“He who every morning plans the transaction of the day and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the maze of the most busy life. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign.“

- Victor Hugo

Unfortunately, most people have never experienced a genuinely successful brainstorm. The vast majority range from disappointing to disastrous. So when it comes to planning a brainstorm, you may not even know what to plan for.

If you want to create a much more efficient, productive and enjoyable brainstorming experience for yourself and your team, it is essential that you thoroughly pre-plan your sessions. This first step in our SmartStorming process is one that is almost never taken, and one of the most critical. In fact, taking this one step alone can have a dramatic impact on the success of your ideation sessions.

Experience design is a discipline in which processes or environments—experiences— are carefully crafted to meet the needs, desires, skills and expectations of the participants. Consider, for example, a roller coaster. The designer considers each moment of the experience, from the time the rider is strapped into the seat, through the first rise, the first big drop, every twist, turn and barrel roll, until the car rolls to a stop and the journey is over.

A group brainstorm session is much the same. As a successful leader, you must plan exactly where you want to take your participants, what their overall experience will be, how to keep your group on track and how it will all end up. Think of yourself as an experience designer, leave as little as possible to chance, and your sessions will consistently deliver the results you are looking for.

There are three key advantages in pre-planning your brainstorm sessions:

1. Pre-planning helps make your session flow more easily and productively from beginning to end. As the facilitator, you enter the room with a greater sense of confidence because you have comprehensively mapped out the precise journey of imagination your group is about to embark upon. You have clearly pre-determined the goals and objectives, invited the best team (knowledge and experience) to help you achieve your goals, you have pre-selected the best idea-generation tools and techniques for the challenge, and possess the right criteria necessary for efficiently evaluating and selecting ideas. When you pre-plan your sessions, you minimize the Machiavellian forces of chaos and entropy that can quickly undermine loosely structured traditional brainstorms.
2. Pre-planning dramatically increases your group’s creative yield of new ideas.There are numerous, proven group idea-generation tools and techniques that inspire fresh thinking and new ways to approach problem solving. These tools and techniques can be used individually, or combined in different combinations to eradicate limiting assumptions, explore multiple viewpoints and stimulate powerful free-association – what we call “popcorning” of ideas. Pre-planning provides you the valuable opportunity to orchestrate the best tools and techniques to ignite your group’s imagination and achieve your goal. It can dramatically increase your group’s creative yield, often by as much as 40-60%.
3. Pre-planning frees you up to lead more effectively. Once you have laid out your session plan, you will have a clear, concise overview of how your brainstorm will flow from beginning to end. This blueprint takes all the guesswork out of how to structure your session, or what to do, or when to do it. It’s all there… simply organized and in sequence. So as the group leader, you can focus on the matter at hand—generating ideas.

The 7 Pre-Planning Steps
Our SmartStorming Pre-Session Planner makes pre-planning easy. It walks the leader through the seven easy-to-follow steps necessary to structure great sessions, time after time. The steps are simple and logical. They are designed to stimulate your best thinking and get you highly organized, regardless of how challenged you may be in the organizational department.

Pre-planning requires an investment of just a few minutes of quality time, but guarantees your SmartStorm session will flow more efficiently, more enjoyably, and produce far superior results than traditional brainstorming efforts.

Here is a brief overview of each step we take in the SmartStorming Pre-Session Planner. You’ll soon see why this simple step will change forever the way you approach group ideation meetings.

Step 1: Clarify the Challenge, Goals and Objectives
It’s very difficult to get where you want to go if you don’t know where you’re going. That’s why goals and objectives are so vitally important. Clarifying your specific challenge, goals and objectives focuses the group’s attention and sets a high creative bar.

Step 2: Choose Participants
You can dramatically increase the quantity and quality of the ideas your group produces by thoughtfully selecting your participants. Choosing individuals with the most appropriate backgrounds, skills, knowledge, and experience for the challenge, instead of simply inviting the “usual suspects,” is a critically important step in group ideation success.

