Innovation on a Deadline - In Your Small Business

If the thought of coming up with a great idea on demand causes your brain to freeze up, here is a step-by-step guide to make the process more manageable:

• Compose a single sentence that precisely outlines your task.
• Then brainstorm. Do not worry if ideas are good or bad — just get them down on a paper. Think hard, but go fast, and don’t get too fond of anything yet.
• Find a colleague and throw your ideas around. The greatest innovations come from collaborative efforts. Don’t dismiss anything out of hand. Scramble those ideas you have got and those images you have gathered. Rearrange them. What you created in sequence should now be taken apart.
• Despite the looming deadline, give everything you’ve hashed out a chance to settle by taking a mental break. Read a magazine, listen to your iPod or do your routine job. When you return to the task, your subconscious will pick up right where you left off.
• Be decisive. Choose the three best ideas you’ve had and write rationales for each. Be ruthless. If you can convince yourself, you can convince others. Polish the ideas, adding details and spinning them out in new directions, before presenting them to key decision-makers.
• Work as a group. Make a definitive decision on which idea to pursue.

You can’t sit around and wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

Tags: Small Business