It would appear that our government has realized that our ability to recover from economic crisis, to generate new, worthwhile jobs, even to remain competitive in the global marketplace, will be due, in part, to our ongoing ability to innovate.

Innovation – it is no longer a quality of only a few, select, forward-thinking corporations. It is the benchmark of success in every industry. The ability to continuously reinvent yourself, to anticipate customer needs and desires, and to provide solutions – even before they know they want them – is the 21st Century “business as usual.” ”Innovate or Perish” is the new Darwinism.

And the birthplace of every innovation is an idea. Certainly it takes much more to fully realize meaningful innovation. But without fresh, new, paradigm-shifting ideas, you have nothing. Learn to generate a continuous supply of fresh, new ideas, and you are on your way to being as innovative in your field as Apple, Facebook and Google are in theirs.

Join us this Friday, October 29th, at the 1-day SmartStorming Brainstorm Leadership Workshop in New York City!

This 1-day SmartStorming® program offers you a unique opportunity to learn one of the most acclaimed best-practices approaches for planning, structuring and facilitating highly productive brainstorming sessions, time after time.  Participants also learn powerful, proven idea generation techniques for igniting a group’s imagination, challenging limiting assumptions and generating a wider range of bigger and better ideas.

Download full workshop agenda here.

Sign Up for Our List and Instantly Receive a Special 40% OFF Discount Code

Everyone who signs up for our list will receive an instant Discount Code for 40% off the regular workshop price. Sign up here!

We look forward to seeing you on Friday October 29th!  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us
Best wishes,
Mitchell & Keith

Inspiration is obviously an important ingredient in the idea generation process. Perhaps a less known fact, however, is that inspiration flows most freely to those who routinely expose themselves to new and varied forms of creative inspiration and stimuli (such as new ideas, words, images, media, events, etc).

You might say that become a human sponge (of multi-media input) and you gain a competitive edge in problem solving.

How it works: Associative Thinking
As the mind absorbs its new information (those words, images and symbols), the brain’s natural associative thinking ability is stimulated, making imaginative new leaps and connections between seemingly unrelated ideas (Ask yourself, “What if I combine a baby carriage with a bicycle?” and see what pops into your head!) This unconscious combinative play takes place all the time in our mind, and is regarded as a hallmark of innovative thinking.

The daily practice of exposing our mind to fresh, new and interesting reference data, in order to expand our creative range and depth, is known as “Stocking the Pond.”

This principle is championed by Julia Cameron, best-selling author on the subject of creativity, in her timeless book, The Artist’s Way. Cameron uses the metaphor of the mind as a creative reservoir… a kind of well-stocked pond that requires constant replenishment of new and exotic “fish to fry.” As creative thinkers, it is important that we maintain this thriving internal creative ecosystem.

The practice of continually stocking the pond is especially important for those who frequently engage in brainstorming sessions. If their inspiration pool isn’t regularly replenished, they run the risk of “overfishing” their creative reservoirs. Whenever you hear complaints about an individual or a team recycling the same old ideas, over and over again, chances are the principle of stocking the pond is being neglected or ignored.

Inspiration is here, there and everywhere
Where can we find continuous sources of new inspiration? The answer is surprisingly simple: just open up your eyes and ears and pay attention. Mind expanding stimuli are everywhere! We are literally immersed in a rich, planetary ocean of images, symbols, stories, information, sounds, motions, and sensations.

In fact there is so much information competing for our attention, our brains have adapted mental filters to avoid overload. But with a little practice, you and your teams can open up your senses and begin to appreciate those things that peak your interest and fuel your imagination.

A good place to start, of course, is the Internet. Thanks to the web, and the infinite amount of information accessible to us there, we can all follow our curiosity down the rabbit hole, deep into mankind’s accumulated knowledge, wisdom, creativity and culture—available to us 24/7. There’s nothing like a little associative web surfing to trigger new connections that can lead to serendipitous solutions.

Other rich sources of creative stimuli include television, radio, books, magazines, movies, theatre, games, concerts, performances, museums, schools and universities, and even nature itself. Remember Isaac Newton and the falling apple, or Archimedes in his overflowing bathtub? Eureka!

By cultivating a daily habit of indulging our curiosity and exploring where it leads us, we can create an automatic re-stocking system that will keep our internal reservoirs brimming with all kinds of new, exotic and innovative fish.

A quick reminder that on Friday, October 29th, in New York City, for the first time ever we will be offering our SmartStorming Brainstorm Leadership Workshop to the public! (To date it has only been delivered as onsite corporate training.

To learn more about the workshop and to register, click here.

But hurry! Early registration discounts end soon!

Hope you’ll join us!

Register today!

SPECIAL: Get $100 OFF the regular webinar price! Simply join our free Innovation Inner Circle (signup in right-hand column) and receive a special discount code!

Discover why most brainstorms fail to produce fresh ideas, and how
you can liberate more creative genius from your groups!

“7 Secrets for Supercharging Your Brainstorms”

SmartStorming Webinar

Tuesday, September 14, 2010 – 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm EDT

Do your brainstorm sessions deliver the results you really want?

