Two full days of innovation sessions were both fun and exhaustive, but definitely very productive. Lots of customer insight-inspired thinking. I am always surprised to find that many exponents of creativity still believe that 'messing around and brainstorming' is enough. It is believed that deliberate creativity in the modern sense started with 'brainstorming', which was developed for the ad world. This is a world in which messing around has more value than in any other. The reason is that advertising is to do with marketing communications and by doing that one can uncover a new way to position and message a product. In our world of innovation, “brainstorming “ without a method often means not getting the results we want.
Many still believe that brainstorming and creativity are actually synonymous, that’s not true. Brainstorming is something many of us do everyday. It is also something people do as a special event with a goal to look for specific solutions. Brainstorming can be frustrating when it is not organized properly and when the loudest voice takes over. Sometimes people think that simply by putting a group of people together in a room for 2 or 3 days, magic will happen and there will be innovative new ideas. It takes more if we want to productively use our collective knowledge and insights and turns them into great ideas. The question is “Is that a best method for brainstorming?” or “Non-method is the best method?”
Some methods can be restrictive - they can disrupt the flow of any discussion, because it doesn't quite follow 'the method' one is supposed to use. Methods can also be coercive in terms of making people feel insecure about giving their ideas. It is important let discussions flow freely but at the same time staying relevant.
One thing is for sure is that brainstorms are seldom or never productive in your normal office environments with the same team of people you work with all the time. All business constrains are projected on every corner of the office making it hard to think outside-the-box (unless you work at Herman Miller). Offices remind us of system and structures, which remind us of our positions and internal hierarchies and also sometimes about politics. Creativity goes hand in hand with the ability to feel comfortable playing and listening to your inner voice and other’s point of view.
Some of the most important things that are core to any successful brainstorming:
1/ An inspiring opening presentation that set the right context
2/ A comprehensive toolkit to pick from
3/ Go offsite or find new space (prefer lots of white walls)
4/ Prepare the right ingredients (trends, insights and cross industries knowledge)
5/ Diversity in disciplines of participants
Brainstorming is really about purposeful use of creativity and imagination. To engage our imagination it is important to sometimes part with reality and hindrances that are in our way and simply boldly dare to imagine, express thoughts and ideas - however crazy. Often great ideas don't simply appear in a puff of smoke, but are in fact inspired by trends, weak signals of change and voices from the customer. Before you start cooking for big ideas, you must have a variety of ingredients available. Think of the ingredients before cooking the dish, whether it is traditional or fusion. It is these ingredients that allow us to re-purpose, re-configure, re-mix these ideas. If you have a good tool-kit to do this, this can be very helpful. Idea Couture's toolbox has a variety of tools to do just that. Any serious user of creativity should make a serious effort to become trained these tools. Creativity has gone beyond the stage where messing around was enough – it is definitely not enough.
