Small to medium-sized businesses typically don’t need an enterprise-level idea management system. What they need is a simple tool that enables them to capture, improve, evaluate and take action upon their best ideas. Mind mapping software is a tool that can help.
Brainstorming apps for your mobile device now make it possible to court your creative muse no matter where you are. Here are 5 compelling benefits of these next-generation ideation tools.
Frequently, brainstorms, idea campaigns and similar idea extravaganzas end with a vague notion of choosing the best idea. The problem here is that a truly creative idea, the kind of idea that has the potential to become a breakthrough innovation is seldom the best solution to the problem or the best path to achieving a goal – for the very simple reason that highly creative ideas are original. They cannot directly be compared to existing notions, warns Jeffrey Baumgartner.
Brainstorming sessions can be problematic, sometimes producing few great ideas or none at all. To increase your odds of success, Gijs van Wulfen suggests 25 strategies for the perfect brainstorm.
How can you ‘shape’ your idea so it stands out compared to everything else that’s competing for people’s attention, is persuasive and easy to support and share? The authors of a new book, The Impact Equation, share one effective approach.
Business, governments and individuals can easily become bogged down by procedures and processes that harm efficiency and kill innovation. The obvious solution is to start from scratch. Here’s how to do it, according to Jeffrey Baumgartner.
Anticonventional thinking forces out of our normal pathways of creative problem solving to consider a wider range of potential solutions. Jeffrey Baumgartner explains how it works via a simple example.
When it comes to creative problem solving, which is more effective? Focusing on the problem at hand, or on setting goals for what we’d like to accomplish? Jeffrey Baumgartner explores this perplexing question and comes to a very clear conclusion.
If you’re interested in growing your capacity for personal innovation or want to make your team more innovative, the PACE card deck developed by B.J. McCabe from Idein Rise Incorporated is a worthwhile investment to help you reach those goals.
What’s the most effective way to design an idea competition that doesn’t just result in a huge pile of ideas, but enables teams to implement ideas that will help to make your organization more creative? Jeffrey Baumgartner shares one practical framework for making this happen.
Innovation can comes from every corner of every day life: the last great novel you read; the cereal package that was easy to open; the microwave dinner that didn’t suck; the next use of air and balls from Dyson; the machine that made your coffee; the noteworthy car rental experience in Indianapolis. What recent experiences inspired you?
When we are trying to generate ideas in order to solve a problem, whether through anticonventional thinking, brainstorming or another method, we typically distance ourself slightly from the problem. We look for ideas on how to improve our company’s product, how to deliver better customer service, how to cut costs or alternative business models. In all of these cases, we separate ourselves from the problem and, by so doing, we potentially limit our understanding of the problem. Why not take a different approach and become the problem?
If you want creative ideas, you need to invest your creative energy not in ideas, but in understanding the problem and formulating provocative challenges, instructs Jeffrey Baumgartner.
The Idea Game is a new group brainstorming tool that corporate teams can use to generate fresh ideas and insights. Developed by Swedish creativity consulting firm Realize AB, it provides a variety of creative stimuli using a card deck and game board to generate ideas, and “idea battles” to help identify and improve upon the best ideas.
If you’re looking for a tool that can not only help you to capture your ideas but can actually inspire them, then the new THINKBook notebook from Rajesh Setty should part of your routine. It’s an essential creative companion.
