By Patricia Koopersmith, Rockwood Company Founder and CEO

To execute a successful transformation, an organization must first develop a powerful vision and strategy that its leaders, managers, and workforce want to get behind. To make the vision and strategy compelling, the organization’s leaders must design a future based on imagination and creativity, not on the status quo or current environment. Too often, organizations find themselves getting stuck when trying to imagine and create new concepts.

Below we share some of Rockwood’s tried-and-true methods for getting the creative juices flowing and surfacing great ideas from a group.

Visualize Ideas

When a group has difficulty coming up with ideas, Rockwood might employ a drawing exercise to stimulate creative thinking. In this exercise, we ask participants to think up ideas and draw each concept as an image on a sticky note. We encourage them not to worry about the quality of the drawing, only that it properly conveys their idea. Participants will then put the stickies up on a wall for others to view and continue with another round of independent idea generation and drawing. In the ideal scenario, all participants will feel free to think and create without worrying about the details behind their creations.

Crazy Ideas

When a group resists stepping outside of their comfort zone, Rockwood might apply the “crazy idea method.” You’re probably thinking that the method itself sounds a bit crazy but hear us out. In this exercise, we encourage participants to come up with 3-5 “crazy” ideas to share with the group. These ideas should be rough and edgy and stretch beyond the realm of possibility. As the discussion evolves and others provide their input, participants begin to come up with new, more practical concepts. When group leaders express their own outlandish ideas, they essentially give others permission to take risks when brainstorming.

Category Matrix

When a group’s goal is to generate as many ideas as possible, Rockwood may use the category matrix approach. On a large poster board, we create a matrix with categories of users or customers (x-axis) and categories of capabilities (y-axis). We then ask participants to write on stickies the products and services that apply to each cell of the matrix. This technique is an effective way to generate a plethora of ideas in a short amount of time.

Extreme Scenarios

When a group is stuck on what exists today, one way we might push their thinking is to elicit imaginary extreme scenarios. For example, we may ask participants “What if your service went completely virtual?” or “What if you had to deliver this requirement in 1 day instead of 15?” This technique will force the group to re-imagine the service, capability, structure, or other facet of the organization.

The next time your team requires new and creative concepts, try some of the above techniques to help them move forward.

General References:

IDEO U, “Design Thinking Courses,” www.ideou.com.

LUMA Institute, “Innovating for People Handbook of Human-Centered Design Methods” (LUMA Institute, 2012, 1st edition), www.luma-institute.com.