15 GENERATE NEW HOW TO
IDEAS ON LAUNCHYOURGENIUS.COM Ideas

“If you have an apple
and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” ― George Bernard Shaw

Have you ever wondered how
to get a great idea? !

What is the process of
consistently getting ideas that matter and knowing which ones to implement?

! “Maybe [artistry] doesn’t have
to be quite so full of anguish if you never happened to believe, in the first place, that the most extraordinary aspects of your being came from you. But maybe if you just believed that they were on loan to you from some unimaginable source for some exquisite portion of your life to be passed along when you’re finished … it starts to change everything.” — Elizabeth Gilbert, TED talk 1. WHEN YOU RECEIVE AN IDEA, CHASE IT DOWN IMMEDIATELY AND WRITE IT DOWN

THE QUESTION: DO YOU HAVE
A STRUCTURE OR A SYSTEM TO COLLECT, WRITE DOWN, ACCESS AND IMPLEMENT YOUR IDEAS?

ACTION TIPS: Is it possible
to collect the idea? Is there something nearby to write it down? Are you able to find it quickly when you need it? Can you implement some of the ideas in a timely manner? DO NOT JUST BE A COLLECTOR OF IDEAS. BE SURE TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING WITH THEM!!

“Most ideas are born and
lost in isolation.” ― Scott Belsky, Author of Making Ideas Happen

! “The Anthropologist brings new
learning and insights into the organization by observing human behavior and developing a deep understanding of how people interact physically and emotionally with products, services, and spaces.”- The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley and Jonathan Littman 2. GET IN THE HABIT OF OBSERVATION AND EMBRACE THE ANTHROPOLOGIST PERSONA

AFTER WATCHING IDEO’S “THE DEEP
DIVE” ON ABC’S NIGHTLINE… POLISH EMPLOYEES OF A SOFT DRINK FIRM USED IDEO’S TECHNIQUE OF LEARNING FROM ACTUAL CUSTOMERS BY OBSERVING THEM IN THE FIELD.

PEOPLE WERE LOOKING AT THE
DRINKS KIOSK, THEIR CLOCK AND GLANCING OVER TO SEE IF THE TRAIN WAS COMING MINUTES BEFORE THEIR ARRIVAL…. THE IDEA!! THEY CREATED DRINK KIOSKS WITH HUGE CLOCKS ON THEM THAT FACILITATED THE SIMULTANEOUS OBSERVATION OF THE TIME AND THE REFRESHMENTS.

“We’ve been advocating field observations
and quick prototyping for a long time. Sometimes a breakthrough is one small insight away. A simple telling observation—like the train passengers glancing from their watches to the soda kiosks—can make all the difference. Make patient observation and quick prototyping part of your recipe for innovation. You might be surprised by the results.”- The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley and Jonathan Littman

IMPROVE YOUR
OBSERVATION
SKILLS!!

BIRD WATCHING AND IDENTIFICATION IS
A GREAT WAY TO IMPROVE OBSERVATION SKILLS… ACTION TIP: INCREASE YOUR SKILLS OF OBSERVATION BY PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE WORLD AROUND YOU.

3. ARE YOU ASKING THE
RELEVANT QUESTIONS?! “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask… for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”-Albert Einstein

UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM BY ASKING
THE RELEVANT QUESTIONS…

ACTION TIPS:! ASK RELEVANT QUESTIONS:
WHY IS IT SO? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? HOW CAN I SOLVE THIS? WHERE DOES IT HAPPEN? WHEN? DOES IT HAPPEN?

4. SHOULD YOU GO THROUGH
WITH AN IDEA? WEIGHING ENTHUSIASM AND PASSION VS. FEAR OF CRITICISM AND FAILURE “A great idea should always be left to steep like loose tea leaves in a teapot for a while to make sure that the tea will be strong enough and that the idea truly is a great one.”― Phoebe Stone

IS THERE AN IDEA THAT
KEEPS COMING BACK TO YOU IN DIFFERENT FORMS AND MESSAGES? PURSUE IT!

ACTION TIP: IMPACT IDEA THAT
YOU HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO FOLLOW BUT WERE AFRAID OF CRITICISM OR FAILURE. FOLLOW IT ANYWAYS. WHAT IS THE SINGLE MOST HIGH

“No army can withstand the
strength of an idea whose time has come.”― Victor Hugo

5. TAKE A WALK IN
NATURE TO RELAX AND GENERATE THAT NEXT IDEA! “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.” ― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

TAKE A WALK IN THE
WOODS!