Step 3: Provide Background Information
In a typical, poorly-planned brainstorm session, participants enter the room with only a vague notion of the task at hand. They may know the general subject, but typically don’t understand the specifics of the challenge. Getting them “up to speed” can often take 20% or more of your allotted time. Provide your group with all the information they need to succeed—before the session takes place.

Step 4: Choose Your Icebreaker
When participants enter the room, chances are they are coming in with scattered attention, preoccupied with other outside concerns. The first job of a good facilitator is to help focus the group on the challenge ahead, free up their attention from distractions, breakdown interpersonal barriers and galvanize them as a collaborative team aligned toward a common goal. The fastest way to accomplish this is through brief, playful icebreaker activities.

Step 5: Select Ideation Techniques
While every part of a SmartStorming session is important, arguably the most important is the time allotted for actual idea generation. Simply “throwing ideas against the wall” is hardly the most effective way to help groups generate abundant, innovative concepts. There are dozens of techniques for enhancing the flow of original thoughts, helping teams expand and enhance the ideas of others and create totally new directions by combining or exploring various aspects of ideas. Decide ahead of time which tools and techniques will be most appropriate for your challenge and your group, in order to ensure outstanding results.

Step 6: Establish Selection Criteria
A productive SmartStorming session can produce literally hundreds of new ideas. Some are great. Some have potential. Some are…well, you know. How you organize, evaluate, and select the best ideas can become a daunting challenge, particularly in the heat of the moment, and if you haven’t considered your process ahead of time. Your selection criteria should be built directly from your challenge, goals and objectives, established in Step One. By pre-determining the specific yardstick you will use to measure the effectiveness of potential ideas, you will have a clear, unambiguous process in place, ready to implement.

Step 7: Plan Next Steps and Follow-Through
Most people believe a brainstorming session ends when the ideas have been selected. In fact, the end of the idea selection process actually launches an entirely new process—follow-through. Once again, most people never even consider this to be part of an effective ideation session. But breakthrough ideas are useless unless they are transformed from ethereal concepts into tangible realities. To bring new ideas to life, next steps and timetables need to be determined, responsibilities assigned, milestones established and progress meetings scheduled.

That’s it. Once you have completed your pre-session planning, you are all set! You will feel organized, buttoned-down and more confident in your abilities to lead a great session. Your group will appreciate the difference the new structure and techniques will make in liberating their creativity to more effortlessly achieve success.

Click here to download a free copy of our SmartStorming Pre-session Planner – and start pre-planning perfect brainstorms today!

Video of our successful webinar, “7 Secrets for Supercharging Your Brainstorms,” held on Tuesday, September 14, 2010.

7 Secrets for Supercharging Your Brainstorms

1.Preplan your sessions to boost yield of ideas

2.Get your group off to a fast start

3.Proactively manage and balance personalities

4.Engage the silent thinkers

5.Keep the energy high and ideas flowing

6.Use proven idea-generation techniques (like Idea Sprinting)

7.Never select ideas without pre-determined criteria

To learn more about how to supercharge your brainstorms, REGISTER HERE to receive a free copy of the SmartStorming 7-Step Pre-Session Planner, including instructions for the powerful Idea Sprinting ideation technique.

© 2010 SmartStorming LLC – All rights reserved

Recently, the founder and CEO of a highly innovative marketing company confided in us that he wished, “…somebody would invent a new word to replace ‘creativity.’” He went on to share numerous stories about how misunderstood, intimidating and at times, paralyzing the “C-word” had become in his organization. And apparently he and his staff are not alone. The same phenomenon seems to be occurring in organizations everywhere.

What our CEO was verbalizing is an emerging zeitgeist in business today, a condition we call, CTPA (Creative Thinking Performance Anxiety). CTPA is a particularly nasty variety of unexpressed stress and dis-ease experienced by individuals and teams when they are put on the spot to think “outside-the-box” and deliver fresh, new ideas.

And these days, who isn’t being pressed hard to think more creatively?

