2. Agenda
I. Innovation II. Ideation
• Responses to Changes • Sources of new Ideas
– Users products/ services
• (Actionable) Innovation
– Improvements
– Government initiatives
– International trends
– Technology, R&D
• Ideation
– Logical Methods
– Intuitive Methods
– Hybrid Methods
3. Definitions
• Idea*
– A thought; mental conception; mental image
– A form, the look or appearance of things as opposed
to its reality
– A plan; scheme; intention; aim
• Implement*
– To carry into effect; to fulfill; accomplish
• Innovation*
– Act of affecting change in the established order
– Introduction of something new
Innovation: An idea that is implemented
• Disposition
– Inclination
– Natural Fitness
– Frame of mind
4. (Actionable) Innovation
Innovation = Idea x Implementation
• It is not a “Eureka” (chance) thing
• Proven process for each of the four links of Innovation
Process
1. Ideation: Quality and Quantity of Ideas
2. Key Ideas: Selecting the right projects
3. Pilot: Disciplined introduction of new initiatives
4. Improvement: Assimilation/ Commercialization
• Use a variety of methods and tools to make this activity
efficient and without drudgery
5. Ideation
• Sources of Ideas
• Targeted Ideation
• Enhancement of Ideas
• Screening of Ideas for Opportunities
7. Innovation Process
Pre-Disposition
Improvement
Resource Acquisition
Crafting
Business Plan
Opportunity Enhancement
Visualization
“Key” Ideas
Ideation Tandon, 1994
8. Sources of New Ideas
• Users of education products and services
– Existing
– Potential
• Improvements of existing educational products and services
• Government initiatives
• International trends
• Technology, R&D
• Other Sources
– Markets
– Channels
– Distributors
– Supply and demand gap
9. Basic Approaches
• Based on Whole Brain Model
– Logical Methods
– Intuitive Methods
– Hybrid Methods
• Each one of us prefers a few methods
• Add more tools to your tool box
10. Whole Brain Model
CEREBRAL MODE
THINKING PROCESS
A D
RIGHT MODE
LEFT MODE LOGICAL
ANALYTICAL
HOLISTIC
INTUITIVE
QUANTITATIVE SYNTHESIZING
FACT BASED INTEGRATING
PLANNED EMOTIONAL
ORGANIZED INTERPERSONAL
DETAILED FEELING BASED
SEQUENTIAL KINESTHETIC
B C
LIMBIC THINKING PROCESS
Source: The Creative Brain, Brain Books, Ned Herrmann, 1990.
11. Logical Approach to Problem Solving
Mission
Control Situation
Analysis
Implementation Strategic
Issues
Priorities Objectives/
Goals
Program and Strategies
Support Plan
12. Attribute Listing
• Developed by Robert Crawford
• State Issue (problem or objective)
• List all characteristics related to the issue
• Systematically modify, focus, tackle each attribute
• Its’ never just one thing but usually a combination
13. Benchmarking
• Identify an area of improvement
• Internal/Competitive/Functional Benchmarking
• Identify a “world class organization” doing that
process particularly well
• Look at good processes in multiple organizations
• Bring back ideas from those organizations
• Implement in your own organization
14. Six Sigma
• Developed by Motorola 1979 (Mikel Harry)
• Business Process redesign to reduce cost and yet
increase quality
• “Metrics” of relevance
• Specific methods to recreate the processes so that
defects/errors do not arise in the first place
• Tougher and tougher relentless questioning of
each process
15. Logical Methods
• Left Brained, Analytical, Rational, Convergent
• Derivatives of the Scientific Method
– Recognize a need
– Define the problem
– Develop a solution
– Develop a method to test viability of solution
– Apply methodology
– Compare results with expected results
– Summarize findings
16. Whole Brain Model
CEREBRAL MODE
THINKING PROCESS
A D
RIGHT MODE
LEFT MODE
LOGICAL HOLISTIC
ANALYTICAL INTUITIVE
QUANTITATIVE SYNTHESIZING
FACT BASED INTEGRATING
PLANNED EMOTIONAL
ORGANIZED INTERPERSONAL
DETAILED FEELING BASED
SEQUENTIAL KINESTHETIC
B C
LIMBIC THINKING PROCESS
Source: The Creative Brain, Brain Books, Ned Herrmann, 1990.
