Guided Ideation:

A Management Approach
to Creativity-Based
Performance

Anders Hemre, Founder, Interknowledge Technologies

Guided Ideation: A Management Approach to Creativity-Based Performance Page

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Page 2 Guided Ideation: A Management Approach to Creativity-Based Performance

 Executive Summary
“I start with an idea and then it turns into something else.”
– Pablo Picasso
In business as in art, ideas are the backbone of innovation. The importance of
creativity and new ideas is widely recognized, and formalized ideation is the accepted
front end to the innovation process. A certain amount of management is required to
turn good ideas into good business. But human elements also play a key role in this
process, manifest in such areas as serendipitous discovery, cognitive and social
interaction between people, personal motivation, and emotional engagement. These
indicate the need for a somewhat less traditional management approach.

Guided ideation can offer solutions to many of the common hurdles to creativity and
new ideas in business. This paper will review some of those challenges, and propose
best-practice building blocks for creating a successful guided ideation process.

Ideation, Idea Management and

Guided Ideation
Pablo Picasso, co-inventor of cubism, once described his way of working as ―I start
with an idea and then it turns into something else.‖ This is a good description of the
creative process, and not only as it relates to art. On a high level it also applies to
new product and service innovation in the business enterprise, pointing to the need
for inspiration, search and exploration.

The importance of creativity and new ideas in business is of course widely

recognized. Today ideation has established itself as a front-end extension to the well
known Stage-Gate® process for product innovation. In this context, ideation loosely
refers to the acquisition, creation and evolution of ideas in organizations. Following
this notion, idea management might then be defined as the process and associated
discipline of facilitating ideation from a management perspective. Even though the
process concept can be applied to ideation, it must be recognized that innovation
involves serendipitous discovery as well as significant human cognitive and social “Creativity, to be useful,
activity. To emphasize the thus somewhat less traditional management approach requires convergent and
required, it may be more appropriate – at least in some respects – to refer to idea
divergent thinking. It also
management as guided ideation.
requires both individual
The purpose of a guided ideation process is to increase the return on creativity in thinking and thinking in
organizations in support of both innovation and problem solving. This may involve a teams.”
number of key objectives and challenges such as stimulating creativity, generating and
capturing ideas, engaging relevant expertise and evaluating new concepts.

The successful implementation of a guided ideation process should result in both

organizational and business benefits:

 Adding structure, definition and visibility to the early stages of innovation;

 Providing ideation language and vocabulary;
 Adding consistency in creating, developing and evaluating new ideas;

Guided Ideation: A Management Approach to Creativity-Based Performance Page 3

  Increasing the level of innovation (more good ideas) and accelerating
learning; and
 Increasing the return on innovation (good ideas turning into good business).

Ideation Challenge: Harnessing Creativity

Over time, R&D and engineering organizations develop strong expertise in
technology and in product development processes. They also typically show a
preference for analytical over creative thinking. Even though such expertise and skills
“R&D and engineering are necessary in technological innovation, it does not automatically follow that
experienced and competent organizations are also highly creative. However,
organizations typically show
creativity can be developed and creative thinking can be learned.
a preference for analytical
over creative thinking.” Creativity research suggests that process (ideation), management (guidance) and
intrinsic motivation all play key roles in driving creativity and innovation in
organizations.

Working on interesting technology is certainly a key intrinsic motivator in R&D

organizations. It is, however, not the only one. Creativity is closely related to
positive emotions and perceptions of progress. On the other hand, a strong focus on
performance and efficiency – important as these may be – can be difficult to
reconcile with a need for creativity and innovation.

Creativity, to be useful, requires convergent and divergent thinking. It also requires

both individual thinking and thinking in teams. Even though creativity can be
stimulated, it has some limitations. To some extent, technology and product areas
determine creative potential. And creative ideas most often originate from what
individuals are actually working on and, therefore, what they naturally think about.
This implies that the driving context for ideation is constructed not only from the
characteristics of technologies and products, but also from people’s knowledge and
perceptions of them, and from the innate creativity and curiosity of the human mind.

Ideas may emerge spontaneously or as a result of organized efforts. Regardless, they

need to be captured. Ideas that remain tacit, as cognitive entities in the minds of
people, can only be expressed by engaging people in idea collaboration, review and
discussion. Ideas expressed in explicit form can, of course, be captured more easily
“Creating and maintaining a
and submitted to an idea repository, for example.
collaborative environment
for evolving ideas is crucial It is not only the initial idea conception that is important. The subsequent discussions,
to successful ideation.” comments, reviews, enhancements and collaborations add perspectives and insights
that may be necessary to move an idea forward and make it grow into a strong new
product concept. Creating and maintaining a collaborative environment for evolving
ideas is crucial to successful ideation. This also helps level the playing field so that
ideas can compete on fair terms.

