IDEAengineering™ Kickoff Ebook

[people and process]

seriouslycreative[dot]com

IDEA Engineering A storybook by SeriouslyCreative
 to help you shift business as usual thinking to design driven, entrepreneurially fueled, innovation producing thinking and doing.

SeriouslyCreative.com

just isn’t enough In an very complex world where the pace of change is set to light speed, competition is global, technological shifts make today’s competitive advantage obsolete in an instant and where one person can challenge the dominance of a whole industry, you bet business as usual is not enough.

Today’s business can no longer sit back and wait for gradual evolution of the marketplace. They can simply try and extract more efficiency from their current business model. The age of incremental change is over. It is the age of innovation where any organization that wants to thrive (or even just survive) must be willing to take the leap into the murky waters of innovation, create new value through creativity and imagination and create industry disrupting revolution.

We call these organization Innovation by Design Enterprises and the people who run them Idea Engineers. We want you to be one too.

The future is now and creativity is the key As part of their annual Global CEO Survey IBM (yeah, the super smart people) defined the “Enterprise of the Future� as one that would need to be hungry for change, willing to innovate beyond customer imagination and disruptive by nature amongst other things.

Having talked with over 1,400 global leaders they found that the greatest challenge organizations are facing is the increased complexity of business. Ask what leadership competency they felt they needed most over the next five years to capitalize on this complexity and they overwhelmingly said

CREATIVITY.

Re-engineering Business for Innovation Businesses need to rethink their love affair with behaviors that cherish the status quo, that efficiency is the only producer of profit and thinking that all things can be rationalized and quantified.

We need to re-engineer business to start using the value creating and imagination driven right side of the brain to balance the value finding left side. Think of it as adding a little bit of designer DNA to that of the MBA. Why designer? Because designers have a mindset geared for creating new value and for understanding the complexities inherent to creating anything for consumer. They balance the sometimes myopic perspective of business as usual with an ability to better understand human and complex problems and a process that iterates forward ideas that connect with people on levels that can not be captured on a spreadsheet. They are natural experimenters who are comfortable with the fuzzy front end of innovation. And the way they think is something business needs to add to the table.

The discipline of business + the power of imagination.

All of us are smarter than any of us and you just can’t do it alone.

Then

single function solutions

It used to be that to solve a problem we could simply pull together an expert or two, give them some time, maybe some coffee and by applying their deep knowledge of what had been done before and accomplished by others - they could arrive at the appropriate solution. Yes, challenges were complex but they were isolated to specific functions. Marketing challenges were delt with by marketers. Finance by CPAs. etc, etc, etc.

Those days are over. Today’s challenge are more often more complex, more fast moving and need new solutions rather than old applications. And it means that the sole expert can’t bring you the answer - at least not by themselves.

This is the new world of multidisciplinary teams with diverse thinking styles that work together much like a movie production crew experts and technicians from various and diverse areas come together for a period of time to create something new. Less department focus, less bureaucratic walls, more great work done.

This is a good thing. The flip side means that in our complex and light-speed world of business we can create the solutions by sourcing the ideas from a cross section of people in our organization. Read on and we’ll explain.

Now

solutions created by multidisciplinary teams

Great people DON’T think alike “I use not only all the brains I have but all that I can borrow.”

Woodrow Wilson US President & one great team leader

Dr. Ned Hermann, author of The Whole Brain and formerly the head of talent development at GE, discovered that the concept of right and left brain thinkers was just a bit too simple. In fact, the brain has four functions - investigative, creative, evaluative and planning. We all have the ability to do any one of these functions but we each have favorites - skills that come more naturally than others. This means that if you are an investigative dominant mind you value data and sequence more than someone who, say, is a creative dominated person who values big picture and strategic intent more. The down side of this is that when we put people with different thinking styles in a meeting they tend to struggle to make the rest of the group “see it their way” or focus on what they think is important.

Fear not. There is a silver lining. These different perspectives can lead collaborative teams to create much more holistic ideas that produce better business results. The secret to taking advantage of this diversity is to make sure your planning, strategic, ideation meetings have a diversity of thinking styles included and that everyone is aware of the thinking styles and the need to assure that each styles is given it’s opportunity to shine. This is called WHOLE BRAIN THINKING.

investigators ask “but why...”

evaluators

ask “which one...”

SeriouslyCreative

I

D

designers

E

A

evaluators

ask “what if...”

ask “who, how & by when...”

