Innovation

I'll stop the weekly description, as it's not always that interesting to write about each week :P

Past 2 weks I've spent time to fix my research and set up an innovations workshop where the final case we'd be handling would be my own project, as I needed a brainstorm, and this way there would be plenty of people to help me out, and they wouldn't feel like they were just helping me out, as they got the workshop on how to do a proper brainstorm :)

For me, the day started at DAF around 8:30, getting stuff to the room where the workshop takes place, taking the tea and coffee from the cafeteria to the “Foundry of Innovation”. In the meantime encountering some students that had arrived, and waiting at the entrance for some more to arrive which didn’t happen. There should’ve been 8 students there to join me, as I had little reaction to the invitation in the first place, and 2 people just didn’t show up (one arrived later because of a meeting).

At 9:30 I started the workshop by giving the students a small assignment where they had to count squares in an image, and then doubling the result myself to show them you have to think outside the box, which surprised them quite a bit. The squares are an example of pattern thinking, which I explained after that, telling them pattern thinking is a good thing, though not for every problem.

Then I explained “the box”, what it’s made of and what’s in it. Which also gave them an idea of what they had to break through.

Next were a few exercises to show them they are used to pattern thinking and that thinking outside the box isn’t always that easy. Because of the pattern thinking, they also had assumptions with some of the exercises. At any rate, they thought the exercises gave them a good view of how they approach certain things they think about.

After that, the workshop came to the point that was the most important, as I’d now explain the creative process itself. Starting with a story about 2 cod fishers that had a problem, and what ideas they came to in the end after brainstorming a bit.

To explain the creative process, they were given a practice case, for which I had already created some examples. The next topic was the start phase of a creative process, where they first do some exercises to boost creative thinking (which they’d already done this time). Next was the briefing for the practice case, after which they had to come up with a problem formulation. Writing down a concrete problem formulation was quite hard for them, so in the end I gave them one that I had prepared, and explained how I got to it.

The next phase is the diverging phase, which is the biggest phase in a creative process. Before going to this phase though, I showed them some idea killers, words that cannot be said during any brainstorm, no matter what. One of the students however said he’ll have trouble with that, as he’s a technical minded person. With the diverging phase, you start out with the initial purge of ideas. From this purge, we already got quite a few ideas.

With the initial ideas running dry, I started explaining some methods to generate more ideas, starting with changing the assumptions that are found within the problem formulation. Next I gave them some analogies, which also led to more ideas.

 

The next technique was the superhero technique, which did make them excited and gave them more ideas, finally getting some more ridiculous ideas. It was hard to get the students to act on these ideas, as the craziest ideas usually lead to the most original ones.

When that didn’t really happen, I moved on to the next technique, flukes. Picking a random word from a book or magazine, and writing down associations with that, which you can then associate with the problem you’re trying to solve. This led to some ideas, but it’s quite hard to think of ideas when you’re associating them with a, usually, totally unrelated term. I also explained a bit about free incubation, but that’s something you can’t really do in a day.

With these techniques, we were able to generate quite a few ideas and start the converging phase to narrow down the ideas. The first technique used for this is the COCD box, in which we separated the ideas we had between the 3 categories (the top left are ideas we couldn’t fit in a category).

Because of a lack of time, only one idea made it through the final step, where you shape, judge, and enrich the idea. This gave a few sketches and some extra information for the idea.

One of the students had to leave at this point because of an important meeting she had after lunch.

After the lunch I had 2 cases prepared, the first was an example from a book that I used, the second was my own case, on the CB radio.

We first started with the toothbrush case. This case was over quite quickly, as every student was stuck at some of the same ideas and when using the different techniques to generate ideas, they always came back to the same ones. Because of this the case was thrown aside to go to the next case, which for me was the most important part of this workshop.

I was getting pretty tired from the 2 previous brainstorms I had led, so it was harder for me to properly lead this one as well, but I managed well enough.