The real act of discovery
consists not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes. —Marcel Proust 6. CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE AND LOOK AT A PROBLEM WITH A DIFFERENT FILTER AND WITH NEW EYES

REFRAMING A PROBLEM IS A
GREAT TECHNIQUE TO GENERATE NEW IDEAS!

CHANGE THE FILTER AND THE
LENS THAT YOU LOOK AT THE PROBLEM WITH. ZOOM IN AND ZOOM OUT FROM THE PROBLEM

IN THE BOOK, 10 FACES OF
INNOVATION BY TOM KELLEY AND JONATHAN LITTMAN OF IDEO, MANY DIFFERENT PERSONAS OR LENSES THAT YOU CAN USE HAVE BEEN DESCRIBED.

USE TRIAL AND ERROR AND
EXPERIMENT TO GENERATE NEW IDEAS. THE EXPERIMENTER PERSONA:

THE EXPERIMENTER PERSONA: BMW USED
SHORT FILMS INSTEAD OF TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING = BIG HIT!

THE CROSS POLLINATOR PERSONA: !
! ! EXPLORE OTHER INDUSTRIES, CULTURES AND PRACTICES AND USE THE REVELATIONS FOR GENERATING IDEAS.

BRING DIFFERENT GROUPS THAT WOULD
NOT USUALLY MEET AND GENERATE SOLUTIONS AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY IDEAS. THE COLLABORATOR PERSONA

COLLECT AND NARRATE COMPELLING NARRATIVES
FROM REAL LIFE SITUATIONS AND PEOPLE TO BECOME AWARE OF UNIQUE PERSPECTIVES AND DEVELOP NEW IDEAS. THE STORYTELLER PERSONA:

WHAT IDEAS CAN YOU GENERATE
IF YOU LOOKED FROM THE EYES OF SOMEONE ELSE?

7. DO NOT DISMISS YOUR
INSANE IDEA AS IMPOSSIBLE “For an idea that does not first seem insane, there is no hope.”― Albert Einstein

DID THE WORLD NEED YET
ANOTHER MP3 PLAYER? SEEMS LIKE IT DID!

SAY YES TO A GREAT
IDEA INSTEAD OF RATIONALIZING WHY IT WILL NOT WORK. ! “I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.”― John Cage

8. MEET AND HANGOUT WITH
PEOPLE WHO ARE OUTSIDE YOUR CIRCLE OF FRIENDS ! “Chance favors the connected mind.”― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation

IN HIS TED TALK, STEVEN
JOHNSON DESCRIBES THAT COFFEE SHOPS OR CAFES WERE GREAT IDEA GENERATION MACHINES HISTORICALLY AND LEAD TO THE PERIOD KNOWN AS THE ENLIGHTENMENT.

TO GET NEW IDEAS, GO
OUT… AND MINGLE WITH PEOPLE AND PERSPECTIVES THAT ARE QUITE DIFFERENT FROM YOURS…

9. DO SOMETHING THAT YOU
HAVE NEVER DONE BEFORE TO GET NEW IDEAS ! “If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old”― Peter F. Drucker

ARE YOU ROUTINELY BREAKING OUT
OF YOUR ROUTINE?

10. PROCESSES FOR IDEA GENERATION
“Good ideas may not want to be free, but they do want to connect, fuse, recombine. They want to reinvent themselves by crossing conceptual borders. They want to complete each other as much as they want to compete”― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation

MIX AND MATCH UP NEW
BUT SIMILAR IDEAS ! ! CONNECT AND COMBINE UNRELATED IDEAS

SUBTRACT OR ADD SOMETHING FROM
AN IDEA

USE DOODLING OR MIND MAPS
FOR NEW IDEAS…

READ MAGAZINES AND BOOKS AT
THE LOCAL LIBRARY ! LISTEN TO AND FOLLOW THOUGHT LEADERS IN YOUR FIELD ON SOCIAL MEDIA ! SUBSCRIBE TO THOUGHT PROVOKING BLOGS, PODCASTS AND WEBSITES FOR MORE IDEAS…

11. QUESTION YOUR ASSUMPTIONS TO
GENERATE AND SUSTAIN NEW IDEAS ! ! “Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”― Isaac Asimov

QUESTION ALL YOUR ASSUMPTIONS:! !
! ! ! ! I SHOULD HAVE… ! I COULD HAVE…

QUESTION ALL YOUR ASSUMPTIONS: IF
ONLY I WAS… I DON’T HAVE THE TIME.. IDEAS ARE CHEAP… I DON’T HAVE THE MONEY… I AM VERY BUSY…

! “At the heart of
science is an essential tension between two seemingly contradictory attitudes– an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new.”― Carl Sagan

12. BECOME CURIOUS AND IMAGINATIVE
LIKE A CHILD..DO NOT BE AFRAID TO LOOK SILLY

“AT BEYOND CONTINENT OF REALITY,
THERE ARE OCEANS OF IDEAS.” ―TOBA BETA

CHILDREN ARE ENDLESSLY CURIOUS AND
LOOK AT THE WORLD FROM A SENSE OF WONDER AND AMAZEMENT. CHILDREN ARE UNAFRAID OF LOOKING SILLY AND ALLOW IMAGINATIVE IDEAS TO TAKE HOLD OF THEM.

