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Report 103
Your newsletter on applied creativity, imagination, ideas and innovation in
business – delivered to your e-mail box on the first and third Tuesday
of every month.
Tuesday, 5 December 2006
Issue 95
Hello and welcome to another issue of Report 103, your fortnightly newsletter
on creativity, imagination, ideas and innovation in business.
As always, if you have news about creativity, imagination, ideas, or innovation
please feel free to forward it to me for potential inclusion in Report103. Your
comments and feedback are also always welcome.
Information on unsubscribing, archives, reprinting articles, etc can be found
at the end of this newsletter.
GLORIOUS INEFFICIENCY
I had an interesting exchange with a chap from America the other day. He informed
me that brainstorming – by its broadest definition – is highly inefficient
and that companies could no longer afford to spend time generating lots of ideas
in order to find the one or two ideas that would bring benefits. He claimed
a ratio of one idea in 100 as being the norm.
Of course he was wrong on two fronts. Firstly, he is wrong in thinking that
one idea in 100 has tangible benefits in a brainstorming event. But he is not
way off. Where he was terribly mistaken, of course, was in thinking that I would
agree with him that an inefficient idea generation technique is a bad thing.
Indeed, Inefficiency in idea generation is a glorious thing – particularly
when you want radical, disruptive, industry changing ideas. But even if you
will settle for great innovative ideas, you need some inefficiency to discover
them.
To understand why, let's look at what efficiency is all about. An efficient
system is one in which there is no wastage. For example, a petrol (gasoline)
engine in a car is only about 25% efficient. In other words, of all the potential
energy in the petrol, only 25% is actually transferred to the crankshaft and
on to the wheels of your car. The other 75% is wasted. That waste is in the
form of engine heat, friction and pollution.
By that reckoning, brainstorming, or any form of creative ideation, is tremendously
inefficient. A group of creative thinkers can easily devise 100 or more ideas
to solve a problem – or respond to a challenge. Yet, only a small handful
of those ideas is expected to be implemented. Hence, such a system is only –
at best – about 5% efficient!
On the other hand, the efficient idea machine (EIM – an imaginary system
for generating ideas) might guide thinkers through a series of tools which result
in four ideas being generated and two of them being implemented. Thus, the EIM
has an efficiency of 50%. That certainly seems a lot better than brainstorming,
doesn't it?
At first glance, then, one might assume the EIM is better for producing ideas.
After all, half of the ideas produced are implementable.
But, ideas are not like horsepower produced by a car engine or products pumped
out by an automatic production line. Ideas vary in value significantly. A good
idea might improve your operational process and save your company $100,000 a
year. If your company has a turnover of $20 million, that is a half of one percent
of turn over and could add a couple of percent to your profit. Not bad.
An incredible idea, on the other hand, might cause you to radically rethink
your operations and save you $2 million per year. That's 10% of turnover, which
not only results in greater profitability, but also more leverage over your
competition with possibilities of cutting prices, adding value to your product,
investing in research or funding inefficient idea generation activities in order
to continue to stay in front of the competition.
Better still, a radical product idea might bring in millions of dollars in
new income AND ensure that your competitor's products are hopelessly out of
date compared to yours. Thus ensuring long term gains while your competitors
struggle to catch up. Think Apple I-Pod versus all the other MP3 players.
Unfortunately, the EIM, like most highly structured problem solving processes,
is very good at helping you identify incrementally innovative ideas. But very
bad at helping you generate radical ideas. That's because EIM is a very efficient
idea generating system. And like any efficient system, it guides you through
a very structured approach designed to generate highly predictable results.
You don't need me to tell you that predictable results are seldom very innovative.
That is not to say that EIM or predictable, incremental innovation is bad.
On the contrary, it is good. Companies like Toyota and Dell have grown to be
industry leaders thanks to continuous improvement programmes focusing on a steady
stream of incremental improvements to their production and logistics systems.
But, when you want to generate those industry shaking, radically disruptive
ideas, you need to be inefficient. You need to generate lots of ideas. Moreover,
you need freedom to generate wild and crazy ideas that do not follow any structured
system. You need freedom to play with ideas that seem ridiculous. You need to
generate a lot of rubbish. You need to do all of this to push your mind beyond
the usual processes, usual thinking and the industry norms. And to date the
only way to do this is to generate a lot of ideas along the way. Most of those
ideas will not be implemented.
But they won't be wasted. Those ideas will put you on the path that eventually
leads you to the killer ideas. Those unimplemented ideas will clear your mind
of the obvious so it can start thinking about the un-obvious. In other words,
those unimplemented ideas are necessary to get you to the great ideas.
In short, when you want creative ideas, nothing really beats a good old fashioned
ideation session (call it brainstorming, ideas campaigns, group ideation or
anything you like) for inefficiency... and brilliant ideas!
Of course, your best bet is to combine both. Structured problem solving for
continuous incremental improvement in structured processes and brainstorming
and ideas campaigns for pushing the envelope and out innovating the competition.
Note: for more information about ideas campaigns, please visit http://www.jpb.com/ideamanagement/
for more information about brainstorming and ideation in general, please visit
http://www.jpb.com/creative/
THE BAUMGARTNER WEIRDNESS SCALE
Speaking of outrageous ideas, it can be useful to have some kind of metric
upon which to rate whether an idea is an incrementally innovative one, an outrageous
paradigm busting one or a totally insane idea that bears little semblance to
reality. Sadly, such a scale has been lacking... Until now!
The Baumgartner Weirdness Scale (BWS)is a simple scale which runs from 0-9:
0 – Nothing
If any idea results in absolutely no change whatsoever, it ranks a zero. For
example, imagine a unicycle manufacturer decides to make all her unicycles with
one wheel. Such an idea would not represent any change at all.
1 – Minor change, not noticeable
A very small change that most all people would not even notice receives a 1
on the BWS. For example, if the unicycle manufacturer decides to increase the
adjustability of the seats on her unicycles so that the seats can be raised
an extra centimetre higher or lower, her customers would be unlikely to notice.
Nevertheless, the idea represents a minor change to the product.
2 – Barely noticeable
A change that people might notice if it was pointed out to them, but otherwise
would not notice is a 2. Keeping with the Unicycle manufacturer, a level 2 change
might be making the Unicycles out of a different alloy in order to reduce weight
by 15%. Most customers probably wouldn't notice the change unless a sales person
person informed them of it.
3- Nice
A level 3 change is a noticeable improvement on an existing object, concept
or process. Redesigning the unicycle so that it is easier to balance would rank
a 3 on the BWS, especially if that redesign resulted in a change in the unicycle's
appearance.
4 – Impressive
This is a distinct improvement that impresses people. A computerised unicycle
learning device installed on each unicycle, indicating which way the rider must
lean in order to keep her balance might be a level 4 idea.
5 – Incredible
This is the kind of idea that makes you shake your head and think: “why
didn't I think of that?” A unicycle complete with: (1) a computer balancing
device that prevents it from falling over and (2) the capability of being folded
up small enough to fit into an attaché case so that you could carry it
on public transportation might be a level 5 idea.
6 – Paradigm buster
Popularly known as a disruptive idea, a paradigm buster is an idea that totally
changes the way people think about an object, product, concept or process. For
example: enclosed, self-balancing, motorised unicycles with tiny electric motors
that run off the grid, which people could use to go anywhere – with barely
any energy consumption - might be a paradigm buster.
7 – Outrageous, ahead of its time
An idea which is outrageous, but which might be applied in the future is a level
7 idea. Robot unicycles with weapons that could replace police offices or soldiers
in dangerous environments might rank a 7 on the BWS.
8 – Just weird
At a certain point, an idea is clearly impractical, undoable and just plain
weird. For example, replacing all the cars in the world with enclosed, self-propelled
unicycles is weird and would probably rank 8 on the BWS scale. It's an imaginative
idea, but it's never going to happen.
9 – Insane
Ideas which push the limits of acceptability, which make no sense whatsoever
or which are dangerous are insane ideas. For example, replacing the lower half
of every human being with an organic wheel attached to the knees so that people
could race around on their wheels is an insane idea, particularly if one takes
it seriously.
Level 8 and 9 ideas might seem to serve no purpose, but they do – intellectually
anyway. For instance, in a brainstorming event or during an ideas campaign at
the unicycle manufacturer described above, level 8 and 9 ideas can inspire people
to dream up the level 5 and level 6 ideas you really want to generate during
an ideation exercise.
