Idea Sandbox

The book What A Great Idea! 2.0 by Chic Thompson is chock full o’ bits of wisdom that help with creativity and creating new ideas.

One bit Chic writes about, is how new ideas are often struck down with “killer phrases.” These phrases reflect the lack of acceptance of something new or different.

We’re all aware of these killer phrases, the killjoy of innovation. People, armed with phrases, jab with…

• It’ll never work…
• The only problem with that is…
• In this economy?
• Oh yeah, we tried that in ‘98… didn’t work.
• You’re kidding, right?
• ______________________ ← your favorite here!

Chic points out that killer phrases “are as inevitable in the innovation process as ideas themselves.”

He adds, “psychologists have siad that the human reaction to a new idea unfolds something like this, which we could call the Five Stages Of Idea Acceptance.” I’ve turned this list into a handy graphic suitable for framing.

The door-lock analogy is pretty accurate… You can have four of the five locks open, but the door is still closed until all five are unlatched.

WHAT TO DO WITH THIS?

By knowing the stages you can either:
(a) have already figured out how to…

• make it relevant
• prove it
• make it safe, and
• show it is saleable

…when you present it. Or at least:
(b) be aware each of these need to be unlocked as you champion the idea.

Happy locksmithing!

It’s always an honor when someone cares to hear your advice. It is my pleasure to share with you a BlogRadio interview I was part of on Saturday evening that featured… well… me and Idea Sandbox!

Jenny Ward, the Chief Play Activist at Playward, hosts the “Live In PLAY” talk show every Saturday afternoon at 2:30 PST. We chatted for 35 minutes or so, about… how to be creative, tips on being remarkable, and a few other fun thoughts.

Here is the interview, I hope you enjoy it!

[RSS Readers, Click Here To Listen]

About Playward

Playward works to transform the way the world defines work, relationships and individuality – from “hard” to an adventure. Jenny is part of the play-volution, calling on new ways of how we treat ourselves and one another. Playward is bringing back the simple pleasures we are forgetting and adding more FUN to our day to day.

Check out Jenny’s site at Playward.com, and her “Live In Play” BlogTalkRadio station.

Books I Mention In This Interview

During my talk with Jenny, several books were mentioned, I thought I’d provide links to them for you here.

• Pow! Right Between the Eyes: Profiting from the Power of Surprise
  by Andy Nulman – Helps you figure out what’s remarkable about you or your brand.
• Why Johnny Can’t Brand: Rediscovering the Lost Art of the Big Idea
  by Bill Schley – Help you identify what sets you apart from your competition.
• Change The Way You See Everything: Through Asset-Based Thinking
  by Kathy Cramer & Hank Wasiak – Helps you understand and become an asset-based thinker.
• Now Discover Your Strengths
  by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton – Helps you focus on, and leverage your strengths vs. trying to fix weakness (which may never happen).
• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
  by Chip and Dan Heath – Talks about the “curse of knowledge” I discuss with Jenny. A great book to help you learn to make your messages meaningful and memorable.

Thank you, Jenny… It was a blast!

Welcome to the final stop of the Post2Post Virtual Book tour featuring Ken Watanabe’s best-selling book, Problem Solving 101.

But First…What Is Problem Solving?

What the heck is problem solving or creative problem solving anyway?

It’s simply a process of key steps to help – when you have a problem – to understand the problem, think-up potential solutions, and make a decision.

We are problem solvers every day of our life… from parallel parking to figuring out ways to trim your FY’10 budget. Many of our problems are small and involve little risk. For these, we can instantly perform problem solving steps in our head.

However, when greater risk is involved… for example when it involves big sums of money, major impact on an organization, or irreversible consequences… these problems need to be “worked” and broken into smaller chunks and run through a step-by-step process. That process is taught in Problem Solving 101.

While different people break the steps into different chunks, the 4-steps Ken outlines are:

1. Understand the situation.
2. Identify the root cause of the problem.
   Idea Sandbox focuses on brainstorming and decision making in order to have great ideas for your plan.
3. Develop an effective action plan.
4. Execute, and modify, until the problem is solved.

