ideation and design thinking Archives

I won’t need to innovate in my job

on October 29, 2014 · Leave a Comment

I recently learnt that many college and university students are uninterested in the ideas and techniques that underpin innovation because they feel that it doesn’t apply to them. If they do not envisage becoming entrepreneurs or designers or engineers or scientists then what’s the point? I do not believe it is a massive leap of the imagination to assume that this type of thinking might also permeate the general working populace. That’s disappointing because there are very few, if any, organisations that are content to rest on their laurels and coast along at the same levels of performance year on year in any part of their value chain. If you want to avoid slipping back in the pack then you have got to innovate and this applies to every area not just the laboratories…

“Innovation opportunities do not come with the tempest but with the rustling of the breeze” – Peter Drucker

I believe that the problem is two-fold. The first is an issue with the perception of what innovation is really about. The second is the lack of a supporting culture and environment.

Constrain Your Way to Creativity

on July 16, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Music has many rules. Most of the time these rules provide invaluable scaffolding that supports the development of emotive ideas. Sometimes, however, the familiar framework gets in the way and stifles creativity. My jazz guitar coach often used to espouse the virtues of deliberately limiting your options to encourage a creative fluency. He’d say things like “now you can only use the D and G strings” or “riff on 3s, 7s and 9s only” or “play a substitute for every other chord”. It’s tricky of course because it means you’ve got think more instead of relying on well-rehearsed patterns. Having said that, the result is usually worth it. They say that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ so why not consider deliberately constraining your choices and see what that inspires for you.

Design Thinking – a recap for some, a revelation for others

on April 30, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Design Thinking provides a simple framework for contextualizing a problem, generating a wealth of ideas related to the problem and then converging on a worthwhile solution or improvement by ‘connecting the dots’ and implementing those ideas that provide the best ROI whilst provisioning for learning and adaptation along the way.

Divergent Thinking – getting creative

on March 26, 2014 · Leave a Comment

There are a number of ways for generating great ideas. The key is to create an environment for divergent thinking and most often this is down to the types of questions that get asked.