| Obstacles to Generating Good Ideas |
| Invention Development Advice - Rough Concepts | |
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Evaluation and judgment: Most of us are very practiced at evaluation. We do it without thinking. Great discipline and self-awareness is important. When brainstorming, it is important to keep the flow going. To keep and open mind to all possibilities, no matter how off-the-wall. To build upon each idea with a spirit of “why not?”; without judgment. Premature evaluation is the fastest killer of this creative flow. Ideas cannot happen if we are constantly judging everything as right or wrong, good or bad. Evaluation and judgment only come into play at the completely separate, decision-making stage.
Fear: On a personal level – fear of looking silly, fear of failure, fear of not fitting in with group-think, fear of loosing face, fear of ridicule. On an organisational level – fear of risks, fear of failure, fear of being too different from competitors, fear of doing something momentous.
Negative states of mind: Be mindful of your mental state before a brainstorming session. A mind full of distractions and worries is not a creative mind. Creativity requires and open-minded presence and willingness to engage with the process. If your business is chaotic and constantly in fire-fighting mode, it will be hard to be creative. Use a neutral location away from the office.
Ego and power games: Some personalities are not suited to brainstorming sessions. People who need to be right all the time, who are rigidly inflexible, who need to impose their will and way on everyone else; these are people best excluded from brainstorming sessions. If this is not possible, they will require a high level of direct management by the facilitator.
Other agendas and politics: Participants should avoid bringing other agendas into a brainstorming session. Political maneuvering and factional fighting will cost you in good ideas. It is worth clearly identifying out-of-scope political agendas at the start of the session so everyone knows when they stray off course.
By Zern Liew To find out how Zern can help you communicate or work better, visit http://eicolab.com.au/services/ and http://eidesign.com.au/services/ For more tips, tools and innovation thought-provokers, visit http://eicolab.com.au/blog/
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