Brainwriting is one of the simplest idea-generation techniques and often creates some breakthrough ideas as people build on the ideas of others. It works best with small groups of five to nine people and two of the three worksheets provided here include stimulator words to make it an even more powerful tool. Here are the guidelines: 

 

 

Reminders:

1. Review the issue or purpose for the session.
2. Develop in advance the criteria for success.
3. Work silently (discussion will follow the ideation time).
4. Be specific. Every idea should have a subject and a verb; for example, "create a weekly newsletter."
5. Don't judge ideas. Quantity counts.
6. Build on ideas, reverse them, and turn them inside out or upside down.

 

Generating Ideas:

1. Print out a worksheet for each person and distribute them to everyone participating in the session.
2. Each person writes one idea in each of the three boxes of one line.
3. When a person has filled in one line of three boxes, he or she puts the sheet in the center of the group's table and takes a new worksheet from those in the center of the table.
4. Each person adds three more ideas to each sheet taken, building on ideas where appropriate or just adding new ideas as they occur.
5. Allow 20-30 minutes or stop when it's obvious that energy is lagging.

 

Processing Ideas: (With more than nine people, break into subgroups.)

1. Establish or review criteria for success.
2. Each person takes one sheet and marks an "X" beside the ideas that are interesting.
3. Participants exchange sheets and mark interesting ideas, repeating the exchange until everyone has seen three sheets. Ask participants to hold on to the third sheet they process. Easy!
4. From the worksheet she or he is holding, each person reads the ideas that have three Xs, then the ones with 2 Xs, and then those with a single X.
5. Look for any "orphan" ideas-those for which someone has a lot of passion around but that no one considered interesting.
6. Cut the ideas apart and tape or glue the ideas that received votes onto index cards.
7. Tape the index cards onto flipchart sheets in order of priorities-3 Xs together on one sheet, 2 Xs on another sheet, and so on. Have everyone walk around and reread the ideas. Begin a discussion about which ideas are best and ways to make them even stronger.

 

Judging Ideas:

1. Review the criteria again.
2. Use the process called Quadrant Collaboration to create a quadrant to help you map the ideas generated against two important criteria.
3. Use the process Dot Voting with a Difference to select one or two ideas to develop further.

 

 

• Have a "Failure Party" at which people share their worst idea or biggest failure. Encourage management participation. Make it fun.
• Print out a sheet of Innovation Principles and post it prominently where it will remind others of innovation. Make sure it's in all meeting rooms.
• Stimulate conversations around innovation in meetings, in the halls, wherever you can.
• Create your own email list of people who understand how important innovation is. Email them short, interesting articles or stories to sustain their interest.
• Model innovation. Make sure people see you taking on new challenges, making mistakes, honouring ideas, being collaborative, and taking time to learn the lessons from the projects you finish.
• Make your office an innovation magnet. Make it colorful and fun with books, tapes, toys, and models or graphic representations of projects.
• Start an innovation group and talk about how you can spread innovation to the tipping point!
• Pick a book about creativity and start an innovation book club.
• Ask some of your coworkers how they define innovation and then talk about what gets in your way of doing it.
• Send an innovation article to your boss and ask if you can meet to talk about it.
• Start an innovation book shelf in your office. Invite people to borrow the books. (Be prepared to lose them.)
• Share articles and stories about what innovation looks like in your own organisation and in other organisations.
• At every meeting ask, "Are we being innovative?" Or, "Is there a better way to do this?"
• Always ask, "What else could we do?" when thinking about projects or problems.
• Always ask, "Does this support our vision? Does this create value for our customers?" when thinking about projects.
• Share examples of innovative ideas related to your business and get innovators on the same page.
• In a meeting, carve out a "total agreement" time, at which point all ideas must be agreed with and built on to find the "greatness" in them. No negativity allowed!
• Make a provocative poster that reads, "Rumour has it that our competitors are making time for innovation."
• Send an email with the start of a storyline about a success in the organisation and have people add to it.
• Hold a "dump old ideas" lunch. Ask, "What's one thing we can stop doing so we have more time for innovation?" Then determine how actions can be taken on the best ideas.
• Ask employees to create a "Perfect World" wall graphic. Use it to stimulate conversation about how to make the work environment a more perfect world.
• Produce an Innovation Fair at which people create posters or displays of innovation projects that have been completed or that they are working on and would like help with.
• Declare a "Purple-Idea Day" during which people generate really far-out ideas. Or declare a "Red-Idea Day" for those ideas that are too hot to handle. Carry the color scheme throughout. When ideas are gathered, you might publish the "Purple Sheet" or the "Red News" to management.
• Form Idea Teams- groups that meet for one coffee break each week to generate ideas on specified topics. (This might also be a way to get people to work with people outside their normal work group.)
• Hold an Innovation Story Hour during which people tell stories of innovation processes they've been involved in. Identify the principles behind these stories and talk about how to create an environment that supports innovation.
• Hold a "What Could We Do to Prevent Creativity and Innovation?" brainstorming session. Then do the opposite.
• Create an idea gift exchange. It's always easier to solve someone else's problem. Have people generate ideas for each other's opportunities, projects, or problems.
• Hold a "Reality Show Idea Fair" during which employees put on performances and demonstrations of how their ideas would work in real life.
• Show an innovation video on Friday afternoon. Discuss the video afterward.
• Identify some successful innovators in the organisation or from the community and ask them to make a presentation about innovation at lunch.
• Create a "Featured Customer" series of lunches to help people understand customers more fully. Ask customers or people who have regular and close contact with them to make the presentations.
• Invite people to join a Trend Search. Have them spend two weeks looking at everything they can find-magazines, books, papers, movies, the Web-and talking to people about what's new in the world. Ask them to come together and discuss their findings at the end of the two weeks.
• Cross-fertilise by forming triads across business units or departments and talking about problems and opportunities to see what new thinking arises.
• Become more familiar with company strategy. Arrange an open session and ask a senior executive to discuss strategy and how it relates to innovation.
• Identify subject matter experts who are visiting the organisation and ask them to make presentations on their areas of interest at sessions open to everyone.

 

Creativity and Feedback

 

Many organisations would like and need some feedback about how the organisation perceives that managers are implementing the core values of the organisation.  If "Innovation" is one of the core values then 20/20 is a useful tool to use to see where there is need for improvement.

 

You can use surveys to determine skill levels in creative tools, team creativity and a host of other applications.

   

To talk with us about how you can use feedback to help improve your organisation, please

  contact us