inKNOWvations: February 2009

Guided Ideation: A Management Approach to Creativity-Based Performance (Part 3 of 3)

Anders Hemre

In this three part series, inKNOWvations guest author Anders Hemre discusses the benefits and management approach of guided ideation.

Not everyone can be expected to have ideas about everything. Ideation should focus on active solicitation of ideas from groups and individuals who are likely to have ideas about a particular problem or opportunity. In the product domain, this translates to people with sufficient technology expertise or application/user experience from the areas concerned.

Recessions bring cuts in the size of the labour force, in capital expenditures, in advertising budgets, in travel, even in the loss of coffee and donuts from our meetings. Sadly, investments in research and development and innovation, the seed-corns of our future, are not insulated from these realities either.

I have noticed three main ways in which leaders and managers fail on open innovation. These causes of failure focus on networking, ideas and X-vision. I also have a couple of suggestions on how to work with this.