Preface

Anyone who has followed management trends for the past forty or so years knows that there always seems to be the so-called Next Big Thing. In the 1950s, basic brainstorming was the rage, with countless articles written about it, some good and some not so good—for example, “brainstorming is nothing more than cerebral popcorn!” In the 1960s and early 1970s, sensitivity groups (or “T-groups”) were in vogue. Group leader gurus would “lead” groups of managers by not leading. That is, after some broad, brief opening remarks, they would silently sit there waiting for someone in the group to say something. After that, they mostly would just facilitate and try to clarify. Supposedly, the “inner manager” somehow would emerge. Again, more research would follow with inconclusive findings. The 1980s ushered in the age of the quality movement (although some would maintain it began earlier) with the implementation of quality control, quality circles, Kaizen, Six Sigma, and other related approaches for enhancing worker performance.

Although the quality movement still exists, the 1990s saw the beginnings of corporate innovation as the next “it” approach, emerging from components of the emphasis on quality. Innovation has hit the corporate world with a force unknown in previous generations of business trends; however, profit-driven organizations have not been alone. Globalization of technology, media, cultures, commerce, and the new economy have created a momentum to forge new directions with customers and clients. Managers in profit, nonprofit, government, military, or educational institutions all now face the unenviable task of innovating like never before. The call has gone out for new ideas, fresh perspectives, and unique approaches to resolving old problems. In addition to the need for institutionalizing innovation processes, all organizations must confront the realities of how to define the challenges they face.

As my experience and knowledge base have grown over the years, it has become clear to me that the major challenges affecting organizations are not always those involving a lack of creativity. Unlike some thirty years ago, when I first started in the field, there now are hundreds of methods for idea generation available in increasing numbers of books and especially on the Internet. There are more creativity and innovation courses, training seminars, conferences, and consultants than ever before. Although idea execution remains a fertile area for future research and application, an even more important part of the innovation process requires urgent action: framing organizational innovation challenges at the outset of a project.

To define an organizational innovation challenge is to frame it. Perceptual frames create meaning that guides behavior. The purpose of this book is to demonstrate the art of framing innovation challenges to help organizations chart the best innovation courses possible. It is not another book on how to do strategic planning or how to institutionalize innovation; rather, it emphasizes the process of crafting organizational innovation challenges and organizing and mapping them conceptually to enable organizations to act strategically. Strategy provides context for this book, but it is not the primary content.

This book is organized into two parts, both based on the creative problem-solving process developed by Alex Osborn and Sidney Parnes.¹ The first part forms the core and looks at the essential elements involved in transforming organizations by using innovation challenges. It covers what is known as the “fuzzy front end” of the innovation process. The second part presents information on the middle and back end of innovation that involve, respectively, idea generation and implementation. These are activities to use after framing one or more challenges.

Part I discusses how to:

•View organizational innovation challenges in the context of strategy.

•Involve stakeholders in generating multiple strategic perspectives using “Q-banks” (questions) and “C-banks” (challenges).

•Use seven essential criteria to evaluate challenges.

•Write positioning and rationale statements for each challenge.

•Link together multiple objectives in priority frameworks.

•Create visual, conceptual maps of these frameworks.

•Plan and conduct organizational innovation challenges.

Chapter 1 presents an overview of the concept of innovation framing and its importance in organizations. Specifically, the point is made that generating great ideas for the wrong challenge can be even worse than generating mediocre ideas for the right problem. Most successful organizations have learned to devote resources to reframing their challenges in order to align better with and achieve their strategic objectives. One way is to test assumptions about organizational objectives and decide what order in which to achieve challenges.

Chapter 2 provides a look at how organizations should initiate innovation challenges by generating and answering questions. Q-banks are used to gather a large number of important questions about an organization to provide the context for innovation efforts. They also are designed to involve key stakeholders in the process by requesting questions and responses from a diverse population and providing all with feedback from the other participants. This is a planned effort involving strategic due diligence—that is, stakeholders are required to surface key assumptions they may be making and to test them for validity by comparing perceptions with each other. A list of more than one hundred sample questions is presented, involving areas such as core competencies, customers, the company as a brand, competitive positioning, markets, and overall goals.

