By Kevin Eikenberry

The scene is repeated in meeting rooms around the world every day. A problem has been identified and a group has gathered to solve the problem. When ideas are needed, the group decides to brainstorm. And all too often this exercise leads to a short list of not-that-creative ideas.

We know that if we generate more ideas we have a better chance of finding better ideas. This leads us to the logical conclusion that if we can find techniques to create more ideas, we will find better ones. No one technique however will guarantee the perfect solution. Instead your goals should be to have a variety of approaches to help stimulate idea creation in your repertoire. By doing this you will improve the overall quality of ideas by virtue of having more to choose from.

Whether you are unhappy with the current creativity of your group or are having good success with brainstorming sessions, but would like them to be even better, any of the eight suggestions below can help.

Look at problems in different ways. Get the group to change their perspective on the problem. Once people “lock into” one way of looking at things the idea flow will slow to a trickle. Have people take a new persona. Ask them to look at the issue from the perspective of another group – accounting, HR, or sales for example. Ask them to think about how their grandmother or an 8 year old would solve the problem. These are simple ways to force people into a new perspective and the new perspectives will generate more ideas.

Make novel combinations. The ideas that land on the flip chart or whiteboard in a brainstorming session are typically considered individually. Have the group look at the initial list and look for ways to combine the ideas into new ones.

Force relationships. Once a group is finished with their initial list, provide them with words, pictures or objects. The objects can be random items, the words can come from a randomly generated list or from pictures in magazines or newspapers. When people have their random word, picture or item, have them create connections between the problem and their item. Use questions like, “How could this item solve our problem?” What attributes of this item could help us solve our problem?”

Make their thoughts visible. Have people draw! Too often the brainstorming session has everyone sitting except the person capturing the ideas. Let people doodle and draw and you never know what ideas may be spurred.

Think in opposites. Rather than asking your direct problem question, ask the opposite. “How could we ensure no one bought this new product?” could be one example. Capturing the ideas on “the opposite,” will illuminate ideas for solving the actual problem.

Think metaphorically. This approach is similar to forcing relationships (and is another way to use your words, pictures or items). Pick a random idea/item and ask the group, “How is this item like our problem?” Metaphors can be a very powerful way to create new ideas where none existed before.

Prepare. Too often people are asked to brainstorm a problem with no previous thinking time. If people have time to think about a topic, and let their brains work on it for awhile, they will create more and better ideas. Allow people to be better prepared mentally by sharing the challenges you will be brainstorming some time before the meeting whenever possible.

Set a Goal. Research shows and my experience definitely confirms that the simple act of giving people a quantity goal before starting the brainstorming session will lead to a longer list of ideas to consider. Set your goal at least a little higher than you think you can get – and higher than this group typically achieves. Set the goal and watch the group reach it!

While these suggestions have all been written from the perspective of a group generating ideas, they all work very well for individuals too. The next time you need to solve a problem by yourself, use these techniques and you will be astounded by the quantity of ideas you will generate!

Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group, a learning consulting company that helps clients reach their potential through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services. www.kevineikenberry.com Reprinted from innovationtools.com

Training Solution: Free Radicals of Innovation: Everyone wants to be creative, but most people fear change. This program shows the nine principles of innovation and how to make them work for your team.

Empowerment is different from delegation. Delegation is entrusting a task to a team while still retaining all the decision making control. Empowerment, however, requires that a certain amount of responsibility and decision making capability is vested in the team. Assigning responsibility implies confidence in the team and confidence in its ability to take certain decisions on its own. It gives the team the independence to formulate an action plan and then implement that plan.

Empowered teams can work in several situations; here are some examples of a few:

• Empowered product marketing teams are able to come up with ideas that help create better products and services in line with customer expectations.
• Empowered teams in the services sector can help to bring about greater customer satisfaction and retention levels.
• Empowered sales teams are better at achieving their targets and forming long-term partnerships with clients.

Let’s look at an example of a customer services team at a hotel:

The customer services team is not empowered to handle complaints. When faced with an irate customer, they have to be polite but buy time. They then have to refer back to their supervisor and work out a solution that can appease the customer. When they finally get back to the customer, the customer has his bags packed and is ready to check out to move to a competitor’s hotel!

Let’s now consider an empowered customer services team:

The customer services team is empowered to handle complaints in a particular manner. When faced with an irate customer, the team is empowered to use small promotional methods like discounts, offers or schemes to appease the disgruntled customer. The customer is happy with the offer and the matter is resolved efficiently. The benefits to the company can be enormous since customer retention is likely to go up.

Lack of empowerment can be a functional glass ceiling and it can prove to be a stumbling block especially for teams that front organizations in customer services or client relations.

Lack of empowerment can also slow down the work flow because the decision making is vested higher up the hierarchy. A certain amount of authority and decision making leeway helps improve work efficiency and also ensures that a team takes pride in its existence.

If the team is empowered to make some of the decisions, this empowerment becomes an enabling force and positively impacts the efficiency and revenues of the organization. Many companies have reaped tangible benefits by using empowerment as an “enabling force”.
Reprinted from Team Building, www.teambuildingportal.com

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Team empowerment can prove to be completely ineffective and meaningless if an organization does not support empowerment with a few key factors:

Inadequate Investment in Training and Development: Training and development is an essential ingredient for the effectiveness of team empowerment so that the team is geared to take on the challenge of their new role. Without training the members to the standard they are expected to deliver it is unlikely the team will produce the results desired.

 Inadequate Access to Information and Other Resources: Without access to the latest information an empowered team will not be able to make quick decisions. If they don’t have adequate financial, technological or human resources at their disposal then they can’t implement their decisions properly. Even technical experts within the company are an important resource. For example, if sales teams can invite company experts such as engineers who have direct knowledge of the product to important sales meetings, it might help them immensely in closing the deal. If they have access to a CRM database they can create better selling strategies and even design innovative sales approaches like upselling, cross selling or bundling.

Inadequate Guidelines on Empowerment: Empowerment requires a company to provide a framework within which the empowered team is allowed to act on its own. Inadequate guidelines can lead to ineffective unstable teams if they are given too much power without proper direction or control. It can lead to chaos and losses for the company when the team begins to make decisions that adversely affect the company. It is therefore essential to clearly establish the level of autonomy that the teams actually have. There has to be some amount of decision making scope and clear guidelines on the extent of power.

Inadequate Encouragement and Support: The senior manager has to be prepared to allow some of the decision making to be passed to the members of the team. In some cases this may actually be favored by the senior manager freeing him up to do other things. However, some managers may be reluctant to pass control or power to someone else, either though issues of control or a lack of trust in the teams ability. The senior manager has to be willing to give up a certain amount of control and display confidence and commitment in the team process and in the team’s ability to handle its new responsibility.

Empowered teams have been the rage in the corporate world since the nineties, and it is now proven that teams that are equipped to work on their own bring in greater efficiency.

The other facet of empowerment is the human angle – individuals on empowered teams feel greater satisfaction with their jobs. It’s a sense of importance and pride in doing your bit in the overall scheme of things that creates a sense of well being. It also helps people grow, think independently and explore their full potential.
Reprinted from Team Building, www.teambuildingportal.com

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