Over the last decade, creativity (the driving force behind innovation) has emerged as the single most important competitive edge for success—a fact recently reconfirmed by IBM’s much-publicized 2010 CEO Study. Those companies that excel at creative thinking (the Apples, Googles and Nikes of the world) are thriving in today’s challenging economic environment, while their less creative competitors are scrambling to reinvent themselves and somehow remain relevant.

But when we speak about creativity, what are we really talking about? Or perhaps more importantly, is creativity (by any name) an ability we all possess… or a rare and special talent possessed only by a fortunate few? Researchers have actually tried to develop a reliable IQ-like test to measure an individual’s “CQ” (creativity quotient); but not surprisingly, those attempts have proven futile. It seems the subjective, non-linear, shape-shifting nature of creativity defies standardized measurement.

What does it mean to be creative?
The word creativity comes from the Latin word cero, which means “to create or make”. So every time you or I create or make anything (i.e., create a blog entry, prepare a meal, build a sandcastle, doodle on paper, or build the next online social networking phenomenon) we are being creative. We actually engage in acts of creativity every day. In fact the activity is so second nature, most of the time we are unaware we are even doing it.

Creativity vs. Artistic Ability
A common handicap facing many business people today is the self-limiting belief that they are “not creative.” Chances are those who subscribe to this belief may mistakenly associate creativity with artistic ability.

They say things like, “I’m not creative; I can’t even draw a stick figure,” “I’m not a good writer,” or “I don’t have a creative bone in my body,” That attitude perpetuates the myth that you are either born with it, or you aren’t. While many creative people do posses artistic ability, a far greater percentage of the world’s population of creative thinkers do not.

For example, Steve Jobs is lauded for being visionary creative genius; yet, can you recall ever seeing a single painting, sculpture or artistic performance created by him? Ever downloaded any music he has written or performed from the iTunes Store? The same can be said for other innovative geniuses like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.

History has proven time and time again that anyone, anywhere, in any profession, can conjure up an “A-ha!” flash of creative insight, with the power to transform lives, markets, societies, or even the course of history. That includes you and me. We all possess that divine spark of genius within us.

The traits of highly creative people
Creativity manifests itself in many forms. There are highly creative teachers, CEOs, mechanics, salespeople, technicians, accountants, politicians, doctors, lawyers, cobblers and chimney sweeps.

Anyone who engages in his or her field of endeavor with a spirited sense of curiosity, wonder, sensitivity, imagination, playfulness and a willingness to question the status quo, possesses the traits and characteristics of highly creative people.

How many of those creative traits do you recognize in yourself?

The inner game of creativity

In sports like tennis or golf, we know that an “inner,” intellectual and emotional understanding of the game and how it is played is just as important as good “outer” physical technique. The more you contemplate, and then practice those things you consider, the easier it becomes to master the game. The same is true of creativity; with thought and practice you can cultivate your skills of observation, intuition and imagination. The more you master the inner game of creative thinking, the more innovative and effortless a problem solver you will become.

The creativity game is one of developing the confidence, discipline and skills necessary to push beyond any self-limiting beliefs about how creative you are, or can be. It is about stepping up and playing a bigger game, in order to unleash the creative genius within you. In the words of psychologist and author, Gerald G. Jampolsky, “A truly creative person rids him or herself of all self-imposed limitations.”

We will explore more about how to master this inner game of creativity in part two of this series.

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.

Social networking is all about building and strengthening relationships by establishing online communities of individuals with shared interests.

According to Wikipedia, social networking sites “allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks.” Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, MySpace and a few other well-known social networking icons come to mind.

Now think back for a moment to a time, not so long ago, when your primary means of building and strengthening your relationships wasn’t text-based (or in the case of YouTube, video). When you preferred getting together with your “network” (a.k.a. friends) and actually chatting out loud (in cmplt wrds not txt abbrs – LMAOROTF) . Or you would pick up your phone and use that device for what it was originally intended: talking.

You remember talking, right? It was nice. Conversations are so much richer when a voice is actually involved. Which begs the question…where is the “voice” of social networking?

