Report 103

Your newsletter on applied creativity, imagination, ideas and innovation in business.

Wednesday 7 August 2013
Issue 234

Hello and welcome to another issue of Report 103, your twice-monthly (or thereabouts) newsletter on creativity, imagination, ideas and innovation in business.

As always, if you have news about creativity, imagination, ideas, or innovation please feel free to forward it to me for potential inclusion in Report103. Your comments and feedback are also always welcome.

Information on unsubscribing, archives, reprinting articles, etc can be found at the end of this newsletter.

Note

Most articles in this issue of Report 103 can also be found in the archives together with dozens more articles, papers and thoughts.

In this issue of Report 103

Storycreation
Buzzword Problem
Entrepreneurial Self-Starters Wanted. Not!

Storycreation

We humans love a good story. As a result, storytelling has become popular as a tool for business communications. Rather than present customers with numbers and bullet points demonstrating why your product is so great, tell them a compelling story. Want to make a presentation interesting? Turn it from a recitation of facts into the telling of a story. You can also do this with innovation -- but you need to be creative. Rather than describe events that have already happened, you need to make up the events. So, let's call this storycreation.

First, you need a creative goal, such as an improved product, the successful launch of a branch office in Shanghai or the radical change of a business model. Whatever the goal is, be sure to make it a radical one. Incremental improvements won't do. They might be good for your company, but they won't make for an interesting story. Indeed, once you have your goal, see if you can make it more interesting, more sexy.

Now your story has a beginning, which is today, and an end, which is your creative goal. How will you get there? Your ideas on what you and your team must do to achieve your goal are the basis for your plot.

Tension, Conflict and a Villain

Every good story needs dramatic tension, conflict and, ideally, an antagonist -- a villain. Think about the challenges you will face in selling your idea -- here is some of the tension. Think about the barriers that will come between where you are now and the achievement of your goal. These might include risk-hating committees, evil purchasing procedures and the slow economy. And think about your villain. Perhaps she is a risk-hating senior manager whose goal is to destroy your idea; or perhaps it is a competitor with a similar idea and who is trying to beat you to market with their idea.

This all seems kind of scary. But your story should have a happy ending. Go through each conflict and work out how you will overcome it. Consider your villain. How will you outsmart him or her? And the tension. What will you do to cope with the tension? What else must you do to get to that happy ending of achieving your creative goal?

Now, you've got all of the ingredients you need to create you story. Let it start with "once upon a time, there was a sexy, intelligent and creative team with an idea...." Next, tell your story, going into detail about the conflicts, tension and villains. But tell how you overcome each challenge. Make it exciting. Make people want to hear the story to the end where you tell about the achievement of your goal and how it feels. Describe the rewards that come to you, your team and the company. Describe the benefits that make fighting to achieve the goal worthwhile. Let your story end with "and they all lived happily ever after."

Oh, and there is one other thing canny authors do with a good story. They leave it open to a sequel! So, be sure you leave room for a sequel to your story.

Benefits of Storycreation

What's the point to all of this? There are actually three benefits to storycreation for innovation.

Firstly, your story provides you with an action plan that takes into account the hurdles you are likely to face in implementing your idea. This is something a lot of creative exercises fail to do. As a result, when teams start to implement ideas, they run into tension, conflict and villains that can kill motivation and hence the implementation of the idea. With your story, you'll be prepared.

Secondly, it reminds the team that conflicts can be overcome, that tension is bearable and villains can be beat. It reminds everyone that in spite of the challenges you are facing, there is a happy ending at the end of the story -- provided you persevere.

Thirdly, it provides a tool for selling your idea, the benefits and the challenges to colleagues, managers, suppliers and anyone else who needs to be involved in the selling of your idea. After all, as we said at the beginning of this article -- everyone loves a great story!

Want to Try Storycreation?

Would you like to try storycreation with your team? If so, get in touch. I can facilitate a storycreation workshop for you and your team. It's fun, effective and very creative! Reply to this newsletter, fill in the form here or ring +32 2 305 6591 to discuss your needs.

The Insane Journey

Speaking of stories, my novel, a science fiction-comedy, is available at bookshops, online (as an ebook) and at Amazon! Learn more at insanejourney.com

The Buzzword Problem

By Jeffrey Baumgartner

Every business, government body and non-profit organisation establishes a special vocabulary of jargon, special terminology and their own way of using particular words. The worst of these are buzzwords. These are words that are so overused, they become almost meaningless. Nevertheless, they become an integral part of the organisation.

Buzzwords are not necessarily bad. They give employees a sense of belonging and in their way help define an organisation. However, when it comes to innovation -- they are dangerous and need to be banned.

I have noticed that in many business brainstorms (whether formal traditional brainstorming or simply generating ideas in a collaborative setting such as anticonventional thinking), buzzwords are promptly suggested as ideas or as adjectives to ideas. Moreover, these ideas are more likely, than non-buzzword ideas, to be voted on as best and selected for further development. On one hand, this is great! Buzzword ideas are safe, follow established ways of doing things in an organisation and will not result in much uncomfortable change. On the other hand, buzzword ideas are not very creative.

