PART 1
The Practice of Innovation
Forget, Unlearn, Dismantle
30–45 minutes
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to help participants understand what the first steps in being innovative are.
Materials
Flipchart paper
Markers
Imaginary dynamite
Procedure
1. Introduce the concepts of unlearn/forget/dismantle. This is always the first step in innovation. We must make a space for innovation. We need to let go of the old in order to make way for the new. More importantly, we need to let go of the old concepts that have been guiding our lives in the past.
2. Break the large group into smaller groups.
3. The groups will create one flip chart page (or two or three) that focuses on old concepts that we have let go of as a society. Brainstorm them with the participants and make sure there is a wide range of answers. Do this in order to “prime” the participants. For instance, some answers might include the following:
a) The world is flat.
b) Smoking is not bad for us.
c) The only careers for women are in elementary education, nursing, and administrative positions.
d) The Soviet Union is going to take over the world.
e) China is a backward country.
f) Telephones need cords.
4. Lead a discussion on what this brainstorm tells us.
a) We may not be right all the time.
b) Times change.
c) What was right/appropriate/common knowledge/politically correct at one time may not be so any more.
d) We can laugh at ourselves and our old concepts about the world.
5. Groups will create several flip chart pages on the wall. This time the topic will be what we can unlearn/forget/dismantle about our organization. (You might want to remind them of a ground rule like confidentiality.) You can prime them with statements like these:
a) The old billing system works well today.
b) Our only group of customers is __________ .
c) The way we develop products is __________ .
d) “Customer service” is a centralized function in our company.
6. Optional: Take one of the brainstormed options and focus on it (with a separate piece of flip chart paper). What actions would it take to dismantle that piece of the organization (or process) or rethink that customer group?
Debrief
• Your goal, as facilitator, is to get the participants to question, if not kill, the sacred cows in their organizations. You need to give them permission to unlearn and forget and dismantle.
• Often, in organizations, employees are stuck in the rut of “it has to be this way.” It does not. Many successful organizations re-make themselves constantly in terms of new products, services, processes, and client bases.
• There may be nay-sayers in this group—“we have regulations,” “we can’t change anything because of corporate.” You need to honor their voices while emphasizing what is possible to forget/unlearn/dismantle.
• Ultimately, you are giving them permission to look hard at all that they have held as “the way it is” in their organization.
What if?
45–60 minutes
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to engage participants in imaginative thinking. Innovation takes imaginative thinking.
Materials
Flipchart paper
Markers
Wild-eyed imagination
Procedure
1. Reassure the group that “we’re playing with ideas” in this exercise. Let them know that there are no wrong ideas, just interesting and engaging concepts.
2. Write “What if?” on several pieces of flipchart paper and invite the group to develop fanciful ideas. Start with more general concepts.
3. You might need to prime the group. For instance,
a) What if half the days of the year were totally dark and half totally light?
b) What if cars needed refueling every 10,000 miles only?
c) What if you had to cut your food budget in half?
d) What if you had to take in four foster children next week?
e) What if the Internet went dead for one week?
f) What if gasoline cost $7 a gallon?
g) What if water cost $3 a gallon?
4. After 5–10 minutes of this fanciful thinking, choose one or two, and create a flip-chart page for that one (or two).
5. Have the participants brainstorm the implications of that “what if?”. Again, they can be fanciful. The wilder the answers, the better.
6. Do the same exercise for issues involving the participants’ organizations. Do the “What if?” thinking and follow it with exploring the implications of one or two of the possibilities.
Debrief
This is a fanciful exercise with no right or wrong answers. A debrief question might be, “What ‘what ifs’ do we have in this organization?” Where are we too satisfied and happy with what is rather than what could be?
Innovative Connections
30–45 minutes
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to force connections. Making obscure connections promotes innovative thinking.
Materials
Flipchart paper
Markers
Worksheet #1
Open imaginations
Procedure
1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 4–7 participants.
2. Hand out Worksheet #1.
3. Ask participants to connect one item from the first column to one item in the second column and create a new product out of that connection. Have them do this with several of the items.
