systematic ideation guide
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SYSTEMATIC IDEATION
Technical Universityof Denmark
by Innovation Lab
A basic guide to effective idea generationand personal creativity
Dear reader,
We want this book to be a practical guide to Systematic Ideation – a topic that we are very excited about. We have wrote this book based on years of experience with Ideation in large international enterprises and universities, and we want it to be fun and easy to comprehend for future readers.
Our target readers are facilitators of creative processes, business professionals and students, who are curious about the basics of Ideation and Creativity.
IDEATION FOR THE MASSES!We believe that Ideation and Creativity is essential 21st century skills. Organisations can no longer let the innovation be isolated in the R&D department. The real magic happens when people get together to share and develop ideas
The era of the lone creator is over. Today we all need to be creative!
This guide is a result of a project conducted at Sputnik 5 - ideation by Innovation Lab, in collaboration with a master student project at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Design & Innovation.
Authors: Martin Schorling Overgård Katrine Buur Olsen Kristoffer Kjaer Jesper Finderup
Layout: Katrine Buur Olsen
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WHY THIS BOOK
With this guide, we present a very simple model for systematic ideation. The guide will function as inspiration and provide a stepwise approach to actively break with the normal mindset and try to encourage lateral thinking. This guide aims at facilitators, however design engeneers and other creative enterprises can also benefit from reading the Guide.
The guide is based on Systematic Ideation – a model developed by Sputnik 5. Sputnik 5 is the micro touchpoint in innovation lab majoring Ideation and concept development. The model has been testet in the past year during workshops, hackathons, networks, etc and has proven to be extremely effective in order to frame ideation for people who are not used to work with ideas and ideation.
We hope you will be inspired!
“We enable people to become better innovators by triggering a new creative mind-set and providing them with practical tools for thinking out-of-the-box
Since 2008 we have helped enterprises, universities, and high schools all over the world releasing their creative potential
We specialize in designing and delivering creative business processes such as innovation camps, workshops and keynote presentations on creativity and innovation” - Sputnik 5
- Beacuse maybe you can’t afford to not read it
Read this guide onl
ine on Issu
u
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How can one adapt radically different approach to product development, con-cepts development or expand the solution frame through ideation, in order to achive significantly improvements?
By following this guide you will be led through a systematic and creative pro-cess where you will be able to identify the startegies behind the presented phases and why the output of a workshop can’t b be compared to the output of an ordinary meeting in a conference room. An underlying element in a workshop is the creation of a place physical and mentally respectively to conduct experiments, let crazy ideas live and let ideas mingle, which has shown itself to be very beneficial in order to come up with innovative solutions in relatively short time.
Are you about to facilitate a workshop on your own? Continue reading, and this guide will brace youself for the process of systematic ideation, the related tools and how to perform as a brilliant facilitator.
What can be facilitated?Practically any process can be facilitatedWorkshops, Creative Processes, Idea development, Networks, Teamwork, User involvement, projects in schools and universities - as above mentioned, practically any process can be facilitated. This can be done either by an exter-nal consultant as Innovation Lab or by an internal facilitaor from the study group or in the company.
Just remember to have fun during the session, as neuroscience shows that one is three times more creative when happy!
A GUIDE FOR FACILITATORS
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Systematic Ideation sounds contradictory to many, as the majority associates creativity with alternative processes and no time limits. Many years of experience has shown that simple constrains benefits the process and the outcome od a creative prcedure. Futhermore the most frequently hurdle we observe during a regular brainstorm is that the participants are mentally in differnt phases of the ideation process. On a team one will be in “yes and.. “ mode the following person will respond to the idea with a more critical perspective. If the participants are not aligned it makes it extremly difficult to get any progress as they will oppose eachother and the related ideas. Systematic ideation emphases which mindset is related to the different phases in the ideation process, from where impressive ideas can evolve.
Ideation for the individual Structuring your thought processes based on the system-atic ideation approach is very useful when solving problems in your day-to-day work.This book will help you get more creative and increase the value of your ideas and subse-quent solutions.
Ideation in teams
When doing ideation in groups (e.g. brainstorming) the level of creativity is often limited by useless discussions or bad group dynamics.This book will give your team a common language and un-derstanding for the creative process and provide an easy to use platform for high efficiency ideation sessions.
Facilitating ideation
Sometimes what you need is the creativity of others, for instance in a customer meeting or when involving clients in ideation.This book will give you the right tools for planning and facilitating world class ide-ation sessions that releases the creative powers of the partici-pants.
THIS GUIDE WILL IMPROVE...
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-George Bernard Shaw, recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1925
“You see things; and you Say, ‘Why?’ But I Dream things that never were; and I say,
‘Why not’?”
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CONTENTSGet ready for an introductory journey into the world of systematic ideation.
We start by briefly addressing the question of Why? Then we discuss What? Before moving into the ever in-triguing and enigmatic How?Please continue, curious reader, and find within this book the key to unlocking the creative powers of yourself, your team and your organization.