Overall, it is easy to see that the process of ideation is one that, while driven by
purpose, needs to be guided rather than managed. If asked, most people would be
willing to share their ideas with their employer and coworkers. This assumes that
conditions are conducive to such contributions. Though typical in mature
organizations, questions such as ―Do we really have time for this?‖ or ―What’s the
charge code?‖ can easily frustrate any initiative, innovative or not.

Page 4 Guided Ideation: A Management Approach to Creativity-Based Performance

 Not everyone can be expected to genuinely care about the organization for which
they work (and vice versa). In R&D environments, this can be particularly noticeable
as many professional engineers feel as strong an identification with their discipline as
they do with their employer. In fact, the smartest and most creative individuals are
often the first to disengage if they perceive things are not going the right way.

It may even be possible that some individuals feel it more advantageous to keep a
great idea to themselves in case they are laid off or decide to quit. This attitude is
obviously not desirable, but certainly understandable considering that even rejected
ideas are in most cases still legally owned by the company and not by the employee.

Ideation Challenge: Time and “Space”

“The smartest and most
Another important ideation challenge is the often chronic condition of real or creative individuals are often
perceived lack of time. Deadlines and everyday distractions take away from the time the first to disengage if they
necessary for people to make creative contributions. Ideas need time to ―breathe‖
perceive things are not
and people need time to ―soak‖ in the problem, challenge or opportunity. This
requires some form of organizational slack, or the active facilitation of opportunities going the right way.”
for people to spend time thinking and connecting with others beyond the needs of
their current assignment.

It should be noted that time is required for a range of ideation activities: creative
thinking, making idea contributions, collaborating with others, participating in events,
reviewing contributions and so forth.

Ideation Challenge: Visibility and Focus

Poor definition of problems, challenges and opportunities may also render ideation
efforts ineffective. This requires special attention as the urge is often to move quickly
towards solutions even if the problem or opportunity has not been well defined.

It should also be easy for people to make contributions without necessarily having to
follow documented procedures or climb a steep learning curve associated with the
use of a new tool.

During idea searches and reviews, people should preferably have access to all
existing idea artifacts as well as to relevant market and technology research and
competitive intelligence. It would therefore be beneficial to maintain an integrated
tools environment or at least to provide easy access to different information
environments.

Having made contributions, most people accept the fact that their ideas may be
rejected, but they would like to know why. They would like to get feedback in a
timely fashion and they would like to see that at least some ideas, even if they are not
their own, are actually acted upon. It may be an advantage to establish an ideation
point-of-contact in addition to referring individuals with ideas to an online ideation
tool. Such a tool may be a good one, and may include ratings and comments by
others, but it will always remain to some extent impersonal and unable to share the
passion a person may feel about their ideas.

Guided Ideation: A Management Approach to Creativity-Based Performance Page 5

 It is also important for people to be able to stay connected with their idea in the
event that is adopted for further development. This in turn requires both some
overall continuity of technology and projects and some organizational flexibility to
allow people the freedom to follow their idea and participate in the effort of moving
it to market.

Ideation Challenge: Organization

Not everyone can be expected to have ideas about everything. Ideation should focus
“There are basically three on active solicitation of ideas from groups and individuals who are likely to have
ways of organizing ideation: ideas about a particular problem or opportunity. In the product domain, this
 an open “submit-anything- translates to people with sufficient technology expertise or application/user
anytime” environment experience relating to the areas concerned.
 integrated with the
There are basically three ways of organizing ideation:
product or service
development process  An open ―submit-anything-anytime‖ environment;
 topic-focused and time-  Integrated with the product or service development process; and
limited: idea campaigns,  Topic-focused and time-limited: idea campaigns, events, competitions.
events, competitions”
The integrated approach is typically semi-mandatory with ideation activities
predefined as part of the work process. It is not necessarily intended to change
what’s in a new product development project but rather to tap into people’s minds
as they work through it.

The first and the last of the above organizing schemes are most common, with the
topic-focused and time-limited approach generally producing better results. While an
open and asynchronous ideation process (―submit anything anytime‖) makes it
convenient to contribute, it does not create compelling reasons to do so. An
ideation process organized as a series of idea campaigns would most likely yield a
better overall result.