4. When each group has 3 or 4 new products, have them report out with the larger group.
5. List their mini-inventions on flipchart pages while everyone enjoys a good laugh at them.
6. Ask each group to reconvene. Ask them to take two of the inventions from other groups and elaborate on them.
7. After another 10 minutes or so, have a whole-group report-out.
Debrief
The wackier the product, the better. You are not trying to win product awards here, you are trying to inspire and build imaginations. This exercise can be used as a warm-up to more serious innovative thinking.
Or, you might bring them directly into their own situation. Have them connect one of their existing products or services with an underserved market. What connections can they make now?
Worksheet #1 |
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clothing washer |
sock |
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coffee maker |
machete |
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tire iron |
iPad |
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trampoline |
conveyor belt |
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cafeteria tray |
carrot peeler |
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whiskey bottle |
chip clip |
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Frisbee |
baseball bat |
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Barbie doll |
picture frame |
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bull whip |
Legos |
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coat hanger |
airplane wing |
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blender |
door bell |
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kitchen chair |
dog collar |
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volleyball net |
microphone |
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Levels of Innovation
60–90 minutes
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to show how there are several levels of innovation available for any organization.
Materials
Flipchart paper
Markers
Deep thinking
Wild ideas
Procedure
1. Introduce the idea of “levels of innovation” below:
• Process Improvement Ideas (lean manufacturing, Six Sigma)
• Derivative Ideas (Starbucks, microloans)
• Breakthrough Ideas (Harry Potter, space travel)
• Radical Innovations (iPods, wireless)
2. Hand up eight flipchart pages around the room, two each for each of the four previous levels of innovations. For each level “Derivative Ideas” for example), add “past examples” for one of the flipchart pages, and “future potential ideas” for the other page.
3. Divide the larger group into four smaller groups. Have each group start at one “level,” and brainstorm the past and the future of that level for the organization. Write down all the ideas they can think of that fit that “level” of innovation.
4. Time it for each group to be at each station for 10 to 15 minutes. Ring a bell, blow a whistle, and then tell them to move to the next “level.” Do this until each group has spent a chunk of time at each level.
5. Tell participants that some ideas or products or services might fit into more than one of the levels.
6. You might have to put up more flipchart paper as each page fills up with ideas.
• Ask participants how the process went for them. They probably wanted more time. There should have been much chatter during this period of time.
• Tell them that there is no rocket science that delineated exactly one level from another one.
• Suggest that organizations should be working at all levels. If there are limited resources, they must make allocation decisions. Regardless of those decisions, many people in an organization must think about what those “breakthrough” ideas might be in this particular industry.
• If you have time, you might look at organizations that are familiar to everyone—Target stores, a sports team, a grocery store chain, Starbucks—and talk about what the various levels of innovation might be in the future.
Alternative Uses
10–20 minutes
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to invite participants to think outside the box.
Materials
Worksheet #2
Bizarre sense of humor
Procedure
1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 4 to 7 participants.
2. Give each participant a copy of Worksheet #2.
3. Have groups develop lists of broken treasures.
4. Have smaller groups report out to the larger group.
Debrief
This is another fanciful, out-of-the-box exercise. The universe is full of gifts and surprises if we look for them. In third world countries, resourceful people use worn out tires for sandals and discarded bits of wire for shoelaces. They have to be innovative because of their lack of resources. We can learn to build that skill also.
Can you take this exercise further? What are the hidden resources in your organization? What do you discard that may be useful elsewhere? What are hidden treasures in some of the employees in your organization? What skills or insights might you be leaving on the table, discarded or ignored?
Worksheet #2 |
Think about the following “broken” items. What uses can you find for them? What value can you extract out of them? Also, you can combine any of these items.
Broken cement block |
Torn Grateful Dead T-shirt |
Broken alarm clock |
Flat bike tire |
Broken blender |
Left shoe |
Extra 2” x 4” pieces of lumber |
Old matted feather pillow |
Discarded swing set |
Cracked mahogany salad bowl |
Discarded metal flag pole |
Tattered dog collar |
10´ x 10´ piece of shag, green carpet |
Sunken aluminum canoe |
Discarded car seat |
100 outdated, dog-eared books about the Crimean Wars |
100 pounds of greasy ball bearings |
Jobs that Need to be Done
30–45 minutes
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to help participants think like entrepreneurs. It helps participants look for market opportunities.