INTRODUCTIONWhy this guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2A guide for facilitators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3This guide will improve. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATIONCreativity on command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8What neuroscience teaches us about creativity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
SYSTEMATIC IDEATIONIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14What . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Why . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17The need for Systematic Ideation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18How . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Putting the model into practise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
TOOLBOXHow to use ideation tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Initial Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Yellow Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Green Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Red Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
FACILITATOR’s PAGESManageing the different zones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
ABOUT SPUTNIK5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
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...Eventually
-Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple and Pixar
++ =
“creativity is just connecting things”
So simple can a fluffy term as creativity be ex-plained. And Steve Jobs was not the only one with that assumption. According to Steve Johnson, an american author will great ideas occurs when peo-ple talk, networks and share ideas through different communities. Here the ideas meet up and mingle, because many people may have half of an idea, but need the other half to make it complete. The same shows to be in evidence for generating
ideas for a specific challenge which is why the era of the lone creator is over and ideation in teams are to prefer as people get inspired by eachothers ideas and maybe they’ll find the other half to complete a spectacular idea.
CREATIVITY ON COMMAND
Creativity…
So many people talk about it, so few seem to actually know what it really is.
Some say it’s like washing a pig. We do not disagree entirely. However, we do have another take on what it is and why its important to nurture, exercise and develop.
To be creative means to create. We are all born with the ability to create and the value of our creations are effectively dependent on three central elements: our personal experiences in life, our insights into the world around us, and our ability to synthesize, that is connect and combine, these two major inputs.
We get experiences by living. Each day do at least one thing you have not done before. It may sound weird at first but once you start looking you will find plenty of new experiences, and each one will inspire you.
We get insights by studying things. Through reading, being curious, observing, listening and discussing. Our constant quest to understand the world around us is an incredible force and you should allow it to roam free.
Synthesis is connecting the dots, seeing the bigger picture, imagining what can be. Train your ability to synthesize ideas by… creating ideas! Optimize your training by using a systematic approach.
”Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty be-cause they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.” - Steve Jobs
Insights
SynthesisExperiences
CREATIVITY
Read more Steve Jobs Quotes here
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WHAT NEUROSCEINCE TEACHES US ABOUT
CREATIVITY
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While the theory of left and right brain dominance may be a rather oversimplified and stylized version of the real world it is very suitable to explain the ba-sic dichotomy of our two primary thinking patterns.
Generally it can be said that the left side of the brain is used for tasks that are linear and logical and requires analytical and structured thinking. The right side of the brain is used for expressive and creative tasks that require holistic and iterative thinking.
The brain is like a muscle that gets better at certain processes the more they are used. The more stimuli we give our left and right hemispheres the more adept we become at using them for everyday problem solving.
LEFT
Keywords for the LEFT partReality-based (Facts)
LogicalFocus on details
LanguageLiniar
Practical Mathematics
Pattern perception
Keywords for the RIGHT partBased on feelings
ImaginationSymbols and images
ImpulsiveFantasy
Taking chances“Big picture”
Spatial perception
RIGHTThere is a world of difference in how much differ-ent jobs stimulate and train the functions of each
hemisphere. Think about your job and the tasks you have. What hemisphere is dominant? Which
one gets neglected?For ideation it is essential to be mindful of
this difference and (especially during idea generation) to stimulate the right brain to spark into action.
Do so by listening to music, looking at pictures, walking
around, singing, talking to colleagues etc.
Make it a habit to do this kind of activity before engaging in creative problem solving and
give your brain time to switch. Experience has taught us that it
takes 10-30 minutes. Do it and we promise you that
you will get more creative
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FEED YOUR BRAIN... - with daily challenges- exercise - physical environment- social relations- awareness
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Hot things When holding a hot cup of coffee, tea or chocolate the feeling of warmth associates to the situation we find ourselves in. If we are meeting new people, we are often more open minded towards these people and afterwards will remember them as “warm” people. So when bringing to-gether a diverse group of people, always re-member to bring a lot of coffee.
Cozy n’ chattyIf you are about to negotiate your salary, make sure to seat your boss in a cozy couch . As a new report from Institute For the Fu-ture announces that if you are sitting in a chair or surface you will be tougher to ne-gotiate with. Similar if you are sitting in a cozy couch or anoth-er soft seat you are likely to become more talkative and chatty
High ceilingBelieve it or not, but the height of the ceil-ing can affect you concentration in terms of what kind of tasks you’ll be most qualified to perform. If you find you self in a high ceilinged room you are capable of be more creative and generate many ideas. On the other hand, if you find you self in room with low ceiling you’ll more likely fo-cus on the details.
The color paletteAs the physical en-vironment affects how we solve a task, the surrounding col-ors has shown to in-fluence our way of thinking as well. If you are surrounded by blue you’ll often get the feeling that the sky is the limit, which is why the blue often is used as wall paint in dynamic and creative rooms. corre-sponding the red col-or encourage focus on specific details.
Recently published material demonstrates how thorough acquaintance about the human brain can manipu-late diverse tasks, even our physical environments have a far bigger impact on us, than is has been possible to impose until now. The surroundings influence our minds and hereto our experience of the given situation. Below a few documented elements are introduced.
Did you know, that if you are happy you are three times more creative
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WHY NOT?
SYSTEMATIC IDEATION
Systematic Ideation may seem a bit contradictory, but it captures exactly the essence of what an organization needs to master in order to enhance its innovative capability.If creativity is the ability to create new ideas and solutions, the systematic creativity, the ability to systematize this process, making the development of ideas more effectively and make it tangible so that it can be “on” and “off ” as needed. Exactly this ability is essential for effective ideation, and can be learned by anyone.
A model for systematic IdeationIn SPUTNiK5 we work with a simple model for highly systematic ideation that can be easily implemented in any team or any organization. The mod-el will give both facilitators, managers, employees and studens a method to use for idea development process, and further create a common under-standing of the development of ideas and creative brainstorming.