Group brainstorming is the most widely used process for generating new ideas. But really, how effective is the typical brainstorm session in practice?

Most brainstorms are poorly planned and facilitated, often dominated or derailed by strong personalities, the victim of low energy and enthusiasm, and generally produce few, if any, really innovative ideas.

Presented by innovative-thinking experts Mitchell Rigie & Keith Harmeyer from SmartStorming, LLC, this high-energy 90-minute webinar will feature practical tips and techniques you can put to use right away to help supercharge your very next brainstorm.

— Cathy Robins, Director Strategic Communications, Sudler & Hennessey

NOTE: Webinar link and call-in info will be sent to registrants via email prior to the event.

If you are unable to attend the webinar, a recording will be made available online when the event is completed. All registered participants will receive download links to the recording free of charge.

The Art of Innovation is filled with so much smart, fresh thinking, it is truly a must-read for anyone interested in innovation and creative problem solving.

From Amazon: ”IDEO, the world’s leading design firm, is the brain trust that’s behind some of the more brilliant innovations of the past 20 years–from the Apple mouse, the Polaroid i-Zone instant camera, and the Palm V to the “fat” toothbrush for kids and a self-sealing water bottle for dirt bikers. Not surprisingly, companies all over the world have long wondered what they could learn from IDEO, to come up with better ideas for their own products, services, and operations. In this terrific book from IDEO general manager Tom Kelley (brother of founder David Kelley), IDEO finally delivers.”

Click here to order The Art of Innovation from Amazon.

I used to work at this ad agency where the manager of the creative team, who considered himself the most talented guy in the place, was overly involved in the company’s day-to-day idea generation process. He  insisted on participating in every important brainstorm session the agency held; and being the top guy in the department, he got his way.

Don’t misunderstand—he did come up with his share of ideas, both good and bad.

But perhaps his most meaningful and influential contribution to the brainstorms was the inspiring way in which he would often open a session.

“You know how they say there are no bad ideas?” the boss would begin. “That’s not true; there are bad ideas,” the guy who held in his hands the fate of everyone’s career would continue. “Really bad ideas. Ideas so bad, they should never be spoken out loud.”

You can pretty much imagine where the sessions went from there.

The more junior people in the room, or those whose bellies were just the least bit yellow, would keep their mouths dutifully shut—except to offer an enthusiastic, “Great idea!” when the boss would serve up his creative contributions.

Those of us with a bit more experience (or foolhardiness) would carefully toss our ideas into the ring, more often than not only to have them instantly shot down by our leader. “No, no. That’s no good. Anybody else got anything?”

At the end of these sessions, we would almost always walk away with an idea. His idea.

Funny or sad, but definitely true, this true story exemplifies perfectly the single most devastating thing you can bring with you into a brainstorm—ego.

We often say, half-jokingly, “Kick out the boss” if you want to have a successful brainstorming session. While not always practical in real life, the idea behind the statement is nonetheless sound. Anyone who dominates a brainstorm, either due to seniority or just plain old arrogance and obnoxiousness, will most surely be its ruin.

The real magic and power of a well-executed brainstorm is the superior strength of the group mind—individuals, somehow working together in concert, towards a common goal. Bringing together diverse points-of-views, talents, experiences, etc. expands thinking, increases contribution and allows a well functioning team to build upon each other’s thoughts. The result: a greater breadth and depth of ideas that are far more inspired and developed than those any single individual could produce in the same time frame.

For all the brainstorming-naysayers among you, yes, there have been numerous studies that suggest individual ideation is more effective and producing ideas than group brainstorming. And no wonder. The vast majority of brainstorms are poorly planned, and facilitated by individuals who have had no formal training in the process. They are, in one way or another, like the dysfunctional examples I described at the top of this article: doomed from the start.

But when well prepared and expertly guided, a brainstorm is like a well-rehearsed symphony orchestra—each individual player sharing his or her talent and skill, working together to weave an intricate tapestry that only gets bigger and more beautiful as each new idea is introduced and expanded upon.

So if you are the one in control and just want to push your ideas forward (as ill-conceived and unenlightened as that management style may be), forget brainstorming. Save everyone the time, energy and humiliation, and just dictate the direction you demand.

But if you want to transform your organization into a super-human, innovative-thinking machine, do the right thing. Kick out the boss.

Or at least the boss’s ego.

THE SUPERSKILL® TIPS FOR MORE PERSUASIVE PRESENTATIONS

Many people fail to appreciate the importance of clear, persuasive communication and presentation skills as part of the innovation process. But without these skills, your ideas will remain yours alone. Here is just one useful tip that can help you become a more masterful presenter.

When you are attempting to persuade someone to support your idea, whether in a casual conversation, heated debate or formal presentation, take a moment to consider who it is you’re speaking with – and most important, remember the WIFFM concept (What’s In It For Me – “me” being the person you’re trying to convince) as opposed to the HHMBI approach (Hey, Here’s My Big Idea!).

