After a long time, I met my friend and mentor, Mr Vermajee. I updated him on the recently successful IdeaHarvest workshop I conducted for a brand. I told him how it surprises me that most business managers have a very myopic understanding of creativity and Idea creation. They do not consider themselves creative, though, on a day-to-day basis, they react to probortunity ( Problem or opportunity) with the best possible solutions. They don’t think creating and picking the best solutions is being creative. I ask them if they have ever lied or made an excuse. And when they say YES, the question about being creative or not is buried.
Vermajee pointed out that the processes I use are universally known. Would a ChatGPT not give all possible solutions? So, why should someone ask me to run the workshop?
My answer is simple. I bring business experience and an understanding of the situation. But, what makes the workshop successful is the ability to orchestrate the participants into addressing the probortunity collectively without barriers. The ability to rightly gauge the pulse and decide how to arrange the processes, which nerve to press to ensure we remain playfully focussed. Being an outsider allows me more freedom in interplay during IdeaHARVEST and InNoWaite Workshops. My experience shows that ChatGPT can only relate and bring already available output without being creative or evaluative.
My workshops are more of a reality show with some gaming for extra spice. It helps create the desired level of passion and enhance energy levels, which helps the workshop’s success. And that is what I get paid for; the solutions are always provided and recommended collectively by the participants.
MY FAVOURITE IDEATION PROCESSES.
So, on Vermajee’s advice, I am sharing some of my favourite processes used in the workshop. This is not a complete list. And the order I would arrange them is decided on the spot during the workshop, depending on how the audience reacts.
IDEA VOMIT – Getting The Obvious Solutions Out Of The Way.
We all react to a probortunity based on our experience and knowledge. Most likely, we have a few obvious solutions ready. Idea vomit asks the audience to list all such ideas so that they can think of new and different ideas once they are out of the way.
AIM FOR QUANTITY- Quality will follow.
This is somewhat tough to work with. To get the best solution, you must have lots and lots of solutions to choose from. So, to do so, one must keep generating ideas without evaluating them or thinking of practicality. Unfortunately, we humans evaluate first. And, yes, I have had many funny and honest out-of-box and sometimes impractical solutions proposed by the participants. But that is part of the game.
We keep the race on for the 100th and 150th ideas. Knowing we will use business filters later to select the final solution.
DIVERSITY OF PARTICIPANTS- Leads to Diversity of ideas.
It is a myth that salespeople have sales solutions, and HR has HR solutions. They may have a better understanding of their department and problem. However, working with diverse people with different mindsets and expertise, it is easier to open up and think of multiple not-so-obvious solutions. Usually, the team facing the problem is so engaged that they are blind to opportunities and solutions that are not part of some SOPs. Working with the cross-functional team first and later re-configuring the teams helps refocus and develop more solutions. In the second stage, there is usually an unstated competitiveness – ego and challenge to create the best solution. Hence, participation must be appropriately managed and harnessed for the best results. I prefer not to have the top-level team as participants or even observers. Somehow, they bring unwanted filters with their presence hindering free open thinking and voicing ideas.
HATS AND SHOES- think and act.
I have used Six Action Hats and Six Action Shoes by Edward De Bono to fund them very effectively in the ideation and discussion process. It gives everyone a chance to experience the importance and utility of each shoe and hat.
CONNECTING THE UNCONNECTED – Forced Linkages.
It is a role play, and the participants are asked to think and give ideas while playing the role of someone well-known. My favourites are Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Amit Shah, Bill gates, Kejriwal, Elon Musk, Anand Mahindra, Modi, Rahul Gandhi, and SRK. And I add or subtract to the list based on the competitive brands and the probortunity being addressed.
I am a fan of such success transfer. No new musical notes are discovered; new music is a different arrangement of notes and instruments. The desire to be original should not suffocate creativity. It does not matter if someone has used a similar idea; if it is relevant ad impactful, it must be tabled and discussed. Maybe we would know how to tweak it for better impact. So, we look at known problems and solutions and try learning from them to create solutions to the probortunity.
Also, use google image search. We pre-decide the number of images and then ask the participants to use that visual as a clue to a possible solution or idea.
Sometimes I ask participants to go out and shoot five random pictures. And then ask them to think of a possible solution to the probortunity basis on the interpretation of the images. It is tough as people tend to pre-evaluate what they are shooting, which is against the process.
BE THE BOSS- Dictate the Idea.
At some stage, I ask the participants to act like the firm’s CEO. They are free to take the call and decide on the solution or create a team to work on it. One is surprised how this public make-belief role-play places responsibility into people’s minds and how they approach a situation. There is a lot to learn when young participants play the CEO role.
PASS THE MIKE- everyone counts.
Like every other workshop, you find the bell curve operating. There are some extroverts and openly vocal people; some are shy and introverts, they evaluate everything before suggesting. So pass the mike is a simple exercise where a representative mike- a pen-duster or something similar is passed from participant to participant forcing them to contribute. Done early in the workshop gives you an indication of how to rejig the teams.
GOING BEYOND THE SOLUTION- implementation plan.
This is what differentiates a successful ideation workshop from just another workshop. After attempting and most likely succeeding in generating ideas, I push the participants to select the ones they find most relevant and have the potential to succeed. They are even required to create an immediate timeline, possible team and resource requirement grid after using IdeaSwarming to fine-tune the idea further. Here the experience and knowledge comes handy and multifunctional evaluation helps in a buy-in.
KEEP IDEA GENERATION FUN- Act like a Child.
Too much thinking leads to burnout. So keeping the atmosphere light and selectively pushing and relaxing people is something one learns with experience.
I try to ensure that people sleep the day before the workshop peacefully. I request that no one travel early to the venue, and we should not rush with the morning tea and breakfast. Starting the day half an hour late is okay.
A child’s mind is the most relaxed and innocent, and they can think like crazy. And in my workshops, though, it becomes tough- keeping the child alive in the participants is one of the main focuses.
TIME PRESSURE – it works.
In addition to internal competition and the need for relaxed minds, time pressure works. It places value on the time allotted for the solution generation, and one can experiment with multiple processes. Remember, one is looking at solutions, lots of solutions and not the best solution.
NET-NET IDEA CREATION
Try these processes with your team or individually.
However, if a significant challenge has been unresolved for a long time, or you want to learn and practice innovative thinking, get into a workshop mode. Always take the help of an outside facilitator and your diverse cross-sectional team across age, experience and gender for better control and output.
IdeaHarvest focuses on generating Ideas, and InNoWait means what it says- why should you wait to innovate? Innovate now and here.
BLOG/018/2023. To connect, send an email, join on Twitter S_kotnala or subscribe to the weekly update.