Chapter 3 provides an overview of the challenge bank (“C-bank”) process. C-banks build on the results of Q-banks. That is, they use stakeholder responses to the final Q-bank challenge(s) to generate a list of potential innovation challenge solutions. This process is similar to that of Q-banks, in that stakeholders also are involved in one or more rounds—the focus, instead, is on ideas and not challenges.

Chapter 4 discusses how to write (frame) innovation challenge questions. Once an organization has done its due diligence and analyzed responses from the Q-bank and other sources, the results can be used to generate lists of potential innovation challenge questions. This chapter describes how to use this information to frame challenge questions so that they are best suited for productive idea generation. An important part of this chapter is a discussion of the seven criteria for effective challenges. The use of positioning elements also is described in terms of how they can position a challenge in the minds of those generating ideas. Numerous case studies are used to illustrate this process. Finally, this chapter presents more than one hundred “preframed” challenges, all of which can be applied directly to a variety of organizational strategic topics. They also can serve as examples for creating challenges for specific situations and are grouped by application area—for example, customers, products/services, branding/marketing, and human resources.

Chapter 5 capitalizes on the fact that many people are visual thinkers who can understand complex relationships among conceptual variables better if they are presented graphically. This chapter describes how to draw manually or use computer software programs to create cognitive maps of innovation variables and their interrelationships. Step-by-step instructions are provided to guide the reader in creating these visual roadmaps of innovation challenges. Business examples also are used to illustrate how to map multiple challenges.

The focus of Chapter 6 is on how to plan and conduct innovation challenges within organizations, governments, and associations. Topics range from integrating challenges with strategy; selecting who to include; setting up internal communications; using employees, experts, and consumers for divergent input; and taking advantage of enterprise software for the systematic collection and evaluation of ideas. Numerous examples of previous innovation challenge competitions in a variety of sectors are provided.

Part II looks at how to:

•Use idea management and creativity software.

•Generate creative ideas using specific individual and group techniques.

•Design and facilitate brainstorming retreats.

•Evaluate and select the best ideas systematically.

•Anticipate implementation obstacles.

•Create action plans to implement ideas.

Part II begins with Chapter 7, “Idea Management and Creativity Software.” In this chapter, readers will find a description of major computer programs designed to process vast quantities of ideas plus some directed at facilitating the creative problem-solving process. After reading these descriptions, readers will be able to make more informed decisions as to which idea management programs are best suited for their needs. Readers will be able to compare the unique features of various programs and how they can benefit users.

Chapter 8 presents a “A Crash Course in Generating Creative Ideas: Individual Methods.” There exist at least two hundred formal methods for structuring idea generation by individuals and groups. This chapter presents a step-by-step description of numerous idea generation methods, including the author’s top ten list of idea generation techniques and examples of how to use these techniques, including sample ideas when appropriate.

Chapter 9 provides “A Crash Course in Generating Creative Ideas: Group Methods.” Brainstorming and brainwriting are discussed briefly as categories of group methods along with their advantages and disadvantages. The remainder of the chapter focuses on step-by-step descriptions of eight brainstorming and eight brainwriting methods.

Chapter 10 presents tips for designing and facilitating brainstorming retreats. The two keys to successful idea generation are preparation prior to a brainstorming session and the use of a process structured sufficiently to ensure a constant stream of ideas. This chapter describes how to conduct the research needed to generate the stimuli used to trigger ideas and how to create a structured, yet flexible agenda. There is also a list of tips for facilitating the process, as well as other helpful hints.

Chapter 11 looks at how to evaluate and select ideas once they have been generated. The purpose of this chapter is to show how hundreds of ideas can be reduced in number through a process of systematic evaluation and selection. Several techniques are described for choosing ideas in a step-by-step format.

The best ideas are of little value without an effective implementation plan. To help structure this process, Chapter 12 presents several techniques, including approaches involving weighted decision criteria, a multistage model, and potential problem analysis. General guidelines for ensuring successful implementation also are provided.

NOTE

1.Alex F. Osborn, Applied Imagination, 3rd ed. (New York: Scribner’s, 1963); Sidney J. Parnes, Creative Behavior Guidebook (New York: Scribner’s, 1967).