Example:
You have a big idea for a new product or service that is radically different from that which your company currently offers. If your supervisor is conservative about risk, you’re objective should not be to tell him how radical and paradigm-shifting your idea is, but rather, how your idea will effectively differentiate your company in the marketplace, offset minimal risk with substantial ROI, and make your team (and its supervisor) look great in the eyes of management.

The first approach will significantly increase the odds of your supervisor’s resistance. The second will make him far more inclined to support your idea. Why? Because you’ve considered WIIFM.

Here are 3 simple steps you can follow to help ensure your message is meaningful and valuable to your audience…

1. Assess where the person you want to support your idea is coming from. Use your knowledge of the person and intuition to sense what their needs or goals might be.
2. Consider how your idea can meet/satisfy their needs, or help achieve their goals.
3. Present your idea simply and in a compelling manner, framing it in such a way that allows your audience understand (a common reference point)—WIIFM.

Remember, not everyone shares your agenda or your enthusiasm. They have their own goals. It is your job, as the champion of your idea, to help others see the value from their perspective.

If you have not registered to receive our Innovation Insights newsletter, you can check out the premier issue here: http://eepurl.com/h053 .

Don’t miss the next issue. Register using the form in the sidebar. And don’t forget to add our email address, Insights@SmartStorming.com, to your address book and/or safe senders list.

During the week of February 22, 2010, we will launch our new SmartStorming newsletter, “Innovation Insights,” where approximately every two months we’ll be sharing concepts and observations designed to inspire new thinking and fresh ideas for you and your organization.

If you’reinterested in receiving “Innovation Insights,” we invite you to register, either using the form in the right hand column of this page, or here http://tinyurl.com/yal35a7 . Of course, your email address will never be shared with anyone for any reason.

This thought-provoking excerpt written by Umair Haque, Director of the Havas Media Lab, invites us to explore a fresh viewpoint about our relentless pursuit of innovation… and why it’s time to innovate innovation itself.

Innovation: it’s the ultimate source of advantage, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the economic ring. Innovation is what every organization should be ruthlessly pursuing, right? Wrong.

I’d like to advance a hypothesis: awesomeness is the new innovation.

Let’s face it. “Innovation” feels like a relic of the industrial era. And it just might be the case that instead of chasing innovation, we should be innovating innovation. A better concept, one built for a radically interdependent 21st century, is awesomeness. Here are the four pillars of awesomeness:

Ethical production. Innovation turns a blind eye to ethics — or, worse, actively denies ethics. That’s a natural result of putting entrepreneurship above all. Buy low, sell high, create value. That’s so 20th century. Awesome stuff is produced ethically — in fact, without an ethical component, awesomeness isn’t possible. Starbucks is shifting to Fair Trade coffee beans, for example. Why? Starbucks isn’t just trying to innovate yet another flavor of sugar-water: it’s trying to gain awesomeness.

Insanely great stuff. What is innovative often fails to delight, inspire, and enlighten — because, as we’ve discussed, innovation is less concerned with raw creativity. Awesomeness puts creativity front and center. Awesome stuff evokes an emotive reaction because it’s fundamentally new, unexpected, and 1000x better. Just ask Steve Jobs. The iPhone and iPod were pooh-poohed by analysts, who questioned how innovative they really were — but the Steve has turned multiple industries upside down through the power of awesomeness.

Love. You know what’s funny about walking into an Apple Store? The people working there care. They don’t just “work at the Apple store” — they love Apple. Contrast that with the alienating, soul-crushing experience of trying to buy something at Best Buy — where salespeople attack you out of greed. (Or, as editor extraordinaire Sarah Green put it, “where you wander around for a full half-hour unable to find anyone to help you before you finally get the attention of some blue-shirted 12-year old who turns out to know nothing about the products she sells and ultimately end up committing hara-kiri with a Wii controller”). Their goal is to sell; the goal of Apple Store employees is simply to show off their awesomeness, and let you share it. Love for what we do is the basis of all real value creation.

Thick value. It’s the most hackneyed phrase in the corporate lexicon: adding value. Let’s face it: most value is an illusion. Nokia, Motorola, and Sony tried for a decade to “add value” to their phones — yet not a single feature did. Food producers and pharmaceutical companies claim they’re “adding value,” but mostly they’re just mega-marketing.

The vast majority of companies — in my research, greater than 95% — can only create what I have termed thin value. Thick value is real, meaningful, and sustainable. It happens by making people authentically better off — not merely by adding more bells and whistles that your boss might like, but that cause customers to roll their eyes.

Let’s summarize. What is awesomeness? Awesomeness happens when thick — real, meaningful — value is created by people who love what they do, added to insanely great stuff, and multiplied by communities who are delighted and inspired because they are authentically better off. That’s a better kind of innovation, built for 21st century economics.

To read Umair Haque ‘s complete text, please visit the Harvard Business Review at: blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/09/is_your_business_innovative_or.html

Umair Haque is Director of the Havas Media Lab, a new kind of strategic advisor that helps investors, entrepreneurs, and firms experiment with, craft, and drive radical management, business model, and strategic innovation.

Follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/umairh