Which type of creativity is associated with making an existing idea better?
Ideas are the key to innovation. Without them, there isn't much to execute and because execution is the key to learning, new ideas are necessary for making any kind of improvement. Show
It's obvious that ideas alone won't make innovation happen, as you need to be able to build a systematic process for managing those ideas. The point of ideation isn't just about generating tons of them but about paying attention to the quality of those as well. We agree that it can sometimes be difficult to come up with more of those high-quality ideas. It’s not unusual to get stuck in our old habits and routines when we’re supposed to be creating something new. To break out of that rut, we've decided to look into idea generation as a whole as well as to introduce some of our favorite tips, tools and techniques that can be used to generate new ideas more systematically. Table of contents
What is idea generation and why it's important?Idea generation is described as the process of creating, developing and communicating abstract, concrete or visual ideas. It’s the front end part of the idea management funnel and it focuses on coming up with possible solutions to perceived or actual problems and opportunities.
Perhaps you're looking for new ways to overcome a creative block or you're after a better solution to your problem? Maybe you need new ideas so that you can fully explore a new opportunity? When it comes to your organization, generating and collecting new ideas from your employees is the best way to uncover creative, tacit knowledge. The ability to create and develop new ideas allows you to:
Perhaps your organizational goal is to improve your and your team's efficiency or you need new ideas for making your product better? Regardless of your goals or the types of ideas you're looking for, the purpose of new ideas is to improve the way you operate. On a larger scale, economies depend on innovation to drive growth and increase well-being. Innovation creates new technologies and businesses, which provide new jobs for people. So, although innovation isn’t about ideas alone, they are an important part of the equation as there wouldn’t be one without the other. Tools and techniques for generating ideasOkay, now you need ideas. What do you do? The odds are that you’d run a brainstorming session. It has, however, been shown that brainstorming not only takes more time and leads to less ideas, but also worse ideas than if the same participants had just tried to come up with ideas by themselves. There are several other reasons why brainstorming may not be the best way to come up with ideas. Scheduling, organizing and documenting the session in a usable format will all take up even more time. Although there are certain ways to improve brainstorming performance, it’s beyond the point. The point is that you shouldn’t automatically default to brainstorming. There are, however, some other useful techniques that might be worth giving a shot to challenge conventional thinking. Because you're going to need different ideas, it's good to have a few techniques in mind for generating them. Most of these ideation methods can be used for more effective brainstorming but also for other type of ideation.
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