Moreover, it is worth bearing in mind that during a good ideation exercise,
the initial ideas are typically at the lower end of the BWS, usually level 2
and 3. As people loosen up, ideas get weirder and go higher up the BWS. At some
point, if no one squelches the idea generators, someone comes up with a level
7 or 8 idea. Once this happens, you know your exercise will produce results.
It is also important to bear in mind that most companies are conservative when
it comes to innovation. Although their CEOs say they want to innovate, they
are often not really ready to take the risk associated with launching a paradigm
buster (level 7) of an idea.
As a result, when ideas are reviewed for viability, they almost inevitably
drop a level or two in the BWS as committees attempt to reduce risk (and hence
creativity) of the top ideas. This is why it is important, when generating ideas,
to aim as high as possible on the BWS. By the time the ideas is reviewed and
implemented, it probably won't be so innovative any more.
Thus, it can also be useful to push people, during ideation exercises such
as ideas campaigns or brainstorming, to aim higher on the BWS. Likewise, when
trying to devise ideas on your own, aim high on the BWS. Not only will doing
so inspire your creativity, but those really weird ideas, when toned down, can
prove to be really innovative.
Go for it!
INNOVATION HUMOUR
If you like innovation and are not a Six Sigma fan, you will enjoy this Dilbert
cartoon: http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20061126.html
LESSONS NOT LEARNED IN INNOVATION
“Every managerial generation rediscovers the need for innovation to drive
growth but, decade after decade, 'grand declarations about innovation are followed
by mediocre execution that produces anemic results, and innovation groups are
quietly disbanded in quiet cost-cutting drives.'” ..or so says Rosabeth
Moss Kanter in the Harvard Business Review. Read a summary of her intriguing
article at http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5525.html
OI SOLUTIONS
Our UK Sales partner, OI Solutions,
has put together a couple of intriguing Jenni Marketing idea products which
combine our Jenni idea management software service with their substantial marketing
expertise in order to provide a complete, innovative marketing idea generation
and development product. Bring together OI Solution's marketing expertise, your
innovation potential and Jenni idea management in order to devise, develop and
implement killer marketing ideas. After all, if you are innovative in your product
development, you should also innovate in the marketing of those products. For
more information, visit http://www.oisolutions.co.uk/home.aspx
or contact Peter Eales on (+44) 01202 706 975. And tell him Jeffrey sent you.
E-MAIL CREATIVITY COACHING
We are experimenting with coaching applied creativity projects in which you
download a series of exercises, complete the exercises and send them to me or
one of my colleagues. We review your work, provide feedback and send you the
next exercise.
The concept behind coached creative exercises is to help you maximise your
creative potential by coaching you through a series of exercises which lead
to a specific goal or goals.
Coached creative exercises are available for Strategic Innovation, Creative
Sales Lead Generation and Creative Self Promotion. You can download and try
the first exercise of any of the sets for free. If it works for you, follow
the complete course – I think you'll be impressed with the results. On
the other hand, if it doesn't work for you, you can stop the course without
any loss. For more information, please visit http://www.jpb.com/coaching/
NEW REPRESENTATIVE IN BRAZIL
Leila Luccato Oliva, whom I like to think of as a friend, even though I have
not yet had the pleasure of meeting her in person, will be helping us out in
the Brazil market. Leila, a well established innovation consultant based in
Brazil, will not only provide Jenni to her clients in Brazil, but will also
provide integrated coaching, consulting and training packages to ensure her
clients get maximum innovation value out of Jenni.
If you are based in Brazil and want to learn more about Jenni and/or Leila's
services, contact Leila on +55 11 40250291 or + 55 11 71755392 or via http://www.jpb.com/contact/index.php?subject=Contact%20Leila.
LATEST IN BUSINESS INNOVATION
If you want to keep up with the latest news in business innovation, I recommend
Chuck Frey's INNOVATIONweek
(http://www.innovationtools.com/News/subscribe.asp). It's the only e-newsletter
that keeps you up-to-date on all of the latest innovation news, research, trends,
case histories of leading companies and more. And it's the perfect complement
to Report 103!
Happy thinking!
Jeffrey Baumgartner
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of Belgium (a jpb.com company: http://www.jpb.com).
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Report 103 is edited by Jeffrey Baumgartner and is published on the first and
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