Idea Generation & Creativity Methods

Brainstorming

Often a team will need to generate ideas as part of the quality improvement effort. Developing the Cause and Effect Diagram is one example where a large number of ideas are needed. Brainstorming allows a group to quickly develop a large list of ideas without spending time "beating each idea to death."

Brainstorming Steps:

1. Clearly state the purpose of the Brainstorming session. 2. Select Recorder(s) to capture ideas on flip charts.

3. Call out ideas in a "round robin" style (each person gets a turn, going around the group - it's OK to "Pass"). • Don't discuss or criticize ideas (sometimes, the ideas "from left field" turn out to be the most useful),

• Build on ideas of others. Listen to the others’ ideas; you may be inspired!

• Note: A variation of Brainstorming asks each member to write ideas down before the session begins. 4. When the "round robin" has slowed down, open the brainstorming session up to any additional ideas.

5. When the brainstorm has ended, review the list. Clarify the remaining ideas (add additional words) making sure that everybody understands each idea. Delete any duplicate ideas.

Attribute Listing

Attribute listing is a technique for ensuring all possible aspects of a problem have been examined. Attribute listing breaks the problem down into smaller and smaller bits and discovering what happens. Let's say you are in the business of making flashlights. You are under pressure from your competition and need to improve the quality of your product. By breaking the flashlight down into its component parts - casing, switch, battery, bulb and the weight - the attributes of each one - you can develop a list of ideas to improve each one.

Attribute Listing - Improving a Flashlight

Part/Feature Attribute Ideas

Casing Plastic Metal

Switch On/Off On/Off low beam Battery Power Rechargeable

Bulb Brass Plastic

Weight Heavy Light

Attribute listing is a very useful technique for quality improvement of complicated products, procedures for services. It is a good technique to use in conjunction with some other creative techniques, especially idea-generating ones like brainstorming. This allows you to focus on one specific part of a product or process before generating a whole lot of ideas.

Imitation

How many ideas are really original? It is quite valid to imitate other ideas as a preparatory step to original thinking. Try what all the "great" creators have done: imitate, imitate, imitate. After you have imitated enough, you will find your preferences shape what you are doing into a distinct style. Originality is a natural result of sincere creative pursuit. Isaac Newton said:

"If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulder of giants".

Just as the Beatles started out playing cover tunes, J.S. Bach went blind in his old age copying scores of other musicians (for personal study), Beethoven played on the themes of his time, and Jazz musicians insert popular melodies into the middle of bizarre atonal solos (for an interesting book linking this theme and creativity, see Jamming, by John Kao). Ideas are constantly on the move, much to the annoyance of patent & copyright lawyers! Certainly, ideas may be exploited by the materially minded, just like anything else. But if you truly comprehend an idea, it is yours.

"What is originality? Undetected plagiarism."

Dean William R. Inge

“The immature poet imitates; the mature poet plagiarizes.”

Assumption Smashing

A useful idea generating technique is to list the assumptions of the problem, and then explore what happens as you drop each of these assumptions individually or in combination. For example, say you work in the Customer Service division of a software company. When customers purchase software, they are encouraged to purchase support agreements for a cost of 15% of the software value. The revenue from this maintenance funds the support personnel who answer telephones. The assumptions of this situation are:

• Customers purchase maintenance agreements

• Customers pay 15% of the software's worth for support • Support is a product and should therefore be sold • The software vendor provides helpful, timely support Now think about the situations as each attribute is dropped.

What happens if support is free? - Maybe the software price should be increased and the support given away, creating

the impression of free support.

Don't support the product - Don't offer support. The vendor doesn't have to support it, so doesn't have to employ

support staff. If anyone rings for help, tell them to buzz off! This could lead to customers forming their own support groups (user groups) or turning to other areas such as the Internet, bulletin boards, newsletters, independent support specialists and so on.

Even more assumptions could be dropped.

What if the vendor gave away the software? You probably have a copy of Netscape Navigator or Adobe Acrobat. Did you buy that software? How do you think Netscape makes money if most people don't pay for the browser?

The Six Universal Questions

Idea Generators should be aware of a simple universal truth. There are only six questions that one human can ask another: What? Where? When? How? Why? Who?

You may want to draw a mind map of the problem with these six words as nodes on the map.

PROBLEM

WHAT WHERE

WHEN HOW

Checklists

Alex Osborn in his pioneering book Applied Imagination talks about "Questions as spurs to ideation", and outlines about 75 idea-spurring questions. The simplest set of questions comes from the six basic questions described above:

• Why is it necessary? • Where should it be done? • When should it be done? • Who should do it?

• What should be done? • How should it be done?

What other uses? is a good question. By adding uses we can often add value. By piling up alternatives by way of other

uses, a still better use is likely to come to light. Osborn went on with the following questions: • Adapt? • Modify? • Substitute? • Magnify/Maximize? • Minimize/Eliminate? • Rearrange? • Reversal? • Combine?

DO IT

This technique is fully described in the book The Art of Creative Thinking by Robert W. Olson. The name is based on the following abbreviation: