Fresh Takes on Innovation

When developing scenarios for the future, many people struggle because they are trying to get inspired by thinking hard about the future, and feel overwhelmed when they do not find something “awe-inspiring” to say.

What about letting them invent “Headlines of the Future” for the industry or topic you are working on? It puts them in the shoes of a different group (journalists) and generally produces great insights that people can relate to better because they are more familiar to them.

Every single week we visit companies in Switzerland and Germany, sometimes also in other parts of the world, and we often hear a variation of what we like to call the “we have more than enough ideas” myth, a story that is told to us by decision makers in companies of all sizes and industries. It is told in different variations, of which the most common one is something like the following:

In our company, we actually do not have a problem with generating ideas. We have so many ideas that we do not know which ones to implement or we have problems with the implementation of ideas that are new in general, because we face internal resistance in many cases.

It is, of course, true, that in all companies new ideas are constantly generated in one way or the other. New ideas for products are discussed in meetings, new improvement for processes are suggested by people who use them, and clients come with needs and ideas that will help them do better business.

Still, the question is: Are the ideas that are developed in this way truly relevant? Are they the most innovative ideas that can be generated? And to which question are these ideas an answer?

You see, the problem with “free floating” ideas like the ones described is that they are not rooted within strategy and they are not generated in a systematic way with a carefully chosen set of participants. And this, ultimately, is also the reason that implementation of these ideas often seems difficult, time consuming, expensive etc. Needless to say that if ideas are driven by individuals, it is always also a political choice which ideas should be implemented and which ones do not deserve another minute of attention.

So our answer to companies and organisations that say “we have more than enough ideas, we just do now know which ones to implement” is to say:

- Please set up a structured innovation management in your company. This can be a process like the Idea Factory process and software that BrainStore uses, and we are happy to provide the training for your team.

- Use this process to work on truly strategic projects, generating ideas for clearly targeted questions, not general ideas for your business

- Work together with internal and external people in this process, do do not just rely on the ideas from within your organisation, but invite your clients, partners and lateral thinkers into the process

- Dare to share ideas with others and improve them by having ongoing discussions about them with a diverse set of people.

If you follow these few suggestions, you will still have lots of ideas, and you still will not be able to implement all of them, but you will know exactly which ones to implement, how, and when. And you will face a lot less resistance, because you have integrated all relevant stakeholders into the process. Sounds easy? It is.

This fun commercial sent to us from Japan shows people at the moment of inspiration in their everyday lives.

The commercial shows people being inspired in bed, in the park, in the WC, in-transit, at the beach and even in board meetings.

What’s really remarkable about this commercial though is how similar it is to the grumpy thinker who stars in the first part of the presentations we give about BrainStore!

Check out some of our images for where people get ideas:

And, we both have the same conclusions: that it’s much better to be proactive and actively try to get ideas than to just wait for creative inspiration.

Of course, our solutions are a little different!  In the commercial, the solution to lacking inspiration is a stick of gum.  Here at BrainStore, our solution is the Idea Machine – which seems like a much more reliable method of ensuring results!

Young Innovations Europe (YIE) is a fresh and exciting magazine created for and by young people interested in exercising positive leadership in their own communities in groundbreaking ways.

YIE are interested in showcasing the best initiatives, programs and innovations young people are implementing throughout Europe.

In their first magazine, YIE also portrais the Idea Factory BrainStore on page 9. You can read the article online on YIE’s website.

UPDATE: We have a winner! Congrats to Axelle who was the first to guess (on Facebook) that BrainStore was in Strasbourg today.

Here’s where we held the Idea Event! For more pictures, check out our photo album on Facebook.

Last month, we started a new contest here on Brainstore’s blog called “Where in the World is Brainstore?”  Why?

In the past 20 years, we’ve been all over the world.  We’ve traveled to four continents, holding our Idea Events everywhere from Zurich, Switzerland to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Washington D.C. in the USA.

So since we get to have so much fun traveling, we thought we’d share the fun and give you all a chance to win prizes as well!

So Where in the World is Brainstore?

Today, we’re actually holding two Idea Events simultaneously!  One at our Idea Factory in Biel, Switzerland… and one somewhere else in the world.

Where?  We’re not telling!

Instead, we’re going to give you several clues and see if you can guess!

The first person to guess where BrainStore is today will win a copy of The Idea Machine in English or German (your choice).

Ready?

Here are your first clues:

• In the mid 1400’s, this city’s newly-build Cathedral – named after the city – stole the title of “World’s Tallest Building” from the Great Pyramid of Giza.
• This city was the location for a bizarre plague where hundreds of citizens took to the streets and danced without stopping for days until many of them died.  The cause of “plague” is still a mystery.
• 1988 was a big year for this city – it celebrated its 2000th birthday!
• This city was the first one to have it’s entire historic city center classified a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

We’ll post new clues periodically until someone guesses the correct city!

Go!

Matthew Inman aka “the Oatmeal” says his site “The Oatmeal” is about comics, stories and quizzes, but in fact it is so much more. It is a site that explains facts, products and things. It even explains, for example, which 10 words we need to stop misspelling.

As we have been dealing with coffee a lot lately at BrainStore, we particularly enjoyed the Oatmeals “15(ish) Things Worth Knowing About Coffee” which explains where coffee comes from, how it came to be our favourite morning drink and how it is served in different countries. What makes Matthews work so interesting are his great texts and great artwork.

You can follow the Oatmeal on Facebook or Twitter and get great and colorful explanations about lots of things regularly. Check it out!