17. Improvement
Resource Acquisition
Crafting
Business Plan
Opportunity Enhancement
Visualization
“Key” Ideas
4-A Ideation
18. Analogies/ Metaphors
• Aristotle: New words puzzle, ordinary words tell us
what we know, metaphors give fresh insight
• Valuable way to visualize and solve problems
• Analogies: “this problem is like a time bomb”
• Metaphor: “ All the world is a stage”
– Unrelated, non-traditional relationship
19. Brain Storming
• Developed by Alex Osborne
• Five Key Conditions
1. Rule out criticism
2. Welcome Freewheeling
3. Generate many ideas
4. Seek combinations and improvement of ideas
5. Define the problem properly
• Key Skills:
– Build your tolerance for “bad” ideas
– Cross pollination
• Process
– Few minute warm up session to loosen participants
– Participants receive problem statement before session
– Participants encouraged to bring some solutions
– Leader restates the principle of deferred judgment
– Introduce idea spurring questions, if bogged down
20. Some Idea – Spurring Questions
Harden -- cream (instead of liquid) shampoo
Minify? Fewer? Subtract? Eliminate? Smaller?
Lighter? Shorter? Thinner? Shallower? Preform -- prefabricated houses
Magnify? More? Add? Larger? Heavier? Stronger? Disposable -- Clench-type bottlecaps, disposable diapers,
Substitute? Who else instead? What else instead?
paper dresses, and tissues
Other Place? Other time?
Rearrange? Other layout? Other sequence? Stand vertically? Place Incorporate -- counting register on printing press
horizontally? Slanted? Parallel? Crosswise? Converge? Diverge?
Intervene? Delineate? Border? Open? Close? Parted -- tractor tread, split-level highway
Reverse? Opposites? Turn backwards? Turn upside down? Inside Solidify -- soup and beverage mixes
out?
Combine? How about a blend? An assortment? Liquefy -- plant food chemicals
Separate? Combine purposes? Combine ideas? Fractionate? Vaporize nasal medication vaporizers
Assemble? Disassemble?
Put to Other Uses? New ways to use as is? Other uses if modified? Pulverize -- powdered eggs, leaf mulcher attachment to lawn
Adapt? What else is like this? What other ideas does mover, kitchen sink garbage disposal unit.
this suggest?
Modify? Change meaning, color, motion, sound, odor, taste, form,
Wetter -- hydraulic brakes
shape, temperature? Solidify? liquefy? Vaporize? Pulverize? Make Insulate -- food pads, thermal containers
disposable? Abrade? Lubricate? Insulate? Wetter? Drier?
Effervesce? Coagulate? Elasticize? Electrify? Compress -- medicinal tablets
Change Time Element? Faster? Slower? More
frequently? Less frequently? Chronologize? Effervesce -- analgesic preparations
Perpetuate? Synchronize? Anticipate? Coagulate -- gelatin desserts
Renew? Recur? Alternate?
Elasticize -- bubble gum, belts
Electrify -- electric blanket
Heavier -- can opener with weighted stand
21. ‘Keep on the lookout for
novel and interesting ideas
that others have used
successfully. Your idea is to
be original only in its
adaptation to the problem
you are working on.’
Thomas Edison
22. Different Worlds
• Go to a different world
– (Farming, Military, Business, Nature..)
• Look at a similar problem faced in that world
• How are they “solving” the problem?
• Generate lots of ideas
• Implement Key Ideas in your own world
23. Inside Out Variations on:
Different Worlds
• Where else would this thing work?
• Create a product for the lowest rung.
• Solutions in search of a problem.
• Deep Dive (IDEO): deep research on product
24. Outside In Variations on:
Different Worlds
• Alert Observations: Odd things, exceptions
• Job Rotation
• Fresh Eyes: New Employees
• Walk the Trade Show
• Reading Group or Book Club on a concept
25. Role Playing
• Select a Role
• People: Florence Nightingale, Frank Lloyd Wright,
Abraham Lincoln, Ben Franklin, Walt Disney,
Thomas Edison
• Picture and get in the role of the person
• Look at the problem from this perspective
26. Role Playing (Examples)
How would you solve this opportunity or think about this concept if you were one of
these people, animals or professions?
Hindu Monk Mae West Ben Hur Dentist Salesperson
Donald Duck Prostitute Martin L. King, Jr. Thomas Edison
Mother Theresa Michael Jordan
Salesperson TV evangelist Restaurant Dishwasher
Captain of a Ship Landscape Designer Black Beard
John Wayne
Zebra Thomas Jefferson Ancient Explorer Palm reader
DQ Owner Loch Ness Monster Tammy Baker Sleeping Beauty
Oprah Winfrey KG Teacher Moses Meteorologist
Flying Squirrel Fire Ant
Winnie-the-Pooh Radio Disc Jockey Bambi
SWAT Leader Michael Jackson Woman in Army
Olympic Athlete
Dr. Zhivago Teenage Mutant Jacque Cousteau Tom Thumb
Dragon Ninja Turtle
General Custer Circus Clown
Mortician Politician
Helen Kellor
Hospital Patient Environmentalist
Dilbert Bob Marley
Mother Theresa
Stephen King
27. Variations on Role Playing
• Customer Perspective
• What would Croesus do?
