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Innovation is not drawn from thin air; Instead, it is born when independent thinking is considered a collaboration during the brainstorming process. A good group brainstorming session can help you get started On Business, not just Inside It allows you to consider how you can help your company operate better, faster and cheaper than the competition.
Related: 4 Ways Market leaders use innovation to grow their business
Developing ideas is essential to improving the company’s operations, so you need to consider how to promote innovation in a team environment. Often, when business leaders take pictures of a brainstorming session, they imagine a room where colleagues can shout ideas and write on a whiteboard. In these situations, in general, the loudest voices are heard, and the most popular ideas agree with the slightest or no consideration for the measured effect. McKinsey’s authors recently wrote about a similar situation with a large US cosmetics company.
When it comes to workplace interactions, such as brainstorming sessions, employees often feel compelled to comply. According to a five-part model created by Paul Neal, Geoff MacDonald, and David Levy, people adhere to avoid rejection and conflict, to achieve group goals, or to establish their own identity. In other words, why wouldn’t anyone agree with their boss if it puts their own authority at risk? If you want to find and refine valuable ideas, you need to adopt a more productive brainstorming method.
Revisit your intelligence
To better identify innovation opportunities (and Avoid going ahead with an idea that could hurt your business), you need to start shaping your brainstorming sessions differently.
First, set a common theme and get your team to develop ideas individually on their own sticky notes. Then, put your sticky notes on the board for everyone and briefly explain their thoughts. Try grouping similar ideas to get a better idea of what themes are developing. Next, allow the group to vote on which ideas are the strongest. If you can, vote using a digital option. Many interfaces hide voting results until all votes have been cast, helping to eliminate bias.
Just because an idea has the most votes doesn’t mean it should be your company’s top priority. This is where listing the advantages and disadvantages of an old fashioned way can be helpful. Ask everyone in the room how they perceive the idea positively and the challenges. This allows lower representation sections to express concerns that the rest of the group did not consider. These groups should have a voice throughout the whole concept evaluation process.
Out of a good and difficult list, some other indicators may reveal whether you have a good idea. For starters, if there is collective support for the idea through the initial voting process and the ongoing conversation, then perhaps some of you will be influential. Additionally, you need to consider the value-to-effort ratio. Concepts with higher cost-to-effort ratios are more likely to survive the experimental phase, while more complex initiatives will make veterinarians more rigorous. Most importantly, does this concept align with your company’s core values? Consider that this gives you a competitive advantage. Does it arouse excitement, or does it feel foreign?
Related: Brain anywhere with this reusable scanning whiteboard
Evaluate, refine and implement ideas
Brainstorming can feel like a tidal wave of creativity, but it takes time to evaluate and refine the ideas that come from those sessions. Use the following steps throughout the concept evaluation process to identify which works best for your organization.
1. Set innovation goals
Often, when people think of innovation, their minds jump to the development of new products using the latest technology. However, the new product is only a small part of the completely innovative picture.
Instead of just thinking about your company’s next hot item, consider ten types of innovation frameworks. This model explores three main areas of innovation in your business: configuration, offer and experience. By considering each area and how your company can improve across them through better processes and tools, you can avoid the problems of running after new technology.
2. Concepts and investigations
Not every idea is a golden ticket, so it’s important to create multiple ideas for potential innovation in your desired location. Moreover, you should refine these ideas and investigate with some rigor before investing enough in the end.
Consider frameworks like Innovation Funnel and create and screen innovative inspirational ideas. You can use funnels to prioritize and evaluate the best ideas, shrink the total number of inventions, and create funnel-like shapes.
About 80 percent of projects should die at the discovery stage. When you get out of the funnel, another 80 percent will die during the validation phase. This rule is not absolute, but it does protect your idea portfolio from getting bogged down with low-star innovations.
3. Test your ideas
Examining innovative ideas that take it to the concept level can help you determine if they are worth following. As you begin to outline the test, spend time identifying your key metrics so you know how to measure results.
Your test can take many forms depending on what you want to verify, but the main purpose is to create a light way to verify your guess. As a consumer, you are always subject to it because the provider A / B examines their webpage, advertising and even packaging.
When it comes to interior innovation, consider specific employees to whom you can roll out a new process before investing time and money in custom solutions before adopting broad adoption or low-code ways to validate potential software rollouts.
Related: 3 Ways to Be Technically Innovative on a Budget
If you want to push your business towards a better model, the key is to promote business innovation However, not all ideas will work for your company, and that’s fine. Learning how to conduct a brainstorming session and evaluate business ideas will bring your company one step closer to implementing truly effective innovations.