Watch the int
roduction video
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SYSTEMATIC – def.Completing a task using a structured approach as to ensure maximum quality and certainty of the output.
IDEATION – def.The process of generating and refin-ing ideas.
WHAT?
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The love of comfort is frequently the enemy of innovative thinking. We can easily slip into patterns that cause us to miss potential opportunities and brilliant ideas. But going outside your comfort zone is - uncomfortable. Even painful and frustrating to some, and definitely transgressive to all of us. It is incredibly uncomfortable to try new things for the first time. We feel a little embarrassed or even like a failure. Encourage the participants to step out of their comfort zone, through different tools, games etc. because it is out side this zone that the magic happens.
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WHY?The notion of parallel thinking was in-troduced by the great Edward de Bono.
Through his research he showed that by ‘guiding’ the though patterns of members of a team he was able to stimulate much more effective problem solving.
His main staple was the importance of con-trolling the process in a way that aligned the points of view of the group members in each phase of a problem solving session.
To illustrate this we simply show three arguments in the form of vectors (numbers with a direction – if you don’t get vectors don’t worry, this is for the geeks). Each vector represents a point if view. If the team members do not align their points of view, the arguments will most likely be somewhat adverse.
The resulting vector, i.e. the radicalism of the solution arrived at by the group, will be rath-er small. Probably quite a bit smaller than any of the ideas presented during the discussion.
This often happens because we are compelled to minimize risk by questioning new ideas (from ourselves and others) and trying to find the fault, rather than building upon it and seeing where it will end, no matter how unlikely it may seem.
On the other hand, if the group members try hard to understand and expand on the ideas and points of view put forth by their peers, they are much more likely to come up with a solution that departs significantly from their starting point.
Piece of cake.
DIALECTIC THINKING PARALLEL THINKING
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THE NEED FOR SYSTEMATIC IDEATION
‘So what’s the point of ideation and how can you even talk about a systematic process for being creative?’ you may ask.
Well, we will then answer, cre-ativity and developing ideas are functions in our brain that work continuously and that help us solve problems day in and day out. Every time we are presented with a task or a challenge that needs to be solved we use some sort of ideation process to produce a solution.
Most of the time when pre-sented with a challenge we consult our previous experi-ences with similar problems and let our habits decide how to solve the problem. This is practical because the choices we need to make often do not require unusual solutions. Imagine if you had to contem-plate every day what pocket to put your keys in, which way to drive to work, what strategy to use when brushing your teeth and so on. It would be a for-midable challenge just to exist.
Habit drastically reduces wast-ed time in decision making. It also causes our solutions to new problems to very close-ly resemble prior solutions to other problems. This is why we need to practice systematic ideation. When needed, it is essential to be able to attack a problem with a new approach that will guarantee an original solution. Systematic ideation is about understanding the mecha-nisms in our brain and lever-aging them to create world class originality and great ideas!
PROBLEM
HABIT
SYSTEMATIC IDEATION
BUSINESS AS USUAL
BUSINESS AS UNUSUAL
INCREMENTAL IMPROVEMENT
RADICAL IMPROVEMENT
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HOW?So, here it is. The great unifying theorem of creative thinking and the mother of all ideation approaches. Well, maybe not, but this one has grown out of years and years of putting theory to practice in highly creative prob-lem solving in a plethora of context in as many industries. ‘In fact we believe this is all you need to know to boost your ideation sessions to the next level.
The three phases represent different, but equally important parts of the process of moving from challenge to solution. Each phase requires different thinking patterns, has different ‘rules’ and aim at delivering different results.
What is essential is that there are hermetic borders between the phases. That means that while in the yellow ‘clarification’ phase you can’t use green phase divergent thinking and start solving the problem.
Understanding and practicing this hard divide between the three stages is the key to world class ideation ses-sions, both solo and in teams.
We will dive into the phases one by one in the following pages.
YELLOW = CLARIFY THE PROBLEM, GREEN = LOTS OF IDEAS, RED = SORT AND COMBINE IDEAS
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Make it safe to fail - it’s personalIn order to create an environment where crazy ideas can evolve it is necessary that the the participants feels confident in the situation. Ideas are personal, no-body want to contribute with any ideas if they feel insecure about the purpose or in the social constellation. Therefore it can show itself to be very beneficial with an initial exercise, where the team has to
talk and collaborate before starting the process of systematic ideation. Experi-ence shows that the participants are not that afraid of coming up with wild ideas as before the exercise which also func-tions as an icebreaker among the team members. Some examples are given in the paragraph of tools.
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YELLOW ZONE
OBJECTIVETo explore and define the challenge before starting to find the solution. In order to solve the problem it is necessary to clarify why this is a problem, to whom and how frequently this problem occurs. otherwise experience shows that a team is trying to solve many related tasks, instead of focus-ing on one in particular.
OUTCOMEA clear picture of the problem, its stakeholders and underlying dynamics. The outcome must consist of a prob-lem statement, framing the challenge starting with “How might we…”“How might we” is an important detail, as it forces the participant to think what they can do to solve the prob-lem instead of thinking how the politicians could solve it. It is very beneficial to the following brainstorn ses-sion, that the participants feel some kind of ownership and motivation for the problem statement.
