The fourth building block of a culture of creativity and innovation

I promised you 3 building blocks, but counting never was my strong point, and anyone who's had one too many on a 3-legged bar stool will know that the 4 legs of a chair are safer! My last strategy for you isn’t about creativity as such - it's about ensuring that all the blue sky thinking doesn't bring about some crackpot idea which will sink your organisation. And that's pretty important, isn't it?!

By the way, if you’ve not seen the previous 3 posts, do take a look at:

  1. Part 1

  2. Part 2

  3. Part 3

You see, if there's 1 barrier to creative thinking in organisations, it's usually from above (you might remember that from yesterday's email) and it's a fear that something new will cause unforseen problems. Whatever ideas your team come up with, they'll most likely need to "sell the dream" to senior management - or perhaps to you!

After all your innovative thinking exercises are finished, you could well have a large number of ideas. You need to have some process to filter these ideas, and find the one(s) which are a) effective, b) possible, and c) aligned to the organisational strategy.

There are a number of useful tools to filter down ideas, and these can finish with a Reverse Ishikawa diagram to spot any risks or undesirable impacts. If you've not come across an Ishikawa diagram before (or a reverse one), it's worth Googling, as both versions are really helpful in problem solving.

So remember, you've got those 3 building blocks of creativity around the mindset, forums and tools, then you need to make sure the outputs are best for the company.

Why not get my infographic to get all the tips in one place?

Location: Oxford, UK

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