Thought Leadership Publications and Forums

Who Should Participate in an Ideation Session – Importance of Diversity

Tweet

 

By: Jay Gronlund

The previous two parts outlined some useful steps to prepare for the ideation session, but ultimate success often depends on identifying the best people for this important event. 

Getting the Right Mix of People – Ideally you should strive to get creative diversity to generate a broad range of distinct ideas, -- i.e. a cross pollination of different thinking styles, both innovators and adapters, left and right brained, and include the select managers who will eventually be in charge of developing and implementing these ideas. Clay Christensen from the Harvard Business School recently wrote a book on “The Innovator’s DNA”, which lists 5 habits of mind that characterize what he calls the ideal “disruptive innovator” (with examples):

1. Associating – The talent for connecting seemingly unconnected things is crucial. Marc Benioff got the idea for Salesforce.com when swimming with dolphins and thinking of enterprise software through the prism of online businesses such as Amazon and eBay. Christensen estimates that business people are 35% more likely to sprout a new idea if they have lived in a foreign country.
2. Questioning – Sharp innovators are constantly asking why things aren’t done differently. David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue and Azul, wondered why people treated airline tickets like cash, freaking out when they lost them, whereas customers could instead be given an electronic code.
3. Observation – Closely related, the knack for recognizing different approaches and forms of behavior can stimulate new ideas. Corey Wride came up with the idea for Movie Mouth when working in Brazil, which uses popular films to teach a foreign language, when he noticed that the best English speakers had picked it up from film stars, not school teachers.
4. Networking – The best innovators also tend to be great networkers, hanging around venues or events where they can pick up new ideas. Michael Lazaridis came up with the idea for BlackBerry at a trade show, when someone pointed out a Coca-Cola machine that uses wireless technology to signal that it needed refilling.
5. Experimenting – They also like to “fiddle” with both their products and business models. A marketing manager at IKEA realized the value of self-assembly when he adapted to the task of fitting furniture into a truck after a photo-shoot by taking the legs off, and a new business model was born.

Next: What You Should Include to Make an Ideation Session a Success
Previous: 4 Examples of Key Tasks to Prepare for a Successful Ideation Session

Part 1: The Ideation Process: What it is, Why Important and Management Commitment
Part 2: 4 Examples of Key Tasks to Prepare for a Successful Ideation Session
Part 3: Who Should Participate in an Ideation Session – Importance of Diversity
Part 4: What You Should Include to Make an Ideation Session a Success
Part 5: Completing the Ideation Process – The Challenge of Execution