Looking for ways to ignite the creative juices of your team or organization? Here are three sure fire ways to get interesting and new ideas to drive sales, customer service and overall performance.
With all of the methods below – make sure that the objective/issue trying to be solved/addressed is clear. Everyone should be working towards the same goal.
I WISH
Part 1 – Have the group brainstorm with no constraints regarding issues or concerns they have with the status quo. Each person starts their idea with the statement “I wish”. This method can be done in a group, but often is best to start out with some quiet individual time. Participants write out statements for about two minutes, then in small groups they share them. Its important that all of the “I wish” statements are captured.
Part 2 – The group will then pick the top three ideas to work on (prioritize them in what ever manner is most effective). Each prioritized idea will be turned into something that CAN be implemented. The objective here is to allow the group to be as creative as possible and turn a “wish” into reality.
WHAT’S THE OPPOSITE
Part 1- Start with a traditional brainstorm of ideas that would produce fairly common solutions
Part 2 – Ask the group to think of “ what is the opposite of these traditional ideas?”. They can be literal opposites and alternatives to different aspects of the traditional idea.
Part 3 – Identify two or three of the most common opposites. Ask the group to think about:
• What would happen if we did this/used this opposite?
• How could we address our issue if the opposite was the only solution we could use?
LET’S BUILD THIS TOGETHER
Traditional brainstorming can sometimes reduce the number of great ideas and be less creative because of group dynamics. This technique removes the more challenging element of group interaction but retains the power of “using more than one head”. It prevents the most dominant people from taking over and still allows individuals to build on other’s ideas.
Each person starts out with a blank piece of paper
Part 1 – Everyone writes down the objective at the top of his or her sheets.
Part 2 – Each person writes down one or two creative ideas and then passes the sheet to his or her team mate on their right.
Part 3 – On receiving the sheet, the team mate reads the ideas written down, and sees if they spark off any new ideas of their own. They should then add two new ideas of their own, or develop the current ideas further, then pass it on to the right.
Part 4 – Repeat the process either until each person has the idea they started or for an allotted time.
Of course, the step after brainstorming/idea generation is evaluation. It is critical though that throughout the idea generation there is NO evaluation or judgement! Don’t kill the creativity, let the ideas flow!
(Hey leaders, don’t stifle the creativity of your team. Learn how here)
What idea generation methods have you seen be successful? Please let us know! Send your ideas here!
Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.
Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
