Fresh Takes on Innovation

decompose the problem to solve it!

Today I attended a meeting of a small company that wanted to find a solution on how to find new clients. They were trying to have a brainstorming session on this question and (not much to my surprise) started struggling with it, becoming entangled in a very unstructured discussion. Soon they were so deep in the jungle of their problem that they were unable to find a way out.

What had happened? It is fairly simple: They had been staring the problem in the face without looking at it with more distance. This is a typical mistake when people try to generate ideas. But what is the solution. Simple, buit it needs a fair amount of training: Instead of trying to solve the question, first de-compose the question and work on subquestions.

For instance, if you are trying to find new clients, here are just a few examples of what you might want to look at:
- potential channels of communication
- different target audiences
- strengths in working with current clients
- totally whacky ideas on how to get meetings with potential clients
- ideas for mailings
- how are other companes finding new clients
- etc.

The difference is that you first look at subquestions to your greater problem, and that gives you the possibility to build great ideas using that raw material.

Another issue is who you involve in the generation of ideas, but this is yet another subject that we will need to discuss later.

There is an African saying: If you want to eat an Elephant, you have to cut it in small pieces. It’s the same with ideas, really.

Design by Hwang Jin wook, Jeon You ho, Han Kuk il & Kim Ji myung

At BrainStore we were pretty excited a few years ago when a defense contractor asked us to create some ideas on how their existing technologies could be used to make the world a better place.

They wanted to know what the scenarios of future threats to mankind were and how to respond to them. We came up with many ieas to tackle themes like modern piracy, desertification, world hunger, water poisoning, terrorism in cities, deluge and many more.

One concept took into consideration to build a kind of “seed bomb” that you could drop over territories that cannot be reached easily. The bomb would carry seedy to grow vegetables and could be used by the local farmers to grow produce.

I found a similar concept on Yanko Design Magazine. The seedbomb consists of a biodegradable capsule that contains soil and seeds. Once the capsule reaches the ground, the plant first grows in the capsule and produces moisture, which then melts the biodegradable capsule. I like the design and the way the concept is thought throug. Bravo, Yanko Design.

While researching this topic, a friend pointed out that using seed capsules is not such a new idea after all. The technology exists since the 70ies in some way and was used by Guerilla Gardeners, wo try to claim back a piece of nature within urban space. I am truly amazed at the idea of Guerilla Gardening. It opens a whole new world to me! And here is one very nice example of a Guerilla Gardening blog worth reading!

sticky ideas

The tricky thing with new ideas is that they are very elusive and easily dismissed as compared to old, known ideas that stick in people’s minds and habits.

So this is my own personal recipe to make new ideas stick within the organization.

1. make yourself acquainted with the culture in the organization. You need to learn the way people argue for ideas, how they communicate with each other and how they deal with the “new” in general to be prepared to sell your idea.

2. For a new idea to succeed, you need accomplices. In general, there are three types of potential accomplices in the organization that you can work with to sell your idea:

a) the professional / expert. You need people who will help you with the “proof of concept”, who will waiver all the “is this even feasible” talk and who can back you up on the more technical side of things

b) the organizational expert. Usually these people are found in HR or related departments and know exactly how the organization works. Who needs to be convinced of what, how and most importantly, when?

c) The motivators: People who can motivate other people to move in a new direction, who are role models and users of new technology and new tools, can help you sell your idea.

Find these people within the organization and make them your accomplices.

3. Do not present one idea. Present many solutions to a problem. If your idea is a new specific product, for instance, do not try to sell that product, but talk about the need to add new products to the portfolio in general and then engage as many stakeholders as possible in the dialogue about what that new potential product could be. Talk about criteria, about goals, about new markets, about the customers need, etc. On the one hand, you will then be able to talk about your specific idea in a context, on the other hand, it might very well be the case that your idea gets much better by the additional input, and it might even be the case (I consider it to be very likely) that you find many other product ideas that are at least as good as yours. This will give everyone the chance to choose the best solution instead of just having one idea to deal with, that can be easily dismissed. Most importantly, the idea will now be the idea of the entire team and not the idea of one individual.

4. If you have more than one idea, be prepared to visualize them in a comparable way so people actually get a chance to compare them with each other and to choose the best solution in a structured way.

5. If your idea (or a variation or alternative of said idea) is accepted, you need to go on a campaign for this idea. Having been accepted does not mean that it is implemented; people may not even remember it in a week. Use all the materials you have gathered in the process to make the idea stick. Invent a claim, a logo, a motivational quote or whatever you might need to make the idea stick. Be prepared to talk about it every minute of every day. Remember “Yes, we can?”. That is a powerful idea, but it needed to be repeated over a long period of time to become truly sticky in everyone’s mind.