FACILITATOR’s ROLEThe problemstatement is essential to the following phases. If the problem statement is boring, you will often get boring ideas likewise if it’s crazy, brown, indecent the ideas will be accordingly the problem statement. Most people are not used to expressing their ideas in words, which often result in people are making the problem statements very general, instead of fixing the core challenge.When facilitating in the yellow phase it is important to help the teams to express the challenge as palpable as possible. So keep asking “Why” around three to five times. like “Why is this a problem” It is prefered that the facilitator creates wonderment and pushes the participants rather than be annoying and slowing down the process. For this part gamification elements can be very beneficial.
MINDSET & RULESUse right and left brain
Be curiousObserve the problem
Ask questionsTalk with the stakeholders
See from different perspectivesAsk “Why, why, why?”
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POWERFUL AIDS FOR YELLOW ZONE
GAMIFICATIONGames is something all of us is able to relate to. We know the basics of the game board, the dice, playing cards and points. This frame of gamification can be very beneficital to use in terms of facilitating. There will be no “because I said so”, be-cause it is just the rule of the game and the majority will nev-er question the game as they are familiar with: This is just a game-mindset. For yellow phase this means that the facilitator can tweak the challenge by adding a playing card saying “make an indecent version of the challenge” to affect the team without putting it directly to them.
Tweak the Challenge
Make the challengeprovokative
Write an indecent version of the challenge
Use one of these words in the challenge:Kiss, sexy, tasty, naughty, lovely, jealous
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GREEN ZONE
MINDSET & RULESRight brain dominant
Forget limitationsBuild on other ideas
Follow random inspirationsDocument every idea
Give spaceDon’t evaluate or criticize
Say “YES! And…”
OBJECTIVEDeveloping hundreds of ideas to solve the problem before evaluating their usefulness. During green phase it is perfectly allowed - almost expected that the ideas should be crazy, impossible and purple, from where de fellow team members can add on to the idea. The force of the green phase is everybody around the table is aware that they will have the time to make the ideas realistic during the red phase, so it is not the time to be critical - just having fun.
OUTCOMEA huge unsorted, unevaluated batch of ideas for possible and impossible solutions to the problem.By aligning the mindset of the participants, to let the imagination running wild, it is not necessary with hours of ideation, as long a the problem statement is well defined and all adopt a positive attitude towards the ideas as previous exposed in the paragraph of parallel thinking.
FACILITATOR’s ROLEDuring the Green phase the particiapant should be able to generate tons of ideas, not all ideas will be usefull or realistic. The facilitator will move around between the teams and provide small challenges and inputs in order to prompt ideas that occurs from associations and add ons. It is very important that the participant don’t argue or have to validate the ideas as this kills the creative process. Experience shows that separate the brainstorm session in green and red phases embrace and encourage innovative and crazy ideas with a lot of potential compared to a uniform session where the ideas is kept too realistic to deliver something new.
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50 SENTENCES THAT KI.LS CREATIVITY When ideating do never ever say...
1. Our place is different2. We tried that before.3. It costs too much.4. That’s not my job.5. They’re too busy to do that.6. We don’t have the time.7. Not enough help.8. It’s too radical a change.9. The staff will never buy it.10. It’s against company policy.11. The union will scream.12. That will run up our overhead.13. We don’t have the authority.14. Let’s get back to reality15. That’s not our problem.16. I don’t like the idea.17. I’m not saying you’re wrong but…18. You’re two years ahead of your time.19. Now’s not the right time.20. It isn’t in the budget.21. Can’t teach an old dog new tricks.22. Good thought, but impractical.23. Let’s give it more thought.24. We’ll be the laughingstock of the industry.25. Not that again.
26. Where’d you dig that one up?27. We did alright without it before.28. 2It’s never been tried.29. Let’s put that one on the back burner for now.30. Let’s form a committee.31. It won’t work in our place.32. The executive committee will never go for it.33. I don’t see the connection.34. Let’s all sleep on it.35. It can’t be done.36. It’s too much trouble to change.37. It won’t pay for itself.38. It’s impossible.39. I know a person who tried it and got fired.40. We’ve always done it this way.41. We’d lose money in the long run.42. Don’t rock the boat.43. That’s what we can expect from the staff.44. Has anyone else ever tried it?45. Let’s look into it further.46. We’ll have to answer to the stockholders.47. Quit dreaming.48. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.49. That’s too much ivory tower.50. It’s too much work.
“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up” – Pablo Picasso
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“Creativity is allowing
yourself to make
mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
- Scott Adams, cartoonist and “father” of the character Dilbert
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RED ZONE
OBJECTIVEFind the idea(s) that should function as the center for further idea development by sorting, combining and evaluating the pool of ideas to arrive at the great idea! Often you’ll find that the team members have their “dar-lings” and would like to chose this idea, but it is necessary that the other ideas get a chance to reach an equal level of existence before the team decide on which idea to develop.
OUTCOMEThe essence of the very best parts of the most valuable ideas. The great idea! By evolving the idea through different scenarios, and planning how this idea can be tested through pretotypes and prototypes the idea start shaping for more than an idea (which in itself is pretty worthless) to something more tangible, where the par-ticipant can be asked to plan the first steps in order to realize the idea - What should they do in order to start this process.
FACILITATOR’s ROLEHow will you ever know if you choose the idea with most potential? - you won’t. That’s why the team needs to move fast and break things, they have to go through fast failures in order to kill their darlings. As facilitator it can be difficult to asses which ideas are worth developing as he or she moves around the different teams and does not have fully inseight in the processes around the tables, but several tool proves themselves to be very beneficial in order to select the concept or even test them through role play. During the red phase it is possible to arrange prototype sessions in order to take the ideas for the next step. Furthermore the prototypes functions as a very essential communication tool for the team to match their expectations to the product, the service and the concept.