Materials
Flipchart paper
Markers
Acute understanding of fellow human beings
Procedure
1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 4 to 7 participants.
2. Give each group a target market of consumers that the organization serves. For example, it might be housewives or teens or retired people or busy young professionals.
3. Ask them to brainstorm the jobs “that the group needs to do.”
4. Ask each group to present their findings to the larger group.
5. Have the groups move to the right or left and gather around a different flip chart and elaborate on the findings on that flip chart. Either they can add “more jobs that need to be done” or have them think of products or services that would help get these jobs done.
6. Have the smaller groups report out to the larger group.
7. Example: Say your group is stay-at-home moms. Your original brainstorm list might look like:
a) Do the laundry while holding baby
b) Prepare a meal while entertaining children
c) Clean the bathroom
d) Do the grocery shopping
e) Clean the cupboards
f) Arrange dental appointments
g) Entertain toddler while nursing baby h) Keep living room clean
i) Keep car clean and uncluttered
j) Communicate with spouse
• Invention is about seeing a need and plugging the hole. First, one has to start seeing the “jobs that need to be done.”
• Ask participants to talk about some of their possible inventions. Ask others to elaborate on them. Ask what else is needed to make them marketable.
• Explain to them how cup holders in cars, home delivery groceries, and dog walking services all evolved from such an exercise. Also, think of the new generation of baby strollers. Originally, they were simple. Then, they were built with storage areas so that stuff could be carried with the baby. Then they needed to be com pact in order to fit into car trunks so they got small again, but still with a storage area or two.
A New TV Program
3–4 hours
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to make innovation a game and help participants stretch their powers of creation.
Materials
Flipchart paper
Markers
Quirky sense of humor
Laptop computers with Internet access
Procedure
1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 4 to 8 participants.
2. Allow each group to choose a demographic/psychographic group:
a) Tweens
b) Teens
c) Young adults
d) Retired folks
e) Stay-at-home moms or dads
f) 18- to 24-year-old angry men
g) Thirty-something rising professional
h) Other
3. Have the smaller groups create a blockbuster new TV program for this group. Have them create major characters (with names), content, and a blueprint for the first three episodes. (The groups can use the Internet to research any of these subgroups.)
4. After three hours or so, check in with the groups and see if they are ready to report-out to the larger group. They can either use flip chart paper or create a PowerPoint.
Debrief
This is a fun exercise. Typically, participants are fully engaged in this process of creation. During the debrief, the facilitator might ask:
• At which points in the process did you feel fully engaged? Frustrated? Happy?
• How can you relate this exercise to your job?
• Where else do you research a group and then create something for them?
• Having done this exercise, will you look more closely at TV programs and see what they are trying to do and who they are aimed at?
Storytelling
30–60 minutes
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to build the storytelling skill set in participants.
Materials
Notebook paper
Pen
Imagination
Procedure
1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 3 to 7 participants.
2. Tell them that their task is to create a compelling story and share with the larger class.
3. A story contains three major parts: action, conflict, transformation. Each of their stories should have these parts.
4. Tell the class some of your favorite stories and tell them why you like them. What makes a story powerful?
5. Each group can choose the subject of their own story. It can pertain to their organization but does not have to. These stories could be the basis for commercials, websites, or brochures. Examples of compelling stories include the following:
a) The single mother who enrolled in your educational program, built, a career, and pulled her family off of welfare
b) The recent immigrant who came to the United States penniless and used your social service agency to get a start in life
c) The husband and wife who were constantly fighting until they bought an appliance that your company manufactures and how have nothing to fight about
d) The dorky guy who could not get a girl, but now, wearing the suits your store sells, has plenty of social action
6. Have the groups work on the stories until they are reasonably polished.
7. Have them present the stories to the class.
Debrief
Lectures are boring; stories are compelling. Ask the class what makes a good story. Ask them what some of their favorite stories are. Dissect these stories with the class. What makes for an interesting story, a story that one wants to keep listening to? Which stories excite us and why?
Love of Failure
30 minutes
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to help potential innovators examine their attitudes toward failure.
Materials
Flipchart paper
Markers
Notebook paper
Memories
Worksheet #3
Procedure
1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 3 to 7 participants.