THE INNOVATION FIRM, IDEO IS
KNOWN TO HAVE CARTS WITH MATERIALS OF ALL SORT SO THAT TEAM MEMBERS CAN PROTOTYPE AND GET NEW IDEAS VERY QUICKLY FROM MATERIALS AVAILABLE FROM THEM.

IN STANFORD CREATIVITY RESEARCHER, TINA
SEELIG’S CLASS, THERE ARE MANIPULATIVES LIKE A PRESCHOOL SO THAT THE STUDENTS CAN EXPLORE THEIR CREATIVITY UNHINDERED.

NO IDEA IS TOO SILLY
OR IMPOSSIBLE.

13. HAVING A LOT OF
DOWN TIME TO INCUBATE THOSE IDEAS…SLEEP, REST, RELAXATION AND MEDITATION “When I am ….. completely myself, entirely alone… or during the night when I cannot sleep, it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how these ideas come I know not nor can I force them.” ― Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

“SLEEP ON IT” = “INCUBATION”
PHASE OF CREATIVITY = WHERE IDEAS COLLIDE IN YOUR MIND TO BLOSSOM INTO SOMETHING NOVEL.

FRIEDRICH AUGUST KEKULÉ IS FAMOUSLY
KNOWN TO HAVE DISCOVERED THE RING STRUCTURE OF BENZENE IN A DREAM WHERE HE SAW A SNAKE SEIZING ITS OWN TAIL. HOWEVER, THIS WAS ONLY POSSIBLE AFTER HE STUDIED THE NATURE OF CARBON BONDS FOR YEARS.

THE TUNE TO “YESTERDAY” CAME
TO PAUL MCCARTNEY IN A DREAM. According to him: ! “I woke up with a lovely tune in my head. I thought, ‘That’s great, I wonder what that is?’ There was an upright piano next to me, to the right of the bed by the window. I got out of bed, sat at the piano, found G, found F sharp minor 7th – and that leads you through then to B to E minor, and finally back to E. It all leads forward logically. I liked the melody a lot, but because I’d dreamed it, I couldn’t believe I’d written it. I thought, ’No, I’ve never written anything like this before.’ But I had the tune, which was the most magic thing!”

MEDITATE OR SIT IN SILENCE
DECLUTTER YOUR MIND!

14. COMING UP WITH MORE
IDEAS IS BETTER…INCLUDING THE SEEMINGLY BAD ONES “Quantity over quality. It is more important to come up with a bunch of stuff so that some of it has a chance of being great. I would even go so far to say that going for great ideas is not a great idea because it paralyzes you. It frustrates you.” – Matthew Diffee, TEDxRedding Talk, How to get a great idea

MAKE A LIST OF IDEAS.
THEN COME UP WITH A SECONDARY LIST. THEN TRY TO COME UP WITH SOME MORE IDEAS. YOU MAY COME UP WITH REALLY BAD ONES BUT KEEP GOING… .

“Your greatest ideas will be
accidents. You can good ones with work but you can’t get the great ones. The question is: Is that good news or bad news. I think it is both. The bad news is that you can’t make a great idea happen by working harder. The good news is that you can’t make a great idea happen by working harder. So just relax. Make your pot of coffee. Sit down. Put in your time. Do your work. Go for quantity over quality. And every now and then, a great idea will hit you right smack dab on the back of your head.” – Matthew Diffee, TEDxRedding Talk

“The best way to have
a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.” – Linus Pauling, Nobel Prize winner

15. MAKE YOUR ENVIRONMENT SUPPORT
AND PROMOTE THE CHANCE OF IDEA FORMATION

SET UP YOUR WORKSPACE TO
REFLECT YOUR PERSONAL DESIGN SENSIBILITIES. ! YOUR WORK AREA = NATURAL TRANSITION INTO THE CREATIVE, IDEA GENERATION MOOD.

COMPANIES LIKE GOOGLE CAREFULLY AND
CREATIVELY DESIGN THEIR WORKSPACES TO MAXIMIZE IDEA FORMATION AND THE CROSS-POLLINATION OF ECLECTIC IDEAS.