MINDSET & RULESLeft brain dominant
Be realisticUse logic
Be specificSay “Yes, because…”and “No, because…”
Consider the scope of the problem you are solving
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PUTTING THE MODEL INTO PRACTICE
SMALL - day-to-day problemsIdeation by yourself, 10-30 minutesBe mindful of dividing the phases Make sure you are solving the right problem, not just solving the problem right Exhaust your imagination with solution ideas before choosing which one to use. Use the right logic for choosing the great idea
MEDIUM - Medium size creative challengesIdeation with 1-3 colleagues, 30-60 minutesYou may be better off facilitating*, not partaking in the process, to ensure a high quality output Apply 1-2 clarification techniques to ensure alignment of views in the group and proper background knowledge before starting to generate ideas for solutions. Apply 1-3 idea generation techniques to exhaust the idea supply of yourself and your colleagues Use 1-3 idea evaluation techniques to objectively discuss and evaluate the pool of ideas to arrive at the great idea
LARGE - Big, hairy, complex conundrumsIdeation with 1-5 colleagues, 2-4 x 30-120 minutesPlan and facilitate 2 or more ideation sessions that focus on different aspects of the problem or delve deeper into the solution at each one Try different clarification techniques at each session to introduce a bit of uncertainty to the process Apply 1-3 idea generation techniques at each session to exhaust the idea supply of yourself and your colleagues Use 1-3 idea evaluation techniques to objectively discuss and evaluate the pool of ideas to arrive at the great idea
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TOOLBOX
HOW TO USE IDEATION TOOLS
The yellow tools should be used in consecutive sequence. Make sure that you produce a clear prob-lem statement before moving into green Idea Generation.
The green tools can either be used individually or in sequence. You have to consider who your participants are and which tools will give the best results - just Don’t be afraid to challenge people in their creative mind set.
Red tools can also be used as needed, however we recommend always to start with “Idea Cluster-ing”.
This section of the book contains practical tools for each of the three phases of the process.
There are heaps of tools for ideation, many more than any book can hold! For this book, we have chosen our favourites – the ones that you can feel absolutely confident using on your own.
Each tool is described in easy steps including tips on when and where to use them, how much time they re-quire, what materials you will need etc
When planning a process you have to pick which ideation tools to use and how much time you want to spend on each and the mix between yellow, green, and red.
#1
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INITIAL EXERCISES
THROUGH PAPER
This section of the book contains practical tools for each of the three phases of the process.
There are heaps of tools for ideation, many more than any book can hold! For this book, we have chosen our favourites – the ones that you can feel absolutely confident using on your own.
Each tool is described in easy steps including tips on when and where to use them, how much time they re-quire, what materials you will need etc
Equipment per team:Stack A4 or A5 paperA scissor
Time for solving the task:5 minutes
The exercise is very simple, the entire team must go through one piece of paper. The paper must at all time still consist in one piece, therefore it is not allowed to put paper ends together with sticky tape or similar. The solution is given below, in order to demonstrate hos simple this exercise can be done.
Solution for the exercise “Through Paper”
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MARSHMALLOW CHALLENGE
Watch TED ta
lk for further
details
Equipment per team:20 spaghetti1 meter sticky tape1 meter string1 marshmallow
Time for solving the task:18 minutes
The team should consist of 4 participants. The exercise is very straightforward, the team who build the tallest freestanding structure wins - and yes freestanding means that the participants have to let go any supportive fingers when the eighteen minutes has past by.
For the facilitatorRemember a ruler to measure the towers and a timer. During the session it can have positive effects to make the teams aware of the time, by saying out loud when half the time has passed furthermore when 5 and 1 minutes left.
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TOOLS FOR YELLOW ZONE
PROBLEM EXPLORER
The facilitator asks the ques-tions one at a time. The team then share their thoughts and write the answers down on sticky notes (2-3 minutes for each question). Place the sticky notes on the centre of the table or make a mind map.
The facilitator assists the participants in defining the “How might We…” statement
The facilitator assists the participants in defining the “How might We…” statement
Equipment per team:Post It’sWhiteboardPens
Time for solving the task:20-45 minutes
This tool will enable the team to quickly analyze and understand the problem/opportunity by asking a series of questions. Use this tool when you need quickly understand a problem and align within a team
QuestionsWhat is the problem?
Who is influenced by the problem?Why is it a problem?
When is it a problem?Why does the problem occur?
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CREATING THE PROBLEM STATEMENT
A good statement should in-clude the following:
WHO, are involved?WHERE, if a specific locationWHEN, if specific situationWhat TYPE of solutions are we trying to create?WHAT problem or opportuni-ty are we trying to solve?
Often the facilitator must guide the team in this pro-cess – getting them started and make sure they get it right. It should be very specific and detailed - especially for short ideations.
Make it visible for every-body during the entire ses-sion – write in on a big piece of paper.
Always finish ”Scope” with creating a ”How might we…?” statement.
Equipment per team:Post It’sWhiteboardPens
Time for solving the task:20-45 minutes
Generate a problem statement sound pretty simple, but it is far from a simple task. For the further ideation it is crucial to phrase the challenge as tangible as possbile. Furthermore to create a “How might we” statement as this will be the focus of the rest of the ideation process Follow the steps below and the teams will gain a specific problem statement whem moving on to the green zone.