Enter Voicefield, a breakthrough social networking concept that capitalizes on the quaint notion that it’s nice to hear people speak. Think of Voicefield as “Voice-Twitter,” “YouTube for the Spoken Word,” or “Talking-PostSecret.”

Voicefield is the brainchild of New York City entrepreneur, Trevor MacDermid, who explains, “In essence, Voicefield captures voluntary voice messages and makes them available online—so you can say anything you like, and listen to others do the same. In an era of exploding self expression, Voicefield celebrates the most personal form of communication, which lately seems to have been cast aside: the human voice.”

While still in its infancy, the potential for Voicefield is obvious… and enormous. Who doesn’t enjoy taking the floor every once in awhile? (Think karaoke.)  And while, just like poorly-utilized Twitter, many early users treat their fellow Voicefielders to a description of the bar they’re trying to find their way out of, or the size and juiciness-factor of the burger they just downed, one can only imagine how more creative and ambitious users will leverage the technology.

Voicefield collects sentiments from any phone or from your computer’s built-in microphone, at any time.   Messages might be confessional, emotional, frank or drunk. Callers can choose to be anonymous, themselves, or a made-up persona. Here’s one of our favorites from user Andrew Andrew, titled “Waltz.”

The Voicefield interface is equipped with caller-ID, so messages can be attributed to a particular area code, time and date, and even a specific registered user, and tagged by subject matter, theme, response to question and popularity.

And of course, if you’re really entertaining, others can choose to follow you and your voice posts. (Just imagine what Twitter’s @sh*tmydadsays could’ve done with this!)

The best way to get a feel for Voicefield (and how much fun it can be) is to give it a try. Again, there aren’t a ton of great messages there yet; this is still a new concept. But that means the Voicefield is wide open for your expressions of brilliance.

There are two interfaces:

• by phone, (212) 937-8981 (there’s also a toll-free number: (877) WWW-VOICE);
• by web: www.voicefield.com.

So if you have something to say, stop typing and start talking…on Voicefield. Who knows? You might actually like what you hear.

In today’s warp-speed, innovation-driven economy, it is a little surprising how often one still hears that well-worn cliché, “We have to think outside the box!”

Or, perhaps not. With so much pressure on organizations to create ever better, faster, more efficient, more cost effective products and services, maybe that elusive area beyond the box is just that much more elusive.

Whatever the case, these words, or variations with similar meaning, still echo the hallways in organizations of every size, in every area of industry, education and government, and at every level of responsibility.

If you asked what makes it so difficult for these organizations to “think outside the box,” chances are you would get an earful about how impossibly challenging it is for people to simply sit down together and effective develop fresh, new ideas.

The typical list of roadblocks range from “We just keep recycling the same old ideas,” “We’ve tried everything before” and “We don’t have the __________ we need to succeed” to “It’s impossible to make bold changes here” and “The boss/our customer will never go for it!” As one listens to the litany of obstacles, one can’t help but imagine that significantly more creative effort is being exerted in reinforcing limitations than in actually seeking innovative solutions.

So what really is the big problem? What core issue underlies the multitude of “good reasons” organizations have so much difficulty thinking like Google or Apple?

Simply, what we believe—pre-existing assumptions.

It is our assumptions (our firmly held beliefs about what is or is not possible…what can or cannot be done or achieved) that makes up “the box” that restrains our consciousness and limits our thinking. When perceived limitations loom larger than perceived possibilities, we diminish our ability to solve challenges creatively. In short, we cease being innovators.

Henry Ford, a legendary out-the-box thinker, said it best, “If you think you can do a thing, or can’t do a thing, you are right!” He understood that every self-imposed limitation we imagine or verbalize (and we all have lots of assumptions about a lot of things) creates a mental barrier that separates us from unlimited possibility.

When we simply accept any constraint on what is possible, we trade curiosity for caution, and seek solutions in the familiar, rather than venturing boldly into the unknown. Caution and familiarity are hardly catalysts for innovation.

When we free ourselves from our assumptions, our curiosity flows; we are suddenly able to explore, make new connections and imagine new possibilities that lead to innovative solutions.