2. Distribute Worksheet #3 and have the groups spend 5 to 7 minutes completing it.
3. Debrief the answers with the larger group. What does this tell you about failure and success? Lead them to the point that failure and success are intertwined.
4. Ask the participants to get into smaller groups again.
5. Ask the participants to reflect individually on what failure meant in their families as they grew up (for 5 to 10 minutes). Ask them to jot down some notes, documenting some specific examples of their failures and how their parents, teachers, or siblings reacted.
6. Ask the participants to share their list of failures and reactions with their smaller groups. One recorder in each group should write down themes that emerge from people’s stories.
Debrief
The larger debrief should bring out the themes from each of the groups. The themes should be similar. Some people were punished for failures. Other people were encouraged to learn from them. Others were told to brush them under the carpet. How families deal with failures has a lot to do with how we deal with failure as an adult.
Another part of this debriefing should address how we overcome our past programming and learn to deal with failure happily, successfully, and productively. Innovators need to embrace failure because most innovations are failures, at least at first.
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Worksheet #3 |
Please match the successful person in Column #1 to the failure in Column #2.
| COLUMN #1 | COLUMN #2 |
| George Washington | three attempts to find the Northwest Passage |
| Walt Disney | 903 light bulbs that do not work |
| George Macy | seven bankruptcies |
| Thomas Edison | 6 out of 9 battles lost |
| Abraham Lincoln | 47 times did not get off the ground |
| Wright Brothers | six bankruptcies |
| Thomas Jefferson | kicked out of the company he founded |
| Steven Jobs | lost six elections before being elected |
Answer Key
Failures of Successful People
| COLUMN #1 | COLUMN #2 |
| George Washington | 6 out of 9 battles lost |
| Walt Disney | six bankruptcies |
| George Macy | seven bankruptcies |
| Thomas Edison | 903 light bulbs that do not work |
| Abraham Lincoln | lost six elections before being elected |
| Wright Brothers | 47 times did not get off the ground |
| Thomas Jefferson | three attempts to find the Northwest Passage |
| Steven Jobs | kicked out of the company he founded |
Visioning
1–2 hours
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is show the power of visioning and to give participants a concrete example about how to do visioning.
Materials
Flipchart paper
Markers
Notebook paper
Imagination (not optional)
Computer projector with pictures of various vacant lots and playgrounds (optional)
Laptop computers with Internet access (optional)
Procedure
1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups of 3 to 7 participants.
2. Ask the participants to close their eyes. Read them this passage. “You (a consultant) have been approached by a neighborhood group with a problem. The city has just purchased a nearby vacant lot. There are no other playgrounds anywhere near this plot of land. The group asked you to develop a physical layout for an ideal playground. In addition, because the city has no money for building the playground, the neighborhood group has asked you to develop a potential list of partners to help bring this project into being.”
3. Members of the group might have questions. You do not have answers. They can choose the community and the plot of land.
4. Show slides of vacant lots and playgrounds, if you want. This might help their mental imagining.
5. Let the participants begin the task. Remind them that there are two discrete parts of the task. First, they have to mentally develop and sketch out the physical layout of the playground. Second, they have to create a list of potential partnerships and how these partnerships would fit together to accomplish the task.
6. After 1 to 2 hours, have each group present their plans.
7. Optional: The Internet access computers can be used to research potential partners.
“Visioning” and “networking” are two key behaviors of successful innovators. Innovators have to be able to envision an outcome that they are trying to create. They are to have the imagination to envision that which does not exist. Most innovators also have to rely on other resources to bring their innovations to fruition. Who will be those partners? Who has the resources that they do not have? Who will be the angels to fill in the gaps to make this or that project happen?
• Possible partners for the playground development project:
• Nearby Home Depot or other building materials store may donate materials.
• PTA group may volunteer labor to help build.
• Trader Joe’s usually helps neighborhood groups with projects like this.
• Kiwanis, VFWs, Elks, and other like clubs are likely to consider giving resources.
• Other neighborhood businesses are likely to support the project.
• Local sports teams are often looking for good publicity.
• Local college and high school students often have to build “service learning” into their curriculum. For instance, many high school students have to perform 40 hours or so of service work.
