Five Keys to Effective Idea and Creativity Management
Five Keys to Effective Idea and Creativity Management
In order to manage creative ideas, you have to understand that there are different types of ideas. Some ideas are strategic. They offer a big picture idea for solving a problem. Other ideas are organizational. This type of idea takes different pieces of a puzzle and pieces them together in a way that solves a problem or addresses specific issues. The last type of idea is details. These ideas only pertain to a specific aspect of a problem, but cannot solve the entire problem by itself.
The first step in managing ideas is to properly set expectations with your employees. Remember, no one is obligated to use an idea. The company will try to use ideas; but, not every idea is going to fit in line with the company direction. Second, there should be no political reprisals for coming up with alternative ideas or points of view. Finally, assure people they will get credit for their contributions.
Usually, it is easy to come up with ideas. But the next step is being able to collect them in a consistent fashion. I believe that if an employee believes enough in his idea, then he should be willing to dedicate a little energy towards pursuing it. So, each individual should be able to describe their idea, the problem that it solves and the approach.
Another aspect of managing creativity is being able to compare alternative ideas and make a decision about them. This is common when you have ideas that solve different business problems. You need to have a process for making a decision on which approach to take. If both ideas are valid, then the authors of the ideas should work to write the business arguments for each idea and identify pros and cons. Then, put it in front of a decision committee for evaluation and make a decision as fast as possible. If you cannot be decisive about these choices, it will cast fear and doubt across not only this decision, but every decision that may remotely relate to the topic.
Once decisions have been made, you need to incorporate ideas into your product or services. It is often easier to incorporate ideas into service offerings or your organizational structure, because they often do not require formal documentation. But, if an idea is going to end up in a product, it is best to incorporate the idea into either the requirements documents or functional specification documents. To ensure consistently, the process for writing these types of documents should start with collecting all the ideas regarding a topic. Again, the authors of these documents are not obligated to use the ideas, but they should be encouraged to do so. Additionally, a section of the paper should be dedicated to giving credit to those whose ideas contributed to the paper.
One last piece of managing ideas is being able to evaluate an idea without the constraints of requirements. This is particularly hard for upper management to understand and is often viewed as a waste of time. But many ideas solve different business problems and explain a number of opportunity costs that need to be evaluated. In going this extra mile, your decision makers will feel like they are making a more educated decision. This results in a greater sense of conviction regarding their decisions and more stability in management decisions.
By embracing the creative environment, your employees become empowered and generally happier. Management will have the tools it needs to listen to its employees and use these ideas. Most importantly, these tools will provide management with the ability to move with conviction instead of being driven by fear, doubt and insecurity. Most importantly, the ideas that make it into your product will separate you from your competition and from the rest of the market. It is no wonder that many great companies have found this philosophy to be one of the most important keys to their success.
Five Keys to Effective Idea and Creativity Management - To learn more about this author, visit Andy Piper's Website.
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Start-up companies are stereotyped as being these highly creative environments. But, many of them struggle when it comes to working with new ideas. They either lose their best ideas because they do not have a way to evaluate them or they have so many ideas that they are simply overwhelmed. I have personally seen companies stifle creative input so they can get their employees to focus on a direction and move forward. But a company’s ability to harness the creative energy and inject it into their products, services and culture have found distinct advantages which separates average companies from greats.
In order to manage creative ideas, you have to understand that there are different types of ideas. Some ideas are strategic. They offer a big picture idea for solving a problem. Other ideas are organizational. This type of idea takes different pieces of a puzzle and pieces them together in a way that solves a problem or addresses specific issues. The last type of idea is details. These ideas only pertain to a specific aspect of a problem, but cannot solve the entire problem by itself.
The first step in managing ideas is to properly set expectations with your employees. Remember, no one is obligated to use an idea. The company will try to use ideas; but, not every idea is going to fit in line with the company direction. Second, there should be no political reprisals for coming up with alternative ideas or points of view. Finally, assure people they will get credit for their contributions.
Usually, it is easy to come up with ideas. But the next step is being able to collect them in a consistent fashion. I believe that if an employee believes enough in his idea, then he should be willing to dedicate a little energy towards pursuing it. So, each individual should be able to describe their idea, the problem that it solves and the approach.
Another aspect of managing creativity is being able to compare alternative ideas and make a decision about them. This is common when you have ideas that solve different business problems. You need to have a process for making a decision on which approach to take. If both ideas are valid, then the authors of the ideas should work to write the business arguments for each idea and identify pros and cons. Then, put it in front of a decision committee for evaluation and make a decision as fast as possible. If you cannot be decisive about these choices, it will cast fear and doubt across not only this decision, but every decision that may remotely relate to the topic.
Once decisions have been made, you need to incorporate ideas into your product or services. It is often easier to incorporate ideas into service offerings or your organizational structure, because they often do not require formal documentation. But, if an idea is going to end up in a product, it is best to incorporate the idea into either the requirements documents or functional specification documents. To ensure consistently, the process for writing these types of documents should start with collecting all the ideas regarding a topic. Again, the authors of these documents are not obligated to use the ideas, but they should be encouraged to do so. Additionally, a section of the paper should be dedicated to giving credit to those whose ideas contributed to the paper.
One last piece of managing ideas is being able to evaluate an idea without the constraints of requirements. This is particularly hard for upper management to understand and is often viewed as a waste of time. But many ideas solve different business problems and explain a number of opportunity costs that need to be evaluated. In going this extra mile, your decision makers will feel like they are making a more educated decision. This results in a greater sense of conviction regarding their decisions and more stability in management decisions.
By embracing the creative environment, your employees become empowered and generally happier. Management will have the tools it needs to listen to its employees and use these ideas. Most importantly, these tools will provide management with the ability to move with conviction instead of being driven by fear, doubt and insecurity. Most importantly, the ideas that make it into your product will separate you from your competition and from the rest of the market. It is no wonder that many great companies have found this philosophy to be one of the most important keys to their success.
Five Keys to Effective Idea and Creativity Management - To learn more about this author, visit Andy Piper's Website.
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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