The benefits of having a process for problem solving? As Ken states in the book… “Rather than feeling as though your life is out of control, you can take charge and shape the world around you. Your dreams and goals will seem less out of reach. And you’ll be better able to accomplish whatever you’re passionate enough and imaginative enough to conceive and pursue.”

The book was originally writtento provide kids in Japan with better problem solving and decision making skills. However, it quickly became a huge success among adult, business leaders.

Translated to English the book is still the perfect read for a younger audience, but also happens to be one of the best primer’s for adults who need to strengthen their problem solving skills.

Who needs this book?

This book will be helpful if you’ve got this kind of person at work or school…

Ken could have easily done what most other books do…
Present sample case studies featuring Company XYZ selling their widgets. Describe to us their challenges in building awareness and driving sales. He would have use a generic image like below…

We’ve got problems with the widgets, Ted.

Instead he chose – for one example – a school band wanting more students to be aware and attend their concerts with original illustrations by Allan Sanders.

While some may say this book is too basic for US business leaders… I’ll argue… If Who Moved My Cheese can be a #1 best seller with the annoyingly simple parable featuring the complainers Hem and Haw, and the smart mice Sniff and Scurry… there is a place for Problem Solving 101.

Lessons from Problem Solving 101

One of the models Ken presents, is how to determine Root Cause Of Problems, and how to overcome them.

Determining Root Cause
Step 1: Diagnose the situation and identify the root cause of the problem.

1. List all the potential root causes of the problem.
2. Develop a hypothesis for the likely root cause.
3. Determine the analyses and information required to test the hypothesis.
4. Analyze and identify the root cause.

Step 2: Develop the Solution

1. Develop a wide variety of solutions to solve the problem.
2. Prioritize actions.
3. Develop an implementation plan.

If you’re not familiar or need a refresher into using the problem solving tools (below), this books is for you.

• Logic Tree
• Yes/No Tree
• Problem-Solving Design Plan
• Hypothesis Pyramid
• Pros and Cons; Criteria and Evaluation

The other stops of this virtual book tour included…

Site	Date
Think Differently Lauchlan Mackinnon	Mon, June 22
Get Fresh Minds Katie Konrath	Tue, June 23
Creativityist John Chandler	Wed, June 24
The Center for Graphic Facilitation Peter Durand	Thur, June 25
Idea Sandbox Paul Williams	YOU ARE HERE!

I hope you enjoyed the tour, got to learn more about the book!

Today is the fourth of our five-day virtual book tour featuring Ken Watanabe’s Problem Solving 101.

Today, Peter Durand at the Center for Graphic Facilitation posted his take on the book.

Yesterday, Katie Konrath at Get Fresh Minds gave her fresh opinion.

And Tuesday, John Chandler at Creativityist provides great background about the book.

An easy read that provides tools helpful for the young and old… These posts will help you better understand the book before you buy it.

Finally… the tour comes to a close, tomorrow, here at Idea Sandbox, see you then!

Feeling the need to defend yourself is a sign you feel threatened. Spending money on advertising to dissuade or change people’s minds about your competition is a sign you are afraid.

My buddy, John Moore from Brand Autopsy, sent me these pics from Chicago. They’re bus shelter ads for Nescafe’s Taster’s Choice instant “coffee sticks” targeted directly at Starbucks new VIA instant coffee.

VIA is Starbucks new instant coffee product, currently testing/available in Seattle, Chicago, and London.

I don’t know if Starbucks is advertising VIA. Nor do I know how well the product is doing. Nevertheless, I think Nescafe feels threatened.

Two Key Thoughts

(1) They are actually building more awareness for Starbucks. As a Taster’s Choice drinker, I may – through Nescafe’s ads – have learned that Starbucks has a new, similar product (even if it is more expensive… hmmm… I may have to check it out.

(2) The ads talk about variety and low price, but not quality and taste. This indicates to me that Nescafe has to avoid the taste discussion, knowing Starbucks is better.

400% More Expensive

400% more expensive sounds like a lot. But, doing the math, Starbucks VIA is around 83¢ a cup and Taster’s Choice 24¢. I don’t have research, but I don’t think the ONLY reason people drink instant coffee is because it is cheap. It’s convenient.

If Starbucks tastes 400% better than Taster’s Choice… it may be worth the extra 59¢ to spurge for Starbucks.

Thanks for the pics, John