– Unconstrained customer: Croesus, a supremely rich king of Lydia
(modern day Turkey) whose wealth came from mining gold in the
river where Midas bathed.
• What would Donald Trump do?
– Vast resources: connections, money and time
• What would Mr. Customer do?
– Typical customer
• What would a poor beggar do?
– Maximum amount of the key benefit for a minimum cost
• Play the Devil’s advocate
– Assign someone to take an extreme negative position
28. Paradox Management
• It is the organizing premise of the epoch
– Mass Customization
– Higher Quality at lower cost
– Intuitive Logic
– Co-opitition
– Riches at the Bottom of the Pyramid
• Be prepared for the exact opposite of your plan
• Irreconcilable concepts, if they are integrated, lead
to breakthrough ideas
• From (One or other) to (One and other)
29. Variation of Paradox Management
• Flip it around
The opposite of a true statement is a false statement.
The opposite of a profound truth may as well be
another profound truth – Neils Bohr
– Let customer decide the price: Priceline
– Mortgage that automatically adjusts the length of time with
changing interest rates without having to refinance
– Good ideas are the ones left after you throw away the bad
ones
• How are customers misusing the product?
– Using PAM on the lawnmower
• Asymmetry
Deliberately break natural desire for symmetry
– One way toll booth on Golden Gate bridge
30. Intuitive Methods
• Right Brained, Integrating, Holistic, Divergent
• Derivatives of the Creative Process
– Problem Description
– Incubation
– Illumination
– Verification
31. Hybrid Methods
• Hybrid, Accordion, Combination*
• Developing the other method (Logical, Intuitive)
gives us more permutations/combinations
32. Improvement
Resource Acquisition
Crafting
Business Plan
Opportunity Enhancement
Visualization
“Key” Ideas
4-A Ideation
IDEATION X IMPLEMENTATION
33. Hybrid Problem Solving Process
IMPLEMENTATION
PROBLEM IDEA SOLUTION ACCEPTANCE
FACT
Look for Search for details/ Seek new ways Generate many Examine Identify
opportunities/ objections,
relationships/ from diverse alternatives possible
challenges acceptance
implications perspectives solutions
needs,
Choose a Choose most
promising one Use all senses Choose best one promising for Compare/
Seek resources,
evaluation prioritize
Identify/
examine Highlight key facts
Gain
commitment
Prioritize
Start
Parnes - Osborne: Creative Problem Solving Process, 1992
34. Principled Problem Solving
• Created by Barry Nalebuff & Ian Ayres
– Break the practice into component parts in simple declarative
sentences
– Flip each part one by one
– Pick one or several that may be possible
• Auction/Dutch Auction:
– An item is put up for sale
– An auctioneer proposes successively higher prices
– The last bidder wins
35. Experience Engineering
• Created by Lewis Carbone
• Experience clues from customer perspective
– Functionality (Logical)
– Emotional (Intuitive)
• Mechanics (From things)
• Humanics (From people)
• Process:
– Experience Audit
– Experience Motif
– Implement
36. Problem Solving Techniques
Level Technique Logical Intuitive
1 Attribute Association Ind. Group
1 Analogies/Metaphors Ind. Group
1 Association Images Ind. Group
1 Brain Storming Group
2 Tour the Mall Ind. Group
2 Force Field Analysis Ind. Group
2 Different Worlds Ind. Group
2 Role Playing Ind. Group
2 Wild Ideas Ind. Group
3 Experience Eng Ind. Group Ind. Group
3 Alignor Ind. Group Ind. Group
37. Ideation with New Information
Functional Use Management Focus
Remain in 5 Reaching the
Business Consumer Organizational Effectiveness
5. People 5. Restructuring of the
Systems Industry
Make Money
4 Enhancing Executive
4. Megadecisions 4. Restructuring of the
Decision Making
Organization
3. Marketing,
Distribution, 3 Enhancing Products 3. Growth and Increase in
Customer Service and Services Market Share
Save Money
Operational Control
2. Financial, 2 Leveraging Investments
Manufacturing 2. Asset Management
, Services
1. Administrative 1. Process Management
1 Reducing Costs
39. Ideation Recap
• Good Projects are a two step process:
1. Start with lots of ideas
– 4-A: Anyone can have ideas on Anything, from Anywhere, Anytime
– Focus is on the Quantity of ideas and not their quality
2. Pick a few consensus “Key Ideas”
• Remove duplicates
• Reject the ones with low organizational energy
• Assign “Low hanging fruit”
• Propel or kill projects on risk alignment
• Strategy
• Pre-disposition
• Key concepts:
– Quiet time to reflect
– Diversity of personnel, prevent hijacking by a few
– Use wisdom of crowds
– Different methods of generating ideas