For my own case, we used my own problem formulation from the project, and started brainstorming on that. There weren’t as much ideas as with the previous brainstorms, which I only later understood why, as most people said they were getting quite tired from all the brainstorming. After a small purge of ideas, I tried to use the techniques, but those also generated little ideas. Another reason for this is that the project itself has quite a small scope because of the different restrictions which make it hard to go wild with the brainstorm. It did give me a few good ideas, where the main one was to include specific functions from the truck into the system, like the time they had left to drive before they have to take a break.

At the end I let the students fill in a feedback form, to see what they thought of the workshop and the cases I had. This was quite positive, with a few tips. The first part of the workshop, where I taught them how to do everything, was quite successful, the second part after lunch, where I handled the 2 cases, was less successful.

All in all it was an interesting experience for me, as I did like teaching them about the creative process, although that is probably partially because of the subject, this gives a lot of options to make the students participate more than a usual lesson. I did notice that leading a brainstorm is harder than I thought, in school it was usually a collective task, as everyone knew what to do, here I was the sole leader. Next to the fact that it was hard to keep everyone on track, it was really tiring.

However, I do think the workshop was worth giving, let that be clear!

The workshop itself

You can find the presentation here: http://www.slideshare.net/wizarduss/innovation-workshop-22916235

And this is the explanation with the presentation:

2. The square

57 squares (corners and text are extras)

Pattern thinking, as you see the small white squares, you’re focussed to those.

3. Pattern thinking

Pattern thinking is using patterns you are used to, you can easily go through them and quickly remember the information.

These patterns are so well known they are used for all kinds of processes in your brain.

There are patterns that are unique to you, but also patterns that are common in larger groups.

As pattern thinking is stable and predictable, it’s an important part of our thinking, and it’ll always be, at least in some way, the basis for creative thinking.

4. Break through patterns

Patterns aren’t necessarily good, and it’s important to break through them sometimes. This can be done by thinking out of the box.

5. Thinking out of the box (1)

Box is made of the following boundaries:

Laws and rules, as these are things you naturally keep in mind, because disobeying them usually ends in some kind of punishment.

Nature laws, kind of hard to go around things like gravity or the speed of light.

Conventions, a little bit back to the pattern thinking here, as conventions are usually collectively accepted.

Assumptions, also a connection to pattern thinking, but on a more individual level. When you see a red traffic light, you automatically assume it’ll turn green again, while it could also turn blue for example.

6. Thinking out of the box (2)

Inside the box are reasons to stay in the box:

Habits, you’re used to doing certain tasks in a specific way, which works, so why change it?

Experiences, both good and bad, can cause you to stay within the box, because something worked out well, or perhaps something went wrong when trying to go outside the box.

Patterns that usually lead to success, there are always individual or collective patterns that feel like they will lead to success again, even though it might not be the best solution at hand, it’ll be a solution.

Fear of the unknown, for a lot of people, thinking outside the box is a scary exercise, as you’ll have to leave your trusted pattern thinking, or go against some experiences you remember that usually cause you to stay inside the box.

7. Your turn to think outside the box

10 Glasses, glass 2 -> glass 7 and glass 4 -> glass 9

3 numbers to twelve, 11+1=12

8. What do you see here?

Cow

9. Say the COLOUR not the word

Pattern thinking example, conflict between left (analytical) and right (creative) brain.

10. What direction do you see it spin?

CW -> right brain activity

CCW -> left brain activity, these people have an easier time seeing both directions.

11. Impossible cube

Been to a woodsmith, and gave him this image, with the explanation that the bottom and top are both to be made from one piece, and you should be able to take them apart. After looking at it, he told me it’s impossible to make this box, as you couldn’t interlock them after creating them. To which I said that it’s actually possible to make this box.

I told him to take some time thinking about it, and that I’d come back at the end of the week.

When I got back, he had created the box, exactly as I imagined it. Instead of letting the dovetail connections go all the way to the back, they go sideways, so you can slide the parts over one another.

