Business as usual is dead. How to proceed?

1. How to generate
ideas like a
creative genius
Some secrets for being
systematically creative
Indrek Maripuu | Loovusait

3. Do you prefer
to play safe?
If yes, go for a walk :-). Keep on going. Don´t
change anything and keep your fingers
crossed (that might guarantee your safe
future).

4. BUSINESS AS USUAL IS DEAD
COMPETITION WILL EAT YOU….
BUSINESS AS USUAL IS DEAD
COMPETITION WILL EAT YOU….

5. And we
always hear
how vital
creativity is to
success.
HOW TO BE CREATIVE?

6. OBSTACLE #1

7. WE FEAR THE UNKNOWN
WE NEVER DO NOT WANT TO LOSE CONTROL

8. "The things we fear
most in
organizations—
fluctuations,
disturbances,
imbalances—are the
primary sources of
creativity."
- Margaret J. Wheatley
8

9. 9
WE NEED TO FEEL
COMFORTABLE WITH
BEING UNCOMFORTABLE
Get used with new normal.

10. OLD THINKING
PATTERNS
OBSTACLE #2

11. •"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." -
Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science,
1949
•"This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously
considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently
of no value to us." - Western Union internal memo, 1876.
•"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who
would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" - David
Sarnoff’s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the
radio in the 1920s.

12. •"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" - H.M. Warner, Warner
Brothers, 1927.
•"We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." -
Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
•"Everything that can be invented has been invented." - Charles H.
Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

13. We make similar mistakes.

15. YOU NEED:
NEW TOOLS
NEW SKILLS
NEW MINDSETS

16. 16
* - according to Hal Gregersen, an INSEAD
professor and co-author of a six-year-long study
into disruptive innovation involving some 3,500
executives.
Innovative
entrepreneurs are
developed, rather
than born*
Bo rn
Made

17. 17
Ideation is a skill and an
art to be practiced and
perfected.
It’s learning to play piano
rather than learning to tie
your shoelaces.

18. 18
Ideation only when the
stakes are high = running
a marathon with no prior
training. {aka stupid thing to do}

19. TIPS & TRICKS
Some more

20. Breakthrough ideas almost never arise when working
quietly in your office or lab: they emerge when meeting
with other people.

21. BRING PEOPLE AND IDEAS
FROM DISPARATE FIELDS
TOGETHER
Johansson argues that innovation
comes from bringing ideas from
one field into another. He also
recommends assembling diverse
teams of people to collaborate on
innovation.

22. THEY HAVE
BROAD RANGE
OF INTERESTS
& DEEP KNOWLEDGE
IN A FEW FIELDS
LOOK FOR
T-SHAPED
PEOPLE

23. Associating. Creative entrepreneurs make
unexpected connections - they combine pieces of
what may seem disparate pieces of information until
they connect it. Steve Jobs was interested in
calligraphy and this eventually led to his company
producing user-friendly, graphics-based Macs.
There are five
„discovery“
skills you need*
* Hal Gregersen, an INSEAD
professor and co-author of a six-
year-long study into disruptive
innovation involving some 3,500
executives.
1

24. Observing. Some of the most innovative entrepreneurs are
“intense observers”. Scott Cook, the founder of Intuit, got
initial idea for Quicken software while watching how his wife
was very frustrated doing their finances. From this
observation sprang Quicken.
2

25. 25
Experimenting. When Jeff Bezos, the founder of internet
retailer Amazon, was growing up, he used to spend time on
his grandfather's farm in the summer. When machinery
broke down on the farm, his grandfather would try to fix it
himself, with some help from Jeff. They would “experiment,
trying this and that until it would finally work again. So Jeff
grew up with that kind of attitude and mindset, that if I am
confronted with a challenge, I can figure out a solution.
3

26. Questioning. We can be observing the world or
experimenting, but if we have no questions in our mind, we
are pretty unlikely to get any insights or "ahas" that we never
thought about. Michael Dell, the founder of Dell, has said:
"When I'm wandering the world, I try to construct a question
for every conversation that might generate information that I
never had before."
4

27. Networking. Innovators are intentional about finding diverse
people who are just the opposites of who they are, that they
talk to, to get ideas that seriously challenge their own. There
could be differences in gender, industry, age, country of
origin, or even politics.
5

28. Tools for taking action

29. Tool #1 How Might We ...

30. „How Might We …“ is one of the best brainstorm starters

31. The phrase “How Might We” is useful because each word
helps put team members in the right mindset:
• “How” guides people to believe the answer is out
there.
• „Might” lets people know that their HMW statement
might work or might not, and it’s okay either way.
• “We” reminds people that the brainstorm is about
teamwork and building on each others’ ideas.

32. Create a HMW statement that is broad enough that there
are a wide range of solutions but narrow enough that the
team has some helpful boundaries.
HMW create a
cone to eat ice
cream without
dripping
HMW redesign
ice cream to be
more portable.
HMW redesign
dessert
Too narrow Too broad Great!

33. 1. Start with your problem statment.
2. Try reframing problem statements as How Might We
questions.
3. Don’t spend too much time crafting or perfecting your
HMW statements. Instead, encourage your teams to
come up with as many HMW notes as possible and
pick the one your team likes most.
See more instructions in the handouts!

34. Tool #2 Brainwriting - A tool
for rapid brainstorming

35. Brainwriting is an easy alternative to face-to-face
brainstorming, and it often yields more ideas in less time
than traditional brainstorming.
Brainwriting is simple. Rather than ask participants to yell
out ideas, you ask them to write down their ideas about
your HMW on sheets of paper for a few minutes; then, you
have each participant pass their ideas on to someone else,
who develops the ideas further.
See more instructions in the handouts!

36. Tool#3 SCAMPER - A tool
for improving products
and services

37. The SCAMPER method helps you generate ideas for new products and
services by encouraging you to ask seven different types of questions, which
will help you understand how you can innovate.
1. Take an existing product or service. This could be one that you want to
improve, one that you're currently having problems with, or one that you
think could be a good starting point for future development.
2. Ask questions about the product you identified. Brainstorm as many
questions and answers as you can.
3. Look at the answers that you came up with. Do any of the answers stand
out as viable solutions? Could you use any of them to create a new
product, or develop an existing one? Take the good ideas and explore
them further.
See more instructions and example questions in the handouts!

38. SCAMPER TIP #1: ABC – ALWAYS BE
CAPTURING
The point is to generate the most ideas
possible. Capture every idea people share.

39. SCAMPER TIP #2: NO JUDGING
This isn’t the time to filter or judge
ideas. It is about generating the
maximum quantity of ideas. There
will be a time later to evaluate the
possibility of each idea.

40. SCAMPER TIP #3: BUILD AND DEVELOP
Building and developing is the positive
alternative to judging. Every idea belongs
to the group, so don’t be afraid to build
and develop on any idea.

41. SCAMPER TIP #4: ACTIVE PARTICIPATION
Every participant brings a unique viewpoint,
skill set or experience.

42. SCAMPER TIP #5: UNDIVIDED
ATTENTION
Participants aren’t fully engaged if
they’re staring into their smart
phone or laptops.

43. “I never made
one of my
discoveries
through the
process of
rational
thinking”
- Albert Einstein
43

44. The greatest risk is
really to take no risk at
all.
- Patrick Warburton

45. Thank You!
indrek@maripuu.eu