An Example

For instance, let us imagine that AceKitchen Co, Ltd makes electrical appliances for the kitchen. In recent years, they have come up with the buzzword (or perhaps buzz-phrase), "intensified customer-centric technology". That sounds absolutely grand, until you realise it just means technology designed for use by customers which, one would hope, is true of most kitchen appliances! Other buzzwords at AceKitchen include "eKitchen technologies" and "total kitchen integration".

When it comes time to brainstorm ideas for the 2015 range of toasters, you can be sure that prominent ideas will include things like....

intensified customer-centric technology control panel.
intensified customer-centric technology for toasting bread.
more use of eKitchen technology.
total kitchen integration ready.

To the outsider, these ideas may sound very impressive and high tech. Even a highly trained creativity facilitator may not be aware that these ideas are not really creative ideas, but rather than parroting of buzzwords used on a daily basis by the brainstorming participants. However, what these ideas really mean is "do what we've always done." That's not very creative!

Because buzzwords are such an integral part of business at AceKitchen, the manager in charge is all too likely to choose one or more of these buzzword ideas as the best idea. It is a perfectly safe idea that can be called innovative because it was generated in a brainstorm and won the best idea vote. As a result, the buzzword idea feels good and can be made to sound innovative. But, of course, it's nothing of the kind!

Ban Buzzwords from Creative Exercises

What can you do to avoid generating useless buzzword ideas during brainstorms? Ban them!

That's right, you need to ban buzzwords from brainstorms, ideas campaigns, anticonventional thinking (ACT) sessions and all ideation activities. This can be problematic in traditional brainstorming in which you are not supposed to criticise ideas -- even boring, predictable ideas. (This is, in fact, traditional brainstorming's biggest flaw). If you are not able to tolerate criticism or rejection of ideas during ideation, then you should agree to eliminate immediately buzzword ideas from the final list of ideas.

If you are an outside facilitator running a brainstorm, then one of the first things you should do with your group is to ask participants about buzzwords used in their company and sector. Then ban them or exclude them from the shortlist of ideas.

Moreover, let it be known to participants that buzzwords are not welcome as ideas and will not be selected for further development. Explain why (you can cite this article if you'd like). This will provide three benefits to your ideation activity. Firstly, it will discourage people from suggesting buzzwords as ideas. Secondly it will force people to think about buzzwords and the processes they define. Thirdly, and most importantly, it will push people to think about their products, services and processes in new ways - ways that do not involve buzzwords.

In short, banning buzzwords boosts creativity. Ban them from creativity!

Self-Starting Entrepreneurs Wanted. Not!

If you've ever looked for a job in the past decade or more, you know that many job advertisements stress that entrepreneurial, self-starters are wanted. The funny thing is, that's not really true. Most companies apparently only want people who write on their CVs (resumes for Americans) that they are "entrepreneurial" and not real entrepreneurs, self-starters or self-employed people. At least this is what recent research in the Netherlands has found. Worse, even if an entrepreneur can get a job, the chances are that she will receive a lower salary than someone with a similar background who has always been employed!

This is particularly bad news for young people looking for work in today's uncertain economy. Unable to find jobs, many people are resorting to freelance work, self-employment and starting their own businesses. Many of these people are not entrepreneurial in nature. They are simply doing what they can to earn an income until they can find regular employment. And what is their reward for their resourcefulness? Reduced ability to find a job and a smaller play-cheque if they succeed.

Sadly, this confirms previous research which indicates that employers tend not to like or want to hire highly creative people (who may be rebellious, keen to change and likely to question established processes). Entrepreneurs and the self-employed are by nature more likely to be creative thinkers than those who have spent their lives employed by others.

Good News for Truly Creative Companies

On the other hand, if you really and truly want to boost the creativity of your company (or your team) -- and I mean really and truly, rather than just claiming you want to be more creative and innovative -- then this is a great opportunity for you. Look for and really hire entrepreneurs, self-employed and highly creative people. They are out there, they are looking for work and they would love the challenge of being empowered to make your company, products and processes more innovative through creativity!

Personal Note

On a personal note, like many people who are self-employed, I periodically think about seeking employment in an interesting company or non-profit. But, as an artist by education (another thing companies claim they want, but don't really) who is recognised as being exceptionally creative, who has lived internationally and who has been self-employed or running small businesses most of my life -- I am virtually unemployable!

Creative Workshops With Jeffrey

You may not want to hire me as an employee, but I expect you'd like the results of hiring me to run a creativity workshop or speak on creativity to you and your team! I specialise in anticonventional thinking (ACT) -- an idea generation method I have developed based on how artists collaborate and which takes into account the latest research on creativity, brainstorming and collaboration. Fortune 500 companies, smaller businesses and government bodies around the world have all hired me to talk or run workshops to help their people think and work more creatively. You can too! Learn more here, reply to this newsletter or telephone +32 2 305 6591 to discuss your needs in the strictest confidence.