1 2 3
EXAMPLES- How might we create an event that increase the awareness of the benefits of physical exercise amongst teens age 15-17?
- How might we create a solution that help poor kids in rural areas to learn math with IT?
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SLING THE INPUTS
Equipment per team:ScissorGlue
This tool function as a dice that provides inputs to the team. The can be done during both the yellow and the green phase.
The dice can be used in differnt ways:#1 The team decide themselves when they want to sling the dice
#2 The facilitator ask in plenum the teams to sling the dice
#3 The facilitator walks from table to table and assess if the team needs an input, if thats the case the facilita-tor can ask one from the team to sling the dice.
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WHY NOT?
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TOOLS FOR GREEN ZONEREVERSE BRAINSTORMINGEquipment per team:Post It’sWhiteboardPens
Time for solving the task:30-50 minutes
Reverse brainstorming is a development from regular brainstorming. This tool is often better at creating ideas, than the regular approach, because it ”forces” the participants to be negative, almost reciprocal – Which catal-yses some completely different perspectives and ideas than normal. Reverse brainstorming can be used, when you need fresh perspectives on the problem.
Make sure to have a clear ”How might we..” statement. Place it on the middle of the table (written on a big piece of paper). Reverse the problem or challenge by asking:“How could I possibly cause the problem?”, or “How could I possibly achieve the opposite effect?”. Formulate a new statement.
Brainstorm the reverse problem to generate reverse solution ideas. Allow the brainstorm ideas to flow freely. Do not reject any-thing at this stage.
Once you have brain-stormed all the ideas to solve the reverse problem, now reverse these into solu-tion ideas for the original problem or challenge.
Evaluate the solution ideas. Can you see a potential solu-tion? Can you see attributes of a potential solution?
1 2 3
How might we create an event that increase the awareness of the benefits of physical exercise amongst teens age 15-17?
How might we prevent all physical exercise amongst teens age 15-17?
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ACOSSIATIONS CARD
Time for solving the task:2-5 minutes
Acossiations cards are ment as an input to the team while a regular brainstorming session. The cards are capable of pushing the participants in unseen directions, as the cards provide acossiations to a wide range memories, stories, experiences, jokes etc. It is very different what comes up in peoples minds when observing a picture.
The acossiations Cards consist of pictures, as they leave a lot of space for interpertation and small funny details.
How to bring Acossiations Card into play#1 The facilitator can use the card as an input if he or she senses that the team will need some input for fur-ther progression.
#2 A stack of cards can be placed at the table with the upside down, and the team can turn a card if they need inspiration
#3 Place the cards upside down on a big table, and ask one team member to pick a card. Then the member has to describe the card to the others, and finally place the card in the midle of the table so everybody gets the opportunity to look at it and make their own thoughs and ideas in the light of the card.
To the facilitator, a small advice would sound: Give the team some seconds to look at the card, sometimes it can be difficult not to say anything as facilitator in order to help them going, but often thei manage pretty fine by them selves.
The following page is placed some examples of Accosiations Card, that you can cut out and test on family and friends or for the next workshop your are facilitating.
Try to make your own cards - no pictures are better than others
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ASSO
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6 PEOPLE – 3 IDEAS – 5 MINUTES
Now each participant has 5 minutes to produce 3 ideas, which are written on 3 sticky notes and placed on the paper in a row (without talking)
Then the A3 paper is hand-ed on to the next person to the left (clockwise). The participant can now use the ideas from the other person to get inspiration for 3 new ideas.
After 5 minutes, the pieces of paper are passed along, and the process is repeated. In every rotation, each par-ticipant is producing 3 ideas and the process is continued until each person has their own paper again.
Equipment per team:Post It’sA3 sheetWhiteboardPens
Time for solving the task:30-40 minutes
6-3-5 is a tool that uses individual idea generation. It is often used, when the group is familiar with the problem and have thought about how it can be solved. The tool is most beneficial when the team consist of 3-6 partici-pants. The name origins from the fact, that this tool is designed for 6 people, to produce 3 ideas every 5 minutes = 108 ideas in ½ hour.
Before starting the ideation session, Make sure to have a clear ”How might we..” statement. Place it on the mid-dle of the table (written on a big piece of paper). All participants gather round a table. Every participant gets a stack of sticky notes and one sheet of A3 paper.
1 2 3
IDEA CHALLENGE CHALLENGE
IDEAIDEA
IDEA
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IMPOSSIBLE IDEAS
Time for solving the task:2-5 minutes
Impossible Ideas is ment as an input/exercie from the facilitator to the team while a regular brainstorming session.
The concept is based three steps: #1 Get a complete impossible idea
#2 What is cool about this? write it down
#3 Make two new ideas centred around this coolness
As a facilitator this can be places on a playing card or you can just put it verbal. Experience proves that it’s often a good idea to put exercises stepwise in text and leave it visible.
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“If you hear a voice within you say,
‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced”
TOOLS FOR RED ZONEIDEA CLUSTERINGEquipment per teamLarge paper (A1) /whiteboard PensPost-it’s
Time for solving the task:30-60 minutes
All the “green” ideas have to be categorized, so they can be summarized into concepts or ideas with more detail. This tool is not used to sort the “good” ideas from the “bad” ideas – This will happen later on. We use this method in longer ideation when there is a large amount of ideas in The Green Zone. If necessary, the participants are divided into smaller groups
Read through the ideas one by one in the group.Now see if any of the ideas overlap or can be combined and thereby developed fur-ther. Just move the sticky notes around. You can get rid of notes that are not specific ideas but just words. There has to be time for dis-cussing the ideas.