We are able to answer the question, “What if…?”

The first step toward liberating yourself and others from limited, boxed-in thinking is to summon the courage to identify and challenge your existing assumptions.

How to successfully challenge assumptions

1. Make a list of any assumption or limiting belief you or your group may have regarding the issue you are trying to solve.

Be honest—and as thorough as possible. Really dig deep to uncover what you assume to be true. Remember, assumptions often masquerade in the guise of common knowledge, accepted practices and protocols, facts, or even proud tradition. We even harbor assumptions about the way things are, or should to be.

2. Challenge the status quo.

Here’s another inside tip: the more “indisputable” a belief, accepted truth or fact appears, the more important it is to challenge it!  Challenging the status quo creates a rich environment for the seeds of innovation to flourish.

3. Take each item on your list and ask these 3 questions:

1. “Is this ______(limitation/assumption)_____ true?” (Yes/No)
2. “Is it absolutely true, all the time, without exception?” (Yes/No)
3. “If it’s not absolutely true, what are the possibilities?”
   

Make this “reality check” technique for questioning assumptions a regular part of your brainstorming or idea-generation process. You will be amazed to find that most, if not all, perceived limitations will quickly dissolve under the analysis of objective discernment.

As each limiting belief falls away, more and more new blue-sky possibilities will begin to emerge. Before you know it, that proverbial box that once restrained your imagination will have disappeared.

Group brainstorming, as we know it today, has been around since the 1930s. For the most part, it hasn’t changed all that much in the past seventy-plus years, except in one respect: the development of new ideation techniques.

Ideation techniques are, quite simply, novel thought-provoking exercises designed to help groups tackle challenges in ways they might not otherwise consider. Some make it easier for groups to view issues from fresh perspectives; others provide engaging processes to help stimulate imagination, overcome shyness, facilitate collaboration, and much more.

In short, ideation techniques make it possible for groups to generate a greater breadth and depth of ideas (i.e., more, better ideas).

Anyone who takes even a few moments to Google “ideation techniques” will learn that there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, around. Some are well-known and extensively documented; others are less-so.

We recently conducted a survey among our network to find out just where people stand on ideation techniques—which ones they know, which ones they use in brainstorms, and what they think about them. The results are interesting, if not completely surprising.

When asked whether they believe knowing and using different ideation techniques is beneficial to brainstorming, the answer was a resounding “Yes!”

“…it helps you see more possibilities and solutions”

“…otherwise all people do it sit in a room and go around in circles discussing the same old issues & thoughts without any focus or direction.”

“It directs and channels your thinking.”

“… solutions can arise unconventionally, where otherwise no solutions may have surfaced creatively.”

Many respondents also suggested that knowing and understanding a variety of techniques is critical to group brainstorming success (a notion we at SmartStorming wholeheartedly agree with).

“The more techniques you can use the more chance you have of getting better results from a group.”

“…You have to match the technique to the objective and the strengths/weaknesses of the group.”

“…the more tools you bring to the stage, the more likely you are to come up with a hit.”

“…if you use only one brainstorming technique, you’ll lose the crispness of creativity.”

However, when provided a list of well-known ideation techniques, only one had relatively broad awareness—Mind Mapping—followed by Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats and the widely-used S.W.O.T. Analysis. All others listed had less than 7% awareness.

Mind Mapping – 23%
S.W.O.T. Analysis – 20%
Six Thinking Hats – 19%
180-Degree Thinking/Reversal – 8%
SCAMPER – 7%
Worst Idea – 6%
In Their Shoes – 6%
All others – <3%

And when asked what other techniques (not listed in the survey) they used, more than 54% of listed no additional techniques at all; and fewer than 10% listed more than two.

It is important to note that this survey was conducted among our network of readers, presumably an audience that is more tuned-in to advanced brainstorming and ideation techniques than the average businessperson. And yet, it is clear that even among this group, very few know, understand and use a range of ideation techniques.

