how to innovate by Creating problems?

It is very evident that only “Individuals” innovate and “Businesses” extract value out of these innovations!! It is also believed that “group thinking” will not bring new ideas. But it will definitely help in putting ideas to work!! So, if we are part of a business and interested in innovation, what should we do?

If our business has a lot of engineers and managers, then chances are bright that what they know well is – only problem solving! This might be attributed to the training, orientation and experience they get throughout their careers. Not their fault. These folks are hardly taught how to research, invent or be creative at work – when the boundary of their domain is kept very open/vague!! I guess that’s why there are so many authors, trainers and tools living on the need to inculcate the habit of innovation in businesses, today than ever before. Most of us who have used these great resources know how sustainable these efforts are…. No offense to the means. But the end is always an open well!

In my quest of finding how to solve this puzzle in own area of work, one of the means I have found useful is – forcefully creating a set of problems out of every opportunity and letting the same to be solved by a set of three individuals for a reward!

Key thing is to define these problems diligently and fixing a deadline of not more than 2 weeks for the result. Any thing beyond two weeks is a sure shot failure if it is purely an internal initiative! At the end of two weeks, these individuals present their solution and defend how effective they are for the defined problem. This results in a wonderful experience for those in audience and creates a platform for new ideas as well. Then the same three folks are asked to stitch one solution out of their pieces + what they gathered in the meeting and make it work for the situation in hand within next 1 week. So, at the end of three weeks, there is a 90% chance of a real innovative solution that can be shamelessly applied across similar situations at work.

This has worked in both situations – finding a technical solution to a management problem and a management solution to a technical problem! Mostly, the final one is a combination of these two and addresses a business problem!

Also, this has been useful in both peace and war times of a work situation due to – the “time-boxing” phenomenon coupled with lot of “execution” than “thinking” – that generally forms part of innovation – by definition, if not design!

There are several good models that one can explore, experiment and adopt based on their own comfort level of risk & associated reward. One such interesting model is by Jeffrey Paul Baumgartner. Really powerful in representation and effect that it can create when practiced routinely….

 

 

~ Innovation, truly is a journey than an end! So, we can continue to find more routes, companions and tools to help with – “Problems” are one of them 😉