Whole Brain Teams

Conflicting needs Take a look at the conflicting needs of the different thinking styles. Can you see how what one values and wants drives the other absolutely crazy in a meeting. Imagine what an Experimenter/Evaluator thinks when a Designer starts throwing around wild and seemingly unrealistic ideas. Or how a Designer chafes at an Investigator slowing them up from designing ideas by constantly asking “but, why....�

Investigators

Designers

Evaluators

Activators

working solo clarifying issues being challenged analyzing data putting things together making things work technical aspects using numbers/stats analyzing/diagnosing explaining things formal presentation

taking risk having variety creating metaphors seeing big picture dealing with future bringing about change developing new things conceptual framework experimentation time for exploration loose agenda comfortable ambiguity

ordered environment being in control developing structure planning things out evaluation of inputs deadline achievement administration structured tasks attention to detail follow up logistics

organizing teamwork participatory activities communication clarity group interaction working with people hands-on design coaching planning collaboration being part of team expressing ideas listening/talking

The Method to our Madness

They know that all innovation starts by asking questions and then working your way forward through uncertainty in order to identify patterns and develop insights. Ideas are created upon the back of insights and through experimentation greater clarity is created and real value identified.

The path to innovation takes getting used to this messy front end and letting go of businesses addiction to extreme predictability. After all, if you can predict the outcome from the start so can your competitor.

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Along with values that promote more productive and disruptive idea creation, Idea Engineers have a starting point and methodology to guide them through what to most seems to be the unconquerable uncertainty of any new venture.

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Our Approach

IDEAengineering™ 4 phases. 8 focuses. Dozens of tools. The process of disciplined imagination.

Investigate what is…

Understanding needs, customer perspective. Bring the outside in.

Design what if…

Apply creativity, brainstorm ideas, identify opportunities.

Experiment what wows…

Prototype to learn, test with customers, evaluate solutions.

Activate what works…

Create action plans, measure results, accelerate action.

IDEA Engineering™ allows for innovation to be managed, directed and produced when needed. It is not a linear process like so much of what business are used to; but it does have rules, direction and best practices that make it practical and repeatable. It harnesses the inherent tensions that ignite innovation balancing iteration with direction, divergence and convergence, abstract and concrete, learning and creating, analysis and creativity. This tension is what makes innovation fuzzy and sometimes intimidating but also what makes it a powerful agent of change.

Our framework is a theoretical understanding but a tested approach that builds upon the shoulders of great thinkers in how imagination is applied. We have learned from the best of foundation processes in innovation like OsbornParnes CPS, PDCA, AcceleratedInnovation,ThinkX and Design Thinking to produce a framework that is memorable, practical and proven in the field.

Aligning your thinkers based on their skills A team aware of their thinking preferences and given an approach to assure that all these talents are used in a coordinated approach can do great things.

Innovation and creative problem solving has a proven trajectory that assures each thinking style is harnessed and that you move from stage to stage building towards a real world solution.

Then use them in powerful ways.

Having Whole Brain teams is a great start towards more innovation. But it is half the secret. The other half is pulling together project teams with diversity of experiences, different roles in the organization and different specialties.

If I have an idea and E a share it with youEthere R H good change you will W O haveNa great idea too.

Departments and divisions kill creative thought We have departments to assure we have the right specialties together and to assure accountability and focus. But this tried and true (or is it untrue?) business organization practice is getting in the way of our ability to create and champion great new ideas and game changing solutions. Today’s business complexities demand a more holistic and collaborative approach.

So, what are we to do?

Create “T-shaped” teams. (T-shaped what?). Stanford university refers to T shaped teams to describe multidisciplinary teams that have people with very deep expertise (think the shaft of a “T”) matched with people with broad knowledge that can connect these areas of expertise (think the top of the “T”).

This means that whenever you have a challenge - problem or opportunity - that needs some new thinking, new ideas, a differentiated solution - pull together a team from across the organization to lead and contribute thinking to your challenge. This means enticing people who may not be accountable to the end results of the challenge to join in and dedicate time to building a new solution. A marketing challenge (for example) might benefit greatly from the perspective of a non-expert in accounting. Think not? We have seen it happen. The more complex the challenge with more effect on the overall organization the greater the need for these multidisciplinary team.

Now, we know that getting someone from another department or division to join your innovation team might be, let’s say, “difficult.” But don’t be deterred. Look on your own team for diverse thinkers who bring unique experience along with a broad reach to your challenge. You will be pleased by the results (and other departments will be jealous!)

mindset

Be Radically Collaborative diverse people bring diverse perspective & see the full issue

Iterate Through Process

mindset

“apply the focus that is needed when it is need and iterate forward�

mindset

Be Human Centric Make things people want > Make people want things.

mindset

Suspend Judgement Art of creating choices, before making choices.

mindset

Experiment to Learn

Prove it with your hands, not your head. Learn by doing.

mindset

6

Show, don’t tell

People believe before they know. Make the complex concrete, real and emotional.

Bias Towards Action mindset

Shut up and just DO IT!

We are a strategy, problem solving & design thinking firm focused on delivering innovation, change & business growth. consumer insights • facilitations • experience & service design • business planning • organization alignment • change acceleration • strategy • innovation projects • creative space

SCideaengine WeAreSeriouslyCreative SeriouslyCreative.com 1511 Ave Juan Ponce de Leon, Plaza Ciudadela/La Capilla - Suite 2, Santurce, Puerto Rico 00909 Tel. 787-283-6077 hello@seriouslycreative.com seriouslycreative[dot]com