Some ideas probably do not belong anywhere or is not relevant to the problem. This is not the same as it is bad ideas… These ideas have potential to “catalyse” new radical solutions that can solve other problems. Separate them from the rest, but keep them visible for in-spiration.
If the participants have been divided into two groups, re-view the results in plenum.
1 2 3
IDEA 100’s x
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Draw a 2-by-2 matrix with the 2 chosen parameters as axes from “low” to “high”.
The team now rates the indi-vidual ideas by placing them in the matrix.
The point of the matrix is to only process the ideas in the “high/high” quadrant.
1 2 3
High
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Low
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2x2 MATRIXEquipment per teamwhiteboard or FlipoverPensPost-it’s
Time for solving the task:20-40 minutes
Use this tool when you have fairly specific green ideas (concepts) that you wish to evaluate with a group of people. If you have many unspecific ideas from the green zone, then use Idea Clustering first.This tool is a fast way to prioritise a large amount of ideas, from specific chosen criteria. This approach also allows the team to discuss the ideas while rating them.
Choose two relevant criteria in relation to the problem statement. E.g. in strategic topics it could be: “Speed of implementation” and “Effect”. Product development: “Cost per unit” and “customer perceived value”.
If the group cannot settle, the facilitator has to pick two criterions.
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“Make sure you find the right it, before you build it right“
FAKEREALITY
PRETOTYPING
Pretotyping comes from “pretend” and is a very simple method in order to uncover whether potential custom-ers or users would actually use a product if it existed - before taking up a larger phase of development which is both time and resource demanding. Below are the most know pretotyping methods presented
Pretotyping differs from prototyping through to see if the product will be used, where prototypes validate whether the product can be build.
In order to “pretend” tech-nical solutions the method “The mechanical turk” as a ‘man in machine’ for ex-ample. electronic / software concepts that will require many hours of development time to create a working prototype. Eg. Product: This machine can write down what they say.Pretotype: User speaker and a super fast secretary sitting in another room and write it into the user think the ma-chine works.
Try to advertise for the concept / product to see if there is any interest in buy-ing it. Eg. Product: Alberto Savoia’s own book on preto-typing. Pretotype: Created the website and the oppor-tunity to buy the book ... before it was written. Those who clicked got a message that it did not exist, but if there was enough interested he would sit down and write it in the future. This was to see if there was an inter-est in the subject before he spent the time, energy and resources on writing it.
Form factory - Try to shape the product, the model does not need to have some func-tions, but both shape and size could provides infor-mation whether or not peo-ple are actually going to use it.Product: Personal DevicePretotype: A wooden block which can be placed in the pocket
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PROTOTYPING
Time for solving the task:1-4 hours
Prototyping is a vague term there is no right or wrong way to build a mock up - It depends on the purpose of prototype and what you want to demonstrate. By prototyping during the red phase the team members are forced to align their mind set furthermore match-ing of expectations centered around the idea/concept they are about to demonastrate and bring to life. Prototypes functions both as a very strong communication tool internal in the team but also extaernal when the team has to explain their idea to someone who haven’t been a part of the idea development. There are many different ways to prototype, below a few methods are listed in order to inspire, but feel free to add some if you’ve had a good experience with another kind of prototype.
Paper Prototyping - Is a very simple tpol to generate interfaces eg. a smartphone, tablet or laptop. This way the team is able to produce the flowchart and stil modify it if needed.
Mock-up - Is a model that demonstrates a funtion of the product, the dimensions between the different part etc. It’s important to emphasise that a mock up does not have to represent the entire product. This can be per-formed by several mock-ups
Video - If the prototype should demonstrate a process, system or service the video (or stop motion) is a strong tool to explain and communicate how eg. the system works.
Role play - Try to act how you expect the users to persorm an action or interact with the product. Sometime just very simple role plays reveal aspects that you never encountered.
Drawing - Draw you product and how th eusers are expected to interact with it. It is always a good exercise to draw hands and other human-related parts demonstrating how and when the user will perform a specifik task
Comic strip - it can be hard to draw a service in one picture, so a comic strip is very beneficial in order to demonstrate a process, system or service.
Equipment for prototypingCameraPaperColored paper
PensLEGOPainting
ScissorsGluePaper roll
Post-it’sTaperString
Ruler
Example of service system by stop motion
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FRAME THE SCENE
Pre session Check listProcess plan (allow for changes and time-buffers)Select and invite participantsSelect venue. Go for a stimulating environmentGet the necessary materials (paper, pens, sticky notes, etc.)Snacks and refreshmentsPre-info for participants (as necessary)Select output format for stakeholders (catalogue, presen-tation etc.
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FACILITATOR’s PAGES
As a facilitator you are not allowed to contribute with ideas of your own. It is most important that all attention goes to managing the process and getting the ideas from the participants. They need to feel assured that the facilitator has the process under control in all situations.
Facilitation ChallengesIt is not a “piece of cake” task to encourage and motivate other people to get ideas. It take some experience to sense if a team needs an input or how to coope with a person with a destructive behaviour. Below we have listed some og the challenges you can meet when facilitating a creative process.
