Innovation Overflow

Innovation and Creativity Tips

Concise tips on how to think creatively and innovate effectively. This list will grow, so you might want to bookmark this page now and return periodically.

Creative Thinking Tips

Start with the problem / challenge / brief.

Sometimes things might seem complex so this might help, to an extent: consider expressing potential solutions in one dimension. Dimensions can be real (mass, length, time) or abstract. Use this as a guide, not a rule because...

To think up many (raw unevaluated) ideas: The only rule is there are no rules.

To capture as many ideas as possible, include the following: traditional ideas, state the blooming obvious, copy ideas, think up new ideas, and create innovative ideas and far out "impossible" ideas.

Adopt an attitude that is free from traditional restrictions. Think: there is no evaluation [in this initial stage], no right or wrong answer, illogical is okay [Spock is not here], there are no rules, and have fun and play.

Take an idea and improve it.

Get into a Good State of Mind. You may become more creative if you entertain some humour, have fun, and relax. Meditation might help too. Relaxation in the bath might give you that Eureka! moment.

Brain-storming: come up with as many ideas as you can - say them, or write them down, as they pop into your head.

Use metaphors and analogies, and copy. By looking at things used in other contexts and how they are used, you might be able to identify some useful similarities and adapt them for use in your context.

Use questions. Ask W6 type questions: Why, Where, When, What, Who and How?

Think outside the box (outside your traditional context). But remember to also think inside the box - this helps to improve your effectiveness and efficiency.

Improve your ideas. Ideas can always be improved.

Where do your ideas come from? They come from your subconscious mind, but it needs time to produce its best ideas. Allow at least one or two weeks for your creative thinking process - if you want better ideas.

There is no escaping the fact that if you want to have an innovative organisation you must do research. That does not always mean doing scientific research in a laboratory; there are various types of research.

You evaluate an idea from a creativity process like you would evaluate any other idea. Ask W6 type questions and assess the answers. You have to be thorough in your evaluation. However, it is also worth bearing in mind that there would be no disruptive innovation, and no fantastic benefits of innovation, if a traditional short-sighted mindset had been used to evaluate all of the past achievements when they were just an idea. So this means more effort might be required to evaluate creative ideas:

» You will need an open mind, and

» A rational mind backed up by as much relevant research as you can get your hands on, and

» Remember that you are trying to anticipate the future...

People should be given the opportunity to evaluate ideas properly. [Not in a brain-storming event or at an away day.]

The Innovation Process

Some people, wrongly, think that innovation is all about uncoordinated, chaotic, creativity without any hint of a structured process. An effective process is definitely required, if you want to innovate effectively!

The innovation process has three phases: Creative, Development, and Implementation:

Creative, Development, and Implementation

Usually there is a trigger that fires up the need for creativity, such as:

» A problem, or challenge, needs a solution

» A new opportunity exists; or

» The ideas suggestion box contains an idea [hooray!].

This input goes into the "creativity engine" and out pops several ideas. [See Creative Thinking.]

Within the Creative phase, the ideas are evaluated.

Development Phase: One or more ideas are developed in this phase, to produce a new (or enhanced) prototype for a product, service or process.

If you are not sure of all the technical details required to develop the idea then you will need to do some research.

If there is a great deal of uncertainty and/or complexity then the risk of failure could be significant. In such cases, you should make a special effort to reduce that risk, if possible.

The development phase has much in common with other development processes in business: set objectives; plan; implement; and evaluate.

One big question that has to be asked is: can this development take place using existing in-house resources, or do we need external assistance and/or funding?

After getting feedback on your new prototype, you might want to conduct another iteration of the development process to make some incremental improvements to the product or service. When the organisation is satisfied with the final product / service then it is ready to graduate to the real-world.

Unless you are developing open source stuff then the last thing you want is for all your effort to be wasted because your competitors rip-off your idea. If you have a genuinely unique idea then you may want to consider protecting your intellectual property.

The final phase is implementation, which for a business means turning that initial idea into profit! You are not home and dry yet though. Now you need to sell the new product or service in the marketplace. To do this you can use traditional good practice in marketing, selling, delivery, customer support, and more market research (to keep improving the product / service).

Consider your risk management strategy. Prevent bad and ugly innovations. Mitigate unforeseen failures. Ask what is relevant in this context?

If the innovation was created by a university, or a large corporation and the innovation is significantly different to the core business, then a new spin-off company might be created to do the implementation phase. This is often the case for a university because its core business is research and teaching. For a corporation this may make sense too because, with the best will in the world, large organisations often become beaucratic, slow to respond, and apathetic. Conversely, a new small spin-off company should be motivated, agile and have a clear focus. The spin-off has a clear do or die objective: sell the new product / service.

Keep Innovating! Modern innovation is increasing at an exponential rate, and that might mean that the life-time of an innovation is getting shorter and shorter.

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