerque creating an innovation that would become a big part of our future. Similarly, who would have guessed in the early 90s that dropouts from Stanford would create Google, arguably the most powerful company in the world today. Buffett believes that the American innovation system will continue to create innovations and millions of new jobs in the future.

It is interesting to think about how Buffett’s 3-point American innovation system would apply inside your company if you wanted to unleash more of your employees’ potential. Have you created rules within the firm that help innovation? Have you created a market system for good ideas within your company with the right rewards in place? Furthermore, have you provided equality of opportunity for everyone in your company to innovate openly, or is innovation isolated to your R&D group? I hope you give this some thought while designing your company’s innovation system.

Starting innovations: How to make the front end of innovation less fuzzy & more practical

By BrainReactions

Contributed by Darin Eich, Ph.D., President of BrainReactions LLC http://brainreactions.com

Innovation is creativity with a purpose. It is not only creating new ideas but doing so with a specific intention in mind and with plans to actually launch the developed and realized ideas into the world. There are elements of both creation and action. Innovation should be simple, understandable, and open for a wide variety of people to engage in the process. Innovation is becoming more open, less closed door R&D sessions, and more engagement of actual customers, stakeholders, subject matter experts, and employees at all levels in the process. Many organizations know how to launch and sell their products and services but are “fuzzy” on the front end of the innovation process: the stages that deal with creating, analyzing, and developing ideas. That is why it is known as the “fuzzy front end.” The key to making this important beginning stage of the innovation process less fuzzy and more practical is through articulating a simple system with activities that a wide variety of stakeholders and collaborators can understand and engage in. The fuzzy front end should be more kitchen table and less scientific lab.

Having a clear system is equivalent to systematically generating ideas on purpose. I will share with you what we have learned while developing a simple “front end of innovation” process that we have been training people in from over 200 companies at InnovationTraining.org. We encourage you to learn innovation through doing it. You can practice and use this process to develop and communicate your big idea in a more systematic and effective way. The projects we have done for a wide variety of companies from P&G and the UN to solo entrepreneurs all use a similar system and activities. They all started with a problem or opportunity, led to brainstorming questions, continued with ideas, and led to selection and development of the best ideas…just like you catalyze your own projects in your own organization.

Innovation System

If you want to develop an innovative idea for your project, where do you start? Start with a proven system of innovation best practices. The diagram above shows the steps involved in a basic innovation system that you can use as a starting point. You will then go about this purposefully with a process or system to develop your ideas into more validated and robust concepts. You would typically generate multiple ideas and then synthesize relevant multiple ideas logically together in the form of a well-developed concept.

It is important to capture and store all of these ideas in one place. Also, great innovations are not solitary work. They are the result of collaborations. Involve others to help you generate ideas, develop the concept, validate the concept, and communicate the concept so that it is meaningful and memorable. An example of the front end of innovation can be found in a brainreactions.net private online brainstorming room, you can pose your question, provide background information, visuals in the form of a photo or video, and generate ideas. With the online brainstorming room you can include up to five brainstormers and these brainstormers can not only generate ideas but also vote, select, and sort the best ideas to move forward and develop. This is a way to involve collaborators in your innovation system.

An important start to an innovation project is to crystallize the problems and challenges that you intend to solve. You must pose important questions that are grounded in the problems or opportunities for innovation. Google launched a campaign that solicited concept ideas to change the world. To use Google’s Project 10^100 framework as an example, they offered seven suggested categories and questions:

1. Community: How can we help connect people, build communities and protect unique cultures?
2. Opportunity: How can we help people better provide for themselves and their families?
3. Energy: How can we help move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy?
4. Environment: How can we help promote a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem?
5. Health: How can we help individuals le ad longer, healthier lives?
6. Education: How can we help more people get more access to better education?
7. Shelter: How can we help ensure that everyone has a safe place to live?

These are examples of categories and related questions to start. These categories were selected because they offer real problems and opportunity. These are starting places, if your vision is to “change the world” then the seven Google categories and questions may be beneficial starting places for you. Odds are that your questions and categories may be different and related to the problems or opportunities that exist for you or your organization, specific to your mission. These starting places are big questions of their own or can catalyze sub-questions for you to purposefully generate ideas on.

Action to take: Clarify a simple system you will use to innovate. Use the model we are presenting or customize your own. Know that you are engaging in a system to innovate and what that system is. Identify and write down the areas you would like to innovate in. These are problems or opportunities. Research them. Create questions to ask.

———
About the Author:

Darin Eich, Ph.D. is President and founder of BrainReactions LLC that provides innovation training through InnovationTraining.org

This activity is a part of BrainReactions Innovation Training. BrainReactions Innovation Training can teach, facilitate, engage, and guide your team step-by-step through this innovation system and over 30 different interactive activities to help you generate ideas and solve your challenges. You can learn our techniques and activities to do again and again on your own and contribute to a sustainable culture of innovation within your organization. Email Dr. Darin Eich at darin.eich@brainreactions.com to inquire about bringing training and facilitation into your organization or to do an event to capture the ideas of your employees, customers or stakeholders.

Do you want to learn more about systematic innovation? The Systematic Idea Generation for Innovation 4 part online workshop series has been popular with 200 different companies seeking to learn the language of innovation and generate new ideas. You can start this webinar series today at http://innovationtraining.org.

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

Special Resources:

February 25, 2011

BrainWaves: February 2011 Issue

In This Issue

Showing Systematic Innovation to the Public: The IDEO Nightline Special

Generate Ideas while you Sleep, Shower, and Exercise: Subconscious Ideation

The U.S. National Priority to Out-innovate, Outeducate, and Outbuild

June 1, 2010

BrainWaves: June 2010 Issue

In This Issue

How to Stimulate Innovative Thinking in your Organization to Sustain your Innovation Pipeline for Growth

The importance of idea communication: A simple visual story of what worked

December 16, 2009

BrainWaves: December 2009 issue

In This Issue

Warren Buffett talks to Charlie Rose about Innovation in America

Starting innovations: How to make the front end of innovation less fuzzy & more practical

Innovation Services

Articles

Blogroll

Meta

Archives