Again, this result isn’t entirely surprising. In our own ongoing research, we find that fewer than 10% of individuals in any industry (even creativity-focused businesses like advertising and design) have had any training whatsoever in brainstorming and group ideation. Those that have typically know one or two ideation techniques, but nothing about brainstorming session structure or facilitation skills.

And so it would appear that while we understand and acknowledge the value of having a library of ideation techniques at our disposal, few of us make the effort to identify and learn those techniques.

In this era of the “innovation economy,” it is bewildering that individuals and organizations still don’t recognize the importance of idea generation. Business success today requires continuous reevaluation and reinvention of one’s business offering. Once organizations could thrive for decades on a single great idea; today they need a great idea every year, and in some cases every month or week.

Only by taking the personal initiative to educate oneself in a variety of ideation techniques—and to offer training throughout one’s organization in effective brainstorm leadership and facilitation—can anyone hope to survive and thrive in today’s competitive business environment.

Innovation begins with ideas. No ideas, no innovation.

How many great ideas did you and your team come up with today?

——————-

Note: Here’s a full list of all ideation techniques mentioned by survey respondents. They’re a good start for building your own library!

Mind Mapping
S.W.O.T. Analysis
Six Thinking Hats
180-Degree Thinking/Reversal
SCAMPER
Worst Idea
In Their Shoes
3-D Ideation (SmartStorming)
Brainwalking
Group Graffitti
Freewriting
Divergent/Convergent Thinking
Process & Task Orientation
Role Reversal (similar to “In Their Shoes”)
Working Backwards
Analografiti by Vera F. Birkenbihl
Subconscious Ideation
Delphi Method
Synetics
Zero Draft
Rapid Writing
Random Input/Analogy
Alter Ego
What If?
Parallel Design
How Might Be?
Facilitated Creative Visualization
Socratic Questioning
Kills the Sacred Cows (similar to 180-Degree Thinking)
Random Stimulation
Forced Connection
Ask a Stranger

And here is webpage with a fairly extensive listing of techniques you can explore and use: http://www.mycoted.com/Category:Creativity_Techniques

In a recent, much-referenced study conducted by IBM Global Business Services, a group of over 1,500 CEOs in 60 nations and 33 industries agreed that “creativity” is now the most important leadership quality for success in business.

Not “global focus,” not “integrity,” not even much heralded “sustainability.” But “creativity.”

Steven Tomasco, of IBM Global Business Services, found the result surprising, considering that we have just come out of (hopefully) an historic economic downturn the likes of which most of these CEOs have never experienced in their professional lives.

In terms of actual percentages, 60% of those surveyed ranked “creativity” in the #1 spot. Second was “integrity.” (With all due respect to Steven Tomasco,we would suggest this is the more surprising result in this era of “the end justifies the means” corporate management.)

In fact, for those fortunate enough to have had access to the crystal ball of business success over the past several years, in our new “innovation economy,” that “creativity” holds the #1 spot is hardly surprising. In fact, it is expected.

If there is a secret of business success today, it is the willingness and ability to continually reinvent one’s value proposition, deliver ever-increasing value to customers and recognize that the consumer calls the shots—every shot.

Consider that 88% of CEOs surveyed also ranked “getting closer to the customer” as the #1 area of focus, followed closely by “people skills” (81%) and “insights and intelligence” (76%).

Creativity, people skills, insights/intelligence… it all boils down to a consumer-driven success model.

The dominant businesses in today’s marketplace understand this. They work diligently to stay one step ahead of the consumer’s need. It’s no longer about the ability to respond—it’s about the need to anticipate. Give your customers what they want—before they even know they want it—and you will rise to the top of the competitive corporate food chain. Fail to do so, even for a moment, and prepare to fall, rapidly.

So what does creativity have to do with all of this? Why is it necessary to “think outside the box” in order to meet consumer demand?

Because your customers don’t have a clue what they will want tomorrow—even though they want it now. And they are not going to tell you; that’s too much work. They want you to tell them; and when they see it, they’ll know it. Tell them what they want, and if you are correct, you win the brass ring. And if you don’t, someone else most certainly will.