Green Innovation
60 minutes
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is have participants search for innovations within a certain industry—the green industry. Another purpose is to show participants that innovations build on each other.
Materials
Flipchart paper
Markers
Notebook paper
Pens
Laptop computers with Internet access (optional)
Procedure
1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups. Participants can share computers. Each small group should have a scribe, a sheet of flipchart paper, and a marker.
2. Have each scribe divide the flipchart paper into two columns: New Products and Possible Other Products.
3. Have participants go to the website treehugger.com, trendhunter.com, or a similar green products–type website.
4. As participants peruse the website, have them call out to their scribe new, interesting products that they are noticing. The scribes should add these products to the first column. Upon hearing this call-out, others can brainstorm what further products might come about that are similar to or as a result of this product. The scribes should add these ideas to the second column.
5. As the sheets fill up, have the participants post them on the walls.
6. After 45 minutes or so, have groups walk around the room and look at the findings of the other small groups.
Debrief
Hunting for trends is one of the first steps in innovation work. Trend hunting should not be limited to a person or two in marketing research. Because of the Web, anyone can and should be a trend hunter. Besides, trend hunting is fun.
The key phrase in this trend hunting process is “What might this innovation lead to?” or “What might be the next in line of this line of products?”
You might have a contest and give awards for the most interesting product, most likely to succeed product, and/or the most bizarre product.
Practical Individual Creative Skills
30 minutes
Purpose
The purpose of this exercise is to help individuals assess their own practical creative skills and to create an action plan for building those skills.
Materials
Worksheets #4 and #5
Pens
Insightful self-assessment
Procedure
1. Divide the larger group into smaller groups that are manageable in size. It is preferable that the participants be in groups of people who know them well.
2. Hand out Worksheet #4 and Worksheet #5.
3. Explain to the group the premise and elements of Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind (see Worksheet #4).
4. Tell the group that their task is to critically assess their own skills in the arena of practical creativity. Have group members help assess your capabilities in each of these areas.
5. Have group members help develop action steps to develop your skills in this area. What activities would help you build these skills?
6. Each participant should report to the larger group one or two action items that they intend to take to build these practical creative skills.
Debrief
Daniel Pink’s work A Whole New Mind is excellent and worth the read. His premise is that many left-brain type jobs can be either sent to India or computerized and therefore employees need to develop their right brain skills in order to survive the marketplace. These skills are listed on the worksheet. These are clearly right brain skills, and sometimes are harder to train for. According to Pink, employees should be trained in these skills more than the usual left brain skills.
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Worksheet #4 |
Premise: We should be educating our students more in the right brain. Left-brain jobs will be taken by computers or lower paying locations. Below are six ways to educate youth for the work of tomorrow.
Design
It is no longer sufficient to create a product, a service, an experience, or a lifestyle that is merely functional. Today it is economically crucial and personally rewarding to create something that is also beautiful, whimsical, or emotionally engaging.
Story
When our lives are brimming with information and data, it is not enough to marshal an effective argument. Someone somewhere will inevitably track down a counterpoint to rebut your point. The essence of persuasion, communication, and self-understanding has become the ability also to fashion a compelling narrative.
Symphony
What’s in greatest demand today isn’t analysis, but synthesis—seeing the big picture and crossing boundaries, being able to combine disparate pieces into an arresting new whole. This is also called systems thinking.
Empathy
The capacity for logical thought is one of the things that makes us human. But in a world of ubiquitous information and advanced analytic tools, logic alone won’t do. What will distinguish those who thrive will be their ability to understand what makes their fellow woman or man tick, to forge relationships, and to care for others.
Play
In work and play, there is need for play. The current younger generation has been brought up on computer simulations and learns well in this mode. In addition, there is ample evidence that there is enormous health and professional benefits of laughter, lightheartedness, games, and humor.
Meaning
We live in a world of plenty. We can now pursue more significant desires: purpose, transcendence, and spiritual fulfillment. In addition, with all of the information available, our job now is to make meaning of what is present.
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Worksheet #5 |
| CREATIVE SKILL | CURRENT STRENGTHS | ACTION STEPS |
| DESIGN | ||
| STORY | ||
| SYMPHONY | ||
| EMPATHY | ||
| PLAY | ||
| MEANING |