12. You probably know this one

Anti-ageing crème commercial where they removed the chin of the old lady. This is also a form of pattern thinking, you are used to see this, and thus immediately remember that you can see both a young AND an old woman in the picture.

13. Well, what do you think?

This is a more deeply rooted form of pattern thinking, as it’s normal for people to recognize human forms. This ad cleverly used that to their advantage. Because the added lines from the shoes, you assume you’re seeing something different, when combining that with the idea it’s a human body.

14. Speaking about assumptions…

IX

Turn this into six by adding a single line. It has two solutions:

SIX and IX6

Assumptions you have with this exercise:

Roman numerals

Straight line, as I only see straight lines

Has to be a number

They are letters

15. Creative process

Best done in groups of 5-15 people

Cod fishers

Specialized way of fishing, by tying a net (approx. 100 meters) between 2 boats and sailing over cod-rich spots. Because this requires a lot of coordination between the 2 ships, these fishers are usually family, as it’s easier to communicate with each other then. 2 Brothers, Rob and Mark, were planning to set out the next morning, when Mark got hospitalized for an appendicitis, which was a problem the doctor could solve. Rob, however, also had a problem, he didn’t have anyone to join him on his fishing trip.

The family came up with these ideas:

·        Different captain (hire one)

·        Rent the boat to a colleague

·        Sell his quota for that time to a colleague

·        Find a different temporary job

·        Use radio signals to steer the other boat and give the captain on the ship some advises

·        Catch different fish, with another method

·        Rent the boat to tourists

·        Rest a week

And some even crazier ideas:

·        Set a buoy in the sea, attach the net and sail around it

·        Let Mark watch with a webcam, and let him give directions to another captain.

·        Fish with dynamite

·        Pull the plug from the sea

Eventually he heard of another team that was going to sail for fish, and he decided to join them as a third boat, which gives each boat an even bigger catch and is more efficient.

We’re always surrounded by chances, but it usually takes a problem to see these chances.

16. The three phases

Start phase

Diverging phase

Converging phase

17. Idea killers

Make them aware that during a creative process, you can NOT use words like these.

18. The start phase

Start exercises like we just did, this will boost creative thinking during the process.

When starting the actual case, the most important part is the briefing, this will give an overview of the problem at hand, and what they want solved.

Reformulating the problem -> easy phrase to start brainstorming from and it’s a good way to get a focussed view on the problem.

How can Albert Heijn shorten the queues?

How can Albert Heijn make the queues more exiting?

19. Diverging phase

It’s important to have an initial purge of ideas, because this will get all the “easy” solutions out of your head. For a creative session, it’s important to be able to come to the wildest ideas you can imagine. This doesn’t mean the initial purge can’t have those wild ideas though!

To boost the brainstorm, there are a few techniques that help generate ideas. These are a few of the most popular techniques:

Assumptions, here you take the crucial terms in the starting formulation and see what assumptions there are about these terms.

A few examples for queue: customers are in line, they’re there with a shopping cart, there’s an order in the line, they wait, they’re quiet.

You then take these assumptions and eliminate them or turn them around, after which you reassociate.

Analogies, are another way to approach a problem. For this you take a completely unrelated term, and look for the similarities between the two terms or differences from the analogy term.

An example for this is that you might be looking for a new kind of table, and for the analogy you choose an elephant.

Some examples for this are:

·        Trunk - Add a vacuum tube to the table to clean the table afterwards

·        Live in a herd - Take a row of tables that you can connect to each other to create one bigger table

·        Has a good memory - Put a screen in the middle of the table, so you can read news on it during breakfast

And for the queue case, why not take a beehive as analogy. This time looking at the similarities between the two objects.

·        It’s a group happening - Let people do a group activity like in some tv shows

·        There’s one entrance, that’s also an exit - Put the registers in different corners of the store to give people more of a choice

·        People (and bees) look similar to each other - If we know our customers really well individually, we can link them based on common interests

·        Transport is a part of it - Can’t we arrange transport home in the queue?