6. Use your accomplices (see point 2) and your knowledge about the organization (see point 1) to steer the implementation of the idea in the right direction.

7. Talk about the idea as if it were already a reality. This will help people see it as something that will truly be there in a short while and not just a fantasy that you have.

8. Celebrate milestones: Make sure that every significant move towards the implementation is celebrated or at least mentioned publicly. This will make your idea truly stick.

This map by reporters without borders shows the countries without free internet activity. It is an impressive image that made me look. The map is part of an advertising campaign for reporters without borders done by the famous “fabrica” ad agency. This map is a great example on how an idea can be visualized in a simple and capturing way.

What needs to come first: A great culture that allows for innovation and makes sure people can contribute to new ideas from within the organisation (and ideally also from without) or a great process that makes sure the organisation can capture all relevant ideas for different topics from various sources such as stakeholders, experts, lateral thinkers, innovators and internal staff and build on those ideas?

What will eventually lead to better innovation? There are different “schools” and beliefs on this question. Ideally, we believe, you have both. A great culture where it is normal and expected to contribute, as well as a process that can capture these contributions in a transparent, fair and collaborative way. If you do not have either, we would always suggest to start with the clear process and to drive the innovation culture with this process instead of the other way round.

What are your beliefs and ideas about the issue of culture and process? Do you see other drivers and needs? Let us know!

Once again, the versatility of our mobile IdeaFactory was put to the test. After Kuala Lumpur, Düsseldorf and Addis Abeba, its latest mission was Hamburg. Once again, we left Biel to make the seemingly impossible possible.

We captured the Cap San Diego, the largest sea-worthy museum freight ship worldwide, and renamed it without further ado BrainShip. The pop-up feature being part of our mobile IdeaFactory, this proved to be the only right name for the ship.

During two days, we produced ideas for OTTO, the largest mail order business worldwide.

The ship has never seen anything like that before: smoking heads, animated discussions and OTTO’s decision makers racing against teenagers – what a sight!

After these two successful days aboard the Cap San Diego, we’re already planning the next step, the BrainPlane: idea production in the Airbus A 380.

The Internet includes an elusive quantity of information. If we visited each existing URL on the Internet for only 10 seconds, we would be busy doing so for roughly 317,098 years.

Google and Yahoo search engines let you browse through this enormous amount of information as quick as lightning. And by using social bookmarking service providers such as Mister Wong and Delicious clever discoverers can find the information looked for in no time.

Based on a content analysis of social bookmark service providers, I have listed and summarized the most interesting websites on the subject of ideas, trends and future in a Google Custom Search. That is about the same as analyzing how many guests go to which restaurants. The best results however are not compiled in a list but in a search engine based on Google’s technology!

The result is a niche search engine to track trends, future and innovative ideas!

I suggest you begin searching for new business trends right away or start your discovery of exciting ideas from a land faraway.

Niche Search Engine to Track Trends, Future and Innovative Ideas:

Custom Search

For more informations see:
- We knew the web was big…
- Google Custom Search Blog

After a sunny day filled with work, the Brains (factory workers) decided to raise their glasses on the cosy roof top terrace in Biel.

Here two pictures to give you a little idea.

Where our hands brought us to
In the course of history, human beings have changed the world as no other species. Apart from our intelligence, our creativity and our mind, human tools are mostly our two hands. They are the ones executing our intellectual superiority!
Dolphins form the cognitive spearhead in the animal kingdom. Where else would be those cute water mammals today if they had been able to use their resources and to craft tools with their hand-like fins?

Handcraft in the computer age
A modern design studio uses a mixture of precise handcraft and modern computer technique. Black-and-white and color sketches still are done by hand with pen and paper. Once scanned, they can be refined and changed on the computer with an electronic stylus before the drawings of front back and side are processed by the modelers. A team of „sculptors“ then starts to create a clay model.

IdeaFinding by hand
If hands are involved in intuitive idea finding methods, they supply our brain with very many inputs. They boost brain associations in search of new ideas. They are construed to the activation of the unconscious, of knowledge you would not think of. This method is supposed to leave dreary routines. Idea finding by hand activates the potential of entire groups and forms the basis of the following compression phase of the handmade ideas.

A new disease is haunting the economic universe… Innovationea! However, just like with many other unknown epidemics nobody knows what they’re actually dealing with, what to do about it or how to get rid of it. It’s Kind of scary, sometimes!

But Swisscom realized that there already exists a recipe on how to deal with that new virus: Keep on innovating – along a structured, focused, simple 8-step-plan – always following the ancient rule “Offense is the best defense”.

Nadja Schnetzler, co-founder of BrainStore, explained in brief how to innovate successfully. So don’t be afraid of the virus – just innovate! Success can be that simple…

Read the full article on page 3 (in German)!