There’s a bit of alchemy involved in this, the ability to ask, “What if?”

“What if my customers had <fill in the blank>? How would it make their lives better, easier, more productive?”

This business model is not for the faint of heart. It is not built upon market data (backwards focused), proven successes (backwards focused) or established business practices (backwards focused). It is built upon vision…and the ability to manifest it.

Apple understands. So does Google. Microsoft did once. So did AOL and iomega and countless others who have tripped, stumbled and gone plummeting off the front pages of the business press. Business success means redefining oneself daily. These surveyed corporate leaders know this, even if they are not presently doing it. Those who will ultimately act upon it will be around to respond to the next IBM survey. Those who don’t???

What if? That is the pressing question. Can you provide the answer?

June 16, 2010

On the evening of April 20, 2010, methane gas shot out of the drill column on one of BP’s offshore oil platforms, Deepwater Horizon. The gas quickly ignited into an explosive fireball. Thirty-six hours later the flaming platform sank a mile deep below the surface of the Gulf.

The fiery demise of Deepwater Horizon was only the opening chapter of an ongoing disaster that continues to release an estimated 20,000–40,000 barrels of crude oil into the Gulf each day, resulting in a deadly oil slick that covers over 2500 miles of surface area… and is still spreading.

To date, every attempt on BP’s part to stop or control the flow of oil has ended in failure. The only glimmer of hope for easing the crisis lies at best weeks, or more likely months away, with the completed drilling of relief wells. The challenge facing BP (and all who assist them in their effort) is just how to plug a leaking pipeline in waters so deep, the pressure could crush a submarine. It has been said that the task is much like attempting to thread a needle while wearing boxing gloves.

If the world ever needed inspired innovative problem solving, it is now!

Why is BP experiencing one failure after another at such a critical time? The obvious answer is that they have not arrived at a workable solution. Assuming the task is not an impossible one, the real fault lies in, or is at least exacerbated by, the company’s approach to problem solving. It appears that BP has approached this unprecedented challenge from a conventional industry problem solving mindset, rather than from highly creative and collaborative approach—a classic example of too much linear thinking, and not enough imagination.

Like a creature of habit, the company has attempted to adapt conventional land-  and shallow water-based approaches to solve an extreme (unconventional) problem taking place 5000 feet below the surface. Meanwhile many thousands of unorthodox suggestions have been offered by inventors and creative problem solvers, only to be ignored by BP and the federal government—while the oil continues to flow.

Innovation, desperately needed in such an unprecedented event, is fueled by new ideas, not by rethinking or refashioning the status quo.

So if you had to choose one organization or government agency to rise up and take on this mission impossible, who would you call?

Our vote would have to go with NASA!

Why NASA? Who else has a proven track record of experience, expertise and ingenuity for solving tough challenges in the most remote and inhospitable environments in the universe?

Consider the Apollo 13 crisis, when an oxygen tank ruptured and severely damaged the command spacecraft on its way to the moon. The agency acted swiftly to transform the Lunar Landing Module into a “lifeboat” for the emergency return trip to Earth. Despite a near complete loss of cabin power and heat, shortage of drinkable water, and improvised fix of the carbon dioxide removal system, NASA used creativity and innovation to beat the odds and bring the astronauts safely home to Earth. Sounds a little like threading a needle while wearing boxing gloves. Clearly NASA has the Right Stuff!

There doesn’t seem to be an extreme challenge the agency can’t solve, whether it’s inventing fixes for bulky solar panels aboard the space station hundreds of miles above the earth, or jump-starting land rovers, 125,000,000 miles away on Mars, in -80 degree F temperatures.

If the Deepwater Horizon spill were approached from a completely new perspective (say by the men and women who designed and built the International space station?), is there really much doubt that a solution could be found? What’s a measly mile below the Gulf surface when you’ve successfully done rover repair 125,000,000 miles away?

The sooner BP begins to question their self-limiting assumptions, open their minds to new and different viewpoints, and starts to creatively collaborate with visionary idea partners, the sooner they will discover the innovative solution they and the world so desperately need.