Continually focusing on and attending to the group Being comfortable with ambiguity and information overload Processing misperceptions and emotional reactions Focusing exclusively on process rather than content Helping the group develop so they can ultimately work without facilitation
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MANAGING THE DIFFERENT ZONES
A facilitator is the person in charge of designing and managing the ideation process. But as previous mentioned he or she is not allowed to contribute with ideas of their own. Here you’ll find some guidelines to help you through the different zones, and what kind of behavior will benefit the phase.
Always remember to define a specific “How might We….”-statement as the final output of the Yellow Zone. The statement needs to be visible for everybody during the rest of the session in order to keep focus on the problem.
Yellow ZoneThe Yellow Zone is probably the most important zone in Systematic Ideation .It is essential that the team of participants (who are trying to solve a problem or explore an opportunity) are aligned on what they are facing, before they start generating ideas for solutions. The Yellow Zone is all about asking questions, exploring the problem, analysing causes to the problem and ultimately defining a problem statement.
Checklist for Yellow Zone As a facilitator you must be prepared. Decide on the level of information that the participants need to know in order to come up with solutions. (Too little will make them confused or uncommitted – too much will make them jump to conclusions to soon) Let participants know that they need to be CURIOUS and ask questions! There are no stupid questions Challenge your own assumptions
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Always remember to enforce the mindset of “yes and..” during the green zone as nobody should argue for their ideas raison d’etre but just get a lot of ideas. Remember to say: “This is an idea, maybe not a good idea, but it is an idea”
Always remember to maintain what the team members actually can do in order to start the initial process or even to realize the idea. It is too easy to say “the politicians need to pull themselves together” - so remember to encourage the team to take action.
Green ZoneThis is where the ideas are generated and developed! It is important to keep the energy high and enable the participants to think out-of-the-box, say “YES” to ideas, and hold back their scrutinizing/analysing thoughts.
Checklist for Green Zone Break the ice! Use lateral thinking and/or creative energizers and icebreakers Keep the energy level high! Stimulate crazy out-of-the-box ideas No criticism of ideas is allowed Make sure everybody gets a chance to share their idea Ensure good communication and openness
Red ZoneRed Zone is for logical, analytical and critical thinking. It is necessary to sort, evaluate and select the best ideas for solving the problem.
Checklist for Red Zone Make sure to have an output target (e.g. 1, 3 or 10 ideas) If possible, pre-consider which criterions the solution should be rated on Focus on evaluation and selection – allow only development (green zone thinking) if strictly necessary.
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PRIORITIZING YOUR IDEATION TIME
In advance of the workshop decide what the outcome would be. This is crucial to how the time in the different phases should be prioritized.
If all participant are familiar with the challenge it can be beneficial to devote a lot of time to the red phase in order to create prototypes and pretotypes in terms of making the idea more tangible to the team.
If the participant have to find and phrase the challenge, it is necessary to devote a lot of time to the yellow phase - which is likely said to be the most important. Id the partitipants have phrased a vauge challenge the ideas will not aim the exact problem. Therefore it is often beneficial to devote a lot of time to match the teams expectations to the challenge.
In advance of the workshop decide what the outcome would be. This is crucial to how the time in the different phases should be prioritized.
5%5%
90%
40% 40%
20%
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SPOTTING BEHAVIOURS
Constructive Team Behaviour
Cooperative - interested in the views and perspec-tives of the other team members and is willing to adapt for the good of the team
Clarifying – clearly defines issues for the group by listening, summarizing, and focusing discussions
Inspiring – enlivens the group, encourages partici-pation and progress
Harmonizing – encourages group cohesion and teamwork. For example, may use humour as a relief particularly after a difficult discussion
Risk Taking – willing to risk possible personal loss or embarrassment for the team or for project success
Process Checking – questions the group on pro-cess issues such as agenda, time frames, discussion topics, decision methods, use of information, etc.
Destructive Team Behaviours
Dominating – takes much of the meeting time ex-pressing self-views and opinions. Tries to take con-trol by use of power, time, etc.
Rushing – encourages the group to move on before task is complete. Gets tired of listening to others and working as a group.
Withdrawing – removes self from discussions or decision-making. Refuses to participate.
Discounting – disregards or minimizes team or individual ideas or suggestions. Severe discounting behaviour includes insults, which are often in the form of jokes.
Digressing – rambles, tells stories and takes group away from primary purpose.
Blocking – impedes group progress by obstructing all ideas and suggestions. “That will never work be-cause...”
To perform as an excellent facilitator you are always to steps in front of the participants. This also encounter to hinder if one participant has a destructive behaviour that it will affect the others. It is the facilitators task to gain the most progress as possible. Furthermore if a team posses constructive team behaviour there is no need to interupt.
Below you will find some ways to spot both constructive and destructive behaviour
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ABOUT SPUTNIK 5
BECAUSE WE CREATIVITY
SPUTNiK5 is a consulting firm that works with systematic creativity, ide-ation, innovation projects and ideas. Our goal is to disseminate systemat-ic ideation in Danish companies and educational institutions.
The name SPUTNiK5 refers to the fifth Sputnik satellite which was launched by the Soviet space agency. Sputnik means traveling compan-ion and Sputnik V was the first vessel in history who successfully brought the living beings in the infinite universe and back again, and in our view a monument to human ingenuity and ability to succeed in overcoming seemingly impossible tasks.
In SPUTNiK5 we wish to take you on a journey into the infinite universe of new, impossible opportunities, and to show you how a systematic ap-proach to the use of human creativity can move both mountain and man.
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SYSTEMATIC IDEATIONWHY NOT?
FEED YOUR BRAIN
...with systematic ideation
