Generating ideas from within

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In this article from business i creative from Business Link on ideas generation, we focus on conjuring up innovative ideas from within the four walls of your business.

Ideas generation

When generating ideas from within the four walls of your business, the most natural place to look is inside your own head. After that you may turn to colleagues for inspiration. But exactly how effective are internal methods of ideas generation? And how can you refine such approaches to generate the very best ideas?

Me, myself and I

One of the most straightforward and effective ways to generate ideas is to work in isolation. A research paper from INSEAD Business School entitled "Idea Generation and the Quality of the Best Idea" observes that most existing literature on the subject "concludes that working alone is most effective for idea generation". (Although, as we'll discuss later, working alone doesn't necessarily deliver the very best ideas).

Despite the virtues of generating ideas alone, it is important to appreciate that no idea is the product of total isolation. We are all subjected to a myriad of diverse influences in our lives, many of which directly or indirectly impact our creativity and propensity to generate good ideas.

Richard Florida, US-based author of best selling book "The Rise of the Creative Class", believes that diversity is intrinsically valued by creative individuals, and more importantly, that it enriches the creative process. Florida comments that “creative-minded people enjoy a mix of influences. They want to hear different kinds of music and try different kinds of food. They want to meet and socialise with people unlike themselves, trade views and spar over issues... More than anything, the creative class craves real experiences in the real world”.

Florida believes this appreciation of and exposure to diverse experiences increases creative output. He provides statistics illustrating diverse cities and regions which tend to exhibit a proportionately higher creative output than non-diverse areas. Such observations suggest that diversity is not just a quality valued by creative people, it is a valuable contributor to creative output as well.

In addition to everyday cultural and social influences, diverse professional experiences are equally important for spurring creativity. Ongoing activities such as learning, knowledge-sharing, collaboration and group working are all pastimes which enrich our creative minds and thus spur new and better ideas.

So even if the ideas bit is done alone, it doesn't mean that otherwise opening one's mind cannot provide valuable creative stimulus. Arguably it is this exposure to diversity - this hunger for fresh new experiences - that helps us conjure up the very best ideas.

Those around you

An IBM 2006 Global CEO Study found that 41 per cent of new ideas come from employees, beating both business partners and customers to the top spot as the most significant source of new ideas in most organisations.

Such findings support the notion that an open culture that encourages and supports ideas generation amongst employees provides a more conducive environment for innovation. As we have previously discussed, businesses led by individuals who inspire, direct and support innovation efforts do better at creating innovative cultures.

Of course, employees won't always generate the very best ideas, so it is important to establish effective processes for managing the flow, if only to weed out the very best ideas. Together with effective leadership, such an approach ensures that employee-generated ideas initiatives are invariably worth the effort.

Business functions

One noteworthy source of innovative ideas is the sales and marketing department. An Economist study entitled "Innovation: Transforming the way business creates" finds that "more innovation comes from sales and marketing than from R&D departments". In the survey, 50 percent of new ideas came from sales and marketing compared to 42 per cent from research and development.

In contrast to IBM's CEO Study, the Economist report looked solely at innovative ideas - those that have been successfully implemented - suggesting that in amongst the crowd, sales and marketing deliver consistently higher-quality ideas than other departments. This not only challenges the traditional notion that innovation is best achieved through dedicated R&D programmes, but also supports the assumption that employees who are closest to the customer offer the most insightful ideas.

Establishing open dialogue between business functions is also an important driver of ideas generation and innovation. The Economist report describes an increasing trend amongst businesses towards closer communication between business disciplines. Instead of feeling isolated and divided, business functions are coming together to discuss and achieve common goals. This trend is again driven by a conducive organisational culture, which enables better ideas to emerge from more open internal communication.

Incentives and recognition

Another practical way to ignite a culture of ideas generation is to provide incentives and rewards for good ideas.

The Economist study, mentioned above, also found that "the best way to encourage innovation is through public recognition, such as awarding prizes." Of the businesses surveyed, 38 per cent incentivise employees to suggest and develop innovations by showing "public recognition by leaders" for good ideas, 33 per cent offered "prizes or presents", 27 per cent provided "special access to company resources" to see ideas through, and 22 per cent offered "time off from regular work to pursue innovation".