Another form of this is the personal analogy, for this you need to pick a crucial object from the problem formulation, and think of the problem as if you were that object.

An example is found at a young web design company.  A lot of customers failed to pay the invoices, so everyone approached the problem as if they were the invoice sent to the companies. One of them said: “Through the mail I arrive at the customer. Unfortunately: the desk of the financial director will never be reached, as the secretary puts me in a folder. I feel small and not understood.” From this an idea came to enlarge the invoice, but that would be more expensive, and might not even be looked at. So they decided to make the amount the companies had to pay a bit bigger by adding a zero. This resulted in plenty of calls with protesting customers. The company said they had made a mistake, and the final zero should be removed, the customers however, did pay the amount they owed.

Superhero, take a superhero in mind and describe his properties. Then take a look at how he or she would tackle the problem. Keep in mind this doesn’t have to be your typical comic book hero, it can also be your grandma for example.

The best way to tackle a problem with this technique, is to let everyone choose their own hero and describe their properties, then brainstorm with that, this way everyone has a different way of thinking about the problem.

It’s also a good teambuilding exercise

Flukes, for this technique you take a book or magazine, call out a page, and randomly pick a word on that page, this word has to have some meaning, things like in, on, etc. are useless. You then start to write down associations with that word, and from these associations, you’ll look at the problem and see if these spark any new ideas.

Free incubation, for this technique, you take the problem and just let it rest for a while, keeping it in the back of your mind somewhere. This gives you time to think about it, even if you’re not consciously working on it. Later on, you can take these ideas and add them to the current ideas, or use them to start a new brainstorm session.

20. Converging phase

In this phase you narrow down your ideas to a few concepts, which will then be enriched.

To narrow your ideas down, you use a technique called the COCD box, this gives you a good view of the ideas. You then combine some ideas or take an idea and illustrate it more clearly.

Then you take it through the SJE circle, to get a better description of the concepts. Finally you share the final ideas with the groups if there are more than one.

21. COCD box

The COCD box has 3 sections:

Blue, which are the usual feasible ideas. There’s nothing wrong with these and they are pretty useful.

Red, a creative session is intended to generate ideas for the red box, as these are the original ideas, that are feasible at this very moment. Even though they are new ideas, you feel they can be realised quite easily.

Yellow, these ideas are the ones you think are amazing, but which you think can’t be realised at the moment. They are future or dream ideas. Ideas in this box will most likely be kept somewhere to explore later when you have more assets or knowledge.

First you make a rough selection of ideas, and throw away the absolute worst or useless ideas. Then you write these ideas down somewhere anyone can see them, and give them numbers. Everyone then writes down which ideas they think are blue, red or yellow. This prevents people from influencing each other. After this you put your stickers on the ideas you thought were Blue, Red or Yellow, if you have approx. 100 ideas, give everyone max 8 stickers per color.

22. SJE circle

You then take the ideas that passed the COCD box through the SJE circle.

Shape, for this step you start to give shape to an idea. A few ways to do this are:

·        Expand the idea, explain more of it and perhaps add bits of other ideas

·        Create a moodboard by taking pictures from the internet or magazines and putting them together to give an idea of the mood for an idea

·        Draw your idea, this doesn’t have to be an amazing drawing, simple stick figures can work as well, as long as the idea is made clear by just the pictures.

You then judge the ideas you shaped by using a technique where you go through feelings, pros and cons.

Go through the ideas with the aforementioned steps, don’t take too long (1 minute max) and make sure to keep them separated when discussing.

Finally you enrich your ideas by looking at the pros and cons from the previous step, and taking the most important ones for each idea (2 or 3 pros or cons), then thinking of ways to tackle the cons.

Then you arrive back at shaping, this time you look at how you can present the idea(s) to your client.