Idea campaigns are organized innovation challenges that are relatively short in
duration and focused on predetermined business opportunities or technology
problems. It is feasible to launch two consecutive campaign sessions on the same
topic to reach an appropriate number of people, thereby allowing the second session
to build on the results of the first.

Well-articulated innovation challenges motivate creative thinking and facilitate

collaborative ideation. As contributions cluster in the targeted area, evaluations may
be performed in bulk by a single team of experts and managers, making the review
cycle more efficient.

Idea campaigns are useful in that they serve as the ―front end‖ of ideation, helping to
communicate importance, raise urgency and focus the creative effort in time and on
particular challenges.

They also demonstrate management commitment and thus can make it easier for
people to make time for contributing ideas. Most likely it will also be easier to find
an internal sponsor willing to invest in ideas that result from campaigns organized
and promoted by management.

Page 6 Guided Ideation: A Management Approach to Creativity-Based Performance

 The ideation process can be greatly facilitated by designating organizational roles.
This also demonstrates management support. Such roles could include ideation
champion, idea campaign manager and idea champion. Review teams can be designated “Tangible incentives should
in conjunction with the initiation of an idea campaign to secure the availability of not be used to the exclusion
time and expertise for idea evaluation. of working with intrinsic
motivation, as the latter has
Serious idea contributions may justify serious incentives. In cases where ideas
develop into actual new products, such incentives might include cash rewards similar been shown to be strongly
to those many organizations offer for patents. If an idea develops into a new associated with creative
business, the incentive might take the form of stock options. contribution.”
Tangible incentives, however, should not be used to the exclusion of working with
intrinsic motivation, as the latter has been shown to be strongly associated with
creative contribution. The reverse should also be avoided.

Summary
In summary, the following should be part of any serious approach to guided ideation:

 Communicate and promote ideation to increase general awareness;

 Develop a management approach to organizational slack, intrinsic motivation
and employee engagement from the perspective of ideation performance;
 Designate organizational roles: ideation champion(s)—not just an ideation tool
champion, idea campaign manager(s), idea champion(s) and idea reviewer(s);
 Drive ideation through organized and engineered idea campaigns; “Confidence in the future
 Clearly define problems, challenges and desired outcomes; has an inevitable impact on
 Segment and target potential contributors and actively solicit contributions people’s willingness to make
through individual invitations to submit or review ideas from different voluntary contributions to
perspectives;
the business.”
 Communicate with idea contributors and provide timely feedback and updates;
 Offer real incentives for engagement;
 Conduct internal ideation workshop sessions to increase reach and stimulate
contributions;
 Align the design and configuration of ideation tools with the main business
purpose of ideation and with the focus of idea campaigns; and
 Make it easy to submit contributions and use an ideation tool not just to
capture and share ideas, but also to promote ideation and manage idea
campaigns.

Even with all of the above in place, confidence in the future has an inevitable impact
on people’s willingness to make voluntary contributions to the business. When
people are not sure about the company future, or their own future with the
company, even if they do not deliberately deny the company a great idea, creativity
and innovation are simply not first and foremost on their minds. It may be tempting
for management to communicate that individuals making idea contributions are
particularly valuable to the business, but this could easily turn into a slippery slope.
Better then for management to demonstrate strategic leadership, create a
compelling but realistic vision for the future and, most importantly, provide real,
tangible support for innovation.

Guided Ideation: A Management Approach to Creativity-Based Performance Page 7

 About the Author

Anders Hemre is the founder of Interknowledge Technologies and the former chief knowledge officer at Ericsson
Canada. With an international background in the telecommunications industry, he now specializes in the
organizational practice of innovation and knowledge management. He can be reached at
[email protected].

About Sopheon

Sopheon (LSE:SPE) is an international provider of software and services that help organizations improve the
business impact of product innovation. Sopheon’s Accolade® software suite is the first in the industry to provide
end-to-end support for strategic product planning, ideation and innovation process execution. The suite’s Vision
Strategist™ component automates the roadmapping process, allowing users to visualize and plan the future of
products and technologies. Accolade’s Idea Lab™ component helps organizations generate, select and develop
winning product ideas. Accolade Process Manager™ automates the product innovation process and provides
strategic decision support for the management of product portfolios.

Sopheon’s software is used by top innovators throughout the world, including industry leaders such as BASF,
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