In a separate survey from the Learning and Skills Council, 61 per cent of employees questioned said they wanted to work for bosses that give credit for good ideas, so recognition provides motivation benefits too.

In search of the best ideas

So far we've established that working alone is an effective (if not most effective) method of generating new ideas, and that employees represent the most significant source of new ideas in most companies. It may then be natural to deduce that you - and your colleagues - should focus on generating ideas individually in isolation.

But what happens when we work collaboratively in groups? Does working together deliver more ideas, or ideas of higher quality?

Lone-working is proven to be effective, and thus sets the bar high. Just look at Google's approach of devoting 20 per cent of employees' time towards individual projects; Google Mail being a notable example of such initiatives.

Nevertheless, research suggests that collaborative working approaches such as brainstorming sessions and ongoing team programmes of ideas generation are equally if not more valuable approaches for finding the very best ideas.

The INSEAD research paper mentioned earlier compared two distinct approaches to ideas generation; the first a traditional 'brainstorming' exercise, and a second 'hybrid' approach where individuals came up with ideas on their own and later came together to discuss them. Their research concluded that "group brainstorming excels at generating both very good and very bad ideas".

"The traditional brainstorming groups consistently came up with the very best idea - and the very worst one, too. In other words, the quality of their results varied much more than those that came out of the hybrid groups that combined individual and group idea generation. However, the hybrid groups produced more ideas that were, on average, of higher quality... Meanwhile, when it comes to sheer quantity of ideas generated, the hybrid group easily outpaced the purely group process — where participants, after all, had to spend a bigger chunk of their time listening to others as opposed to coming up with their own ideas."

The report summarises that it actually "contradicts most existing literature on the subject, which concludes that working alone is most effective for idea generation, while working as a team is most satisfying".

Such findings suggest that group working has the potential to deliver the very best ideas, but is far less efficient in terms of quantity and average quality of output. In contrast, lone working, or a combination of lone working and team working, offers greater average quality and quantity, but might overlook the very best, most innovative ideas.

The real-life practicalities and inefficiencies of group approaches may lead many businesses to adopt lone-working practices in large part. But INSEAD's research does indicate that group working offers the potential for generating the very best ideas, so thus is a pastime that should not be overlooked.

Key findings

• Most existing literature on the subject sees working alone as the "most effective" method of ideas generation. But it is still important to feed the mind with diverse cultural, social and professional influences in order to enrich creative thought and spur new ideas.
• Employees represent the most significant source of new ideas in most companies, even though they may not always come up with the very best ideas. Processes are needed to manage, evaluate and prioritise new ideas.
• The sales and marketing function is as good - if not better - at generating ideas than dedicated R&D departments. More widely, an open and constructive dialogue between different business functions is vital to encouraging new ideas and pursuing their successful implementation.
• Incentives and recognition are proven to spur ideas generation and innovation amongst employees; public recognition by leaders being most important.
• Research suggests that "group brainstorming excels at generating both very good and very bad ideas". In the study, "brainstorming groups consistently came up with the very best idea - and the very worst one, too."
• Group ideas generation therefore has its place in the pursuit of new ideas, as does lone-working. The challenge may be deciding which approach is best in any given context, or using a combination of both approaches to get the best out of both.

Summary for generating business ideas

In summary, we can conclude that working alone is more efficient and delivers on average better ideas, but group working offers the potential for finding the very best, most innovative ideas. These two insights tell us two things: First, that both approaches are distinctly valuable and thus both should form part of an ideas strategy. And second, that the premise of opening up to outside influences tends to open doors to the very best ideas.

Arguably, the act of opening doors should reach far beyond an organisation's own four walls. Collaboration with outside individuals and businesses is also known to contribute additional value in pursuit of new ideas. So, looking for ideas from within represents a strong start, but it is really just part one in the pursuit of new ideas.

This article was supplied by business i creative from Business Link
The guide is part of a wider package of services designed to help businesses survive the economic downturn and ultimately build stronger businesses that are capable of seizing future opportunities. We hope that you find this guide useful. Web: www.businesslinksw.co.uk / Email: creative@businesslinksw.co.uk 

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