Ideation, Idea Databases and Idea Management

Ideation, Idea Databases and Idea Management
Various thought methods are available to us to go beyond our current levels of thinking and the sum total wisdom being used consciously (or subconsciously) at a given moment. The principles of Lateral Thinking allow us to set the context for a free (un-hindered) flow of ideas to the problem at hand.

With this “free” context, we can easily set-up a system to continuously build a haystack of ideas. This process of forming and relating ideas is called IDEATION and it usually leads to an IDEA DATABASE for the specific problem at hand. And, of course, there are many “ready” databases on the internet. For example:

www.creativitypool.com could be a starting place to browse for ideas and you could submit your own ideas and be rewarded for brilliant entries.

www.trendwatching.com scans the globe for “the most promising consumer trends, insights and related hands-on business ideas”. They rely on a network of 8,000+ spotters in more than 70 countries worldwide.

With a large number of people working on the same problem, there arises the need to “institutionalize” systematic recording, sharing, and evaluation of ideas – the entire process is called “Idea Management”. Commercial Ideation tools like “Ideation Brainstorming” by Ideationtriz are available in the market.

Another player is Imaginatik who are one of the pioneers of Idea Management “as a specialized application of Knowledge Management principles to harness the collective innovation potential of companies”. They use the idea of concept of “Idea Richness” - the extent to which an idea is described so that it is understandable to others, and avoids the need for most follow-on questions.

The parameters of Idea Richness are - Understandability, Completeness (scope of problem covered and how detailed), Questioning (How much extra work?), and Longevity (How easy is it for some to recall the ideas after a long period of time?) and Intuitive Fit (How evident is the solution?).

So much so for quality of ideas. What about quantity? How many is too many? The Economist estimated that an enterprise has to start with 3000 bright ideas if it has come up with 100 worthwhile projects, which in turn will be winnowed down to four development programs for new products.

So, “Never say Never” whenever an “insert” operation is requested into an idea database!

On a mystical note:

Say not, “I have found the truth,”
but rather, “I have found a truth.”
Say not, “I have found the path of the soul.”
Say rather, “I have met the soul walking upon my path.”
-Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Lateral Thinking

Albert Einstein famously said that “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”.

So, what are tools available to us to go beyond our current levels of thinking and the sum total wisdom being used consciously (or subconsciously) at a given moment?

One such tool ‘Lateral Thinking’ was pioneered in 1967 by Edward de Bono, a Maltese psychologist, physician, and writer. Bono said that the (usual) concept of LOGICAL thinking is SELECTION and this is brought about by the processes of ACCEPTANCE and REJECTION.

Now, we can easily see that the mind's usual REJECTION of ideas based on already known knowledge and wisdom would most often limit a mind to move around endlessly in a very limited domain.

The usual Logical Reasoning, it seems, has no access to “What the mind does not even know that it does not know”.

Bono explains that the concept of LATERAL thinking is INSIGHT RESTRUCTURING and this is brought about through the REARRANGEMENT OF INFORMATION.

REARRANGEMENT is the BASIS of LATERAL thinking and the mind is NOT trapped by its usual YES or NO to ideas.

Instead of saying "Yes" or "No", Bono invites us to say "Po"! The term PO is derived from Provocative operation. The concept allows us to continue thinking forward to a new place in an unencumbered fashion where new ideas may be continually produced.

So, as new ideas keep pouring in from diverse angles (in a typical brainstorming session) they are not evaluated immediately. Every idea is simply recorded without any judgments.

Then the process of evaluating the transcripts of the Brainstorming session at a later meeting is the first access to “breakthrough” insights into the problem being considered.