Question

What idea-generating technique allows members to intentionally develop unconventional or outlandish ideas?

Answer 1

1 – Idea selection

So you’ve noticed a good idea. Whether you have received an email to an inbox, a notification in your idea management system, or have opened a note from a suggestion box, everyone shares the same starting point – idea selection.

Just because someone has suggested an idea themselves, it does not mean that they are always the right person to see it through to completion. It is on you as an innovation leader to find a person with the right strengths, professional aspirations and experience to deliver this project in a meaningful way – innovation cannot be a secondary priority.

At this point, you also want to make sure that the person chosen to lead this idea will have some form of resources available to start making it happen. If you cannot delegate preliminary resources at this stage, you’re going to have major problems implementing this down the line.

There is no obligation for your selected idea to be a fully-fledged business case. At this stage, an idea is understood to be a hypothesis and might well be altered or changed later.