PAY ATTENTION TO TONE, MOOD,
MUSIC, COLOR, SIGHTS, PICTURES, OBJECTS AND TOOLS THAT FACILITATE IDEA GENERATION. EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT MODALITIES OF LEARNING, PROCESSING AND IDEA GENERATION SUCH AS SIGHT, SOUND AND TOUCH.

BONUS TIP: MAKE A BUG
LIST ! WHAT BUGS YOU? ! HOW CAN YOU FIX IT? ! HOW CAN YOU DO SOMETHING DIFFERENTLY? !

SUMMARY 1. WHEN YOU RECEIVE
AN IDEA, CHASE IT AND WRITE IT DOWN 2. GET IN THE HABIT OF OBSERVATION AND EMBRACE THE ANTHROPOLOGIST PERSONA. 3. ARE YOU ASKING THE RELEVANT QUESTIONS? 4. SHOULD YOU GO THROUGH WITH AN IDEA? WEIGHING ENTHUSIASM AND PASSION VS. FEAR OF CRITICISM AND FAILURE 5. TAKE A WALK IN NATURE TO RELAX AND GENERATE THAT NEXT IDEA 6. CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE AND LOOK AT A PROBLEM WITH A DIFFERENT FILTER AND WITH NEW EYES 7. DO NOT DISMISS YOUR INSANE IDEA AS IMPOSSIBLE 8. MEET AND HANGOUT WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE OUTSIDE YOUR CIRCLE OF FRIENDS 9. DO SOMETHING THAT YOU HAVE NEVER DONE BEFORE TO GET NEW IDEAS 10. PROCESSES FOR IDEA GENERATION: MIX AND MATCH, CONNECT AND COMBINE, ADD, SUBTRACT, MIND MAP, READ, SOCIAL MEDIA 11. QUESTION YOUR ASSUMPTIONS TO GENERATE AND SUSTAIN NEW IDEAS 12. BECOME CURIOUS AND IMAGINATIVE LIKE A CHILD..DO NOT BE AFRAID TO LOOK SILLY 13. HAVE A LOT OF DOWN TIME TO INCUBATE THOSE IDEAS…SLEEP, REST, RELAXATION AND MEDITATION 14. COMING UP WITH MORE IDEAS IS BETTER…INCLUDING THE SEEMINGLY BAD ONES 15. MAKE YOUR ENVIRONMENT SUPPORT AND PROMOTE THE CHANCE OF IDEA FORMATION BONUS TIP: MAKE A BUG LIST ! ! ! !

THANKS A LOT!
CLICK HERE

Adapted Image Credit:Gdynia train station
by kalleboo at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalleboo/2679637359/ License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit:1142 by ptwo at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ptwo/6254219668/ License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit:Getting Ideas by The Italian Voice at http://www.flickr.com/photos/desiitaly/2237751658/ License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: illumination / idea by Daniel Wehner at http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel-wehner/3867435331/ License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: Jen Proposing an idea by juhansonin at http://www.flickr.com/photos/juhansonin/7797017624/ License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: Forest Park by szapucki at www.flickr.com/photos/chelsea_nj/ License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: The ideas & concepts board, day 1 by Object000 at http://www.flickr.com/photos/object000/4134078961/ License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Adapted Image Credit: Eyes by
Scinern at http://www.flickr.com/photos/cnon/5698746966/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: Lens by Caitlinator at http://www.flickr.com/photos/caitlinator/3050356898/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: IDEO Headquarters Door by naotakem at http://www.flickr.com/photos/naotakem/148028870/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: BMW by roadoversl at http://www.flickr.com/photos/105402737@N08/11038196586/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: iPod by pittaya at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pittaya/386521688/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: Cafe tetras by zoetnet at http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoetnet/4850902371/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: Autodesk IDEAS by jurvetson at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/7171821746/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Adapted Image Credit: an exercise
in ideas on post it notes by Inha Leex Hale at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixmilliondollardan/3383537791/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: How to mind map by zipckr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/zipckr/4688416205/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: Curious Children collaborate by juliejordanscott at http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliejordanscott/4761407920/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: Woman sleeping with Jane Austen by warm sleepy at http://www.flickr.com/photos/timothykrause/5885747179/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: Om by Drab Makyo at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ranna/361802432/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: Idea Bulb by Qisur at http://www.flickr.com/photos/qisur/4351196974/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Adapted Image Credit: Google Offices Soho, Londo by martinvarsavsky at http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinvars/7176371046/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/