# Welcome to SMIRK Unit
8 - Idea generation
or ideation

- What is it?
- Being prolific
- Promoting creative thinking
- New experiences
- More tips
- So what next?
- Back to main index

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SMIRK - Idea generation or ideation by Bernard Leong, Lee Iwan and Litemind blog modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.slideshare.net/bleongcw/7-tips-for-idea-generation-for-startups and http://leeiwan.wordpress.com/2006/08/28/5-ways-to-promote-creative-thinking-and-idea-generation/ and http://litemind.com/6-tips-generate-outstanding-ideas/.

# What is it?

“To stimulate creativity, one must develop the childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition.” Albert Einstein

Everybody wants to have great ideas, but have you ever wondered what an idea is? If you haven’t, take a few moments to think about it. One answer is that ideas are connections.

Any idea, no matter how trivial, is an association between previous, established ideas. These connections happen in our minds all the time - often spontaneously and below our level of awareness. Another interesting characteristic of these connections is that you can’t predict anything about them beforehand.

Many times, ideas are formed by associating two completely unrelated concepts, and in unexpected or unusual ways.

- To create the movable type, Gutenberg connected the idea of the wine press and the coin stamp.
- To create the concept of a mass-circulation newspaper, Joseph Pulitzer combined large-scale advertising with high-speed printing.

Great ideas may even seem to be random at times - but that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing you can do to develop them. Because of the randomness in idea generation, having great ideas is not a task that can be approached directly. The only way to increase the likelihood of having great ideas is to increase the amount of ideas that you have at your disposal to form connections. Ideas, no matter how simple, are the raw materials for higher-level ideas. The more ideas you have, the more material your mind will have to associate and generate a good one.

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.

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SMIRK - Idea generation or ideation by Bernard Leong, Lee Iwan and Litemind blog modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.slideshare.net/bleongcw/7-tips-for-idea-generation-for-startups and http://leeiwan.wordpress.com/2006/08/28/5-ways-to-promote-creative-thinking-and-idea-generation/ and http://litemind.com/6-tips-generate-outstanding-ideas/

# Being prolific

So being prolific is the key to having great ideas. In creativity matters, there’s no tradeoff between quantity and quality: it is only through quantity that you get quality.

We should abandon the myth of the genius that only has great ideas. It seems that every piece of work created by a genius is brilliant, but that happens because only their greatest creations get any publicity at all. The truth is that they could never have generated such brilliant creations without being tremendously productive. Consider these examples:

- Einstein is famous for his theory of relativity, but he published 248 other papers.
- Bach wrote a cantata every week, even when ill or fatigued.
- Mozart produced more than 600 musical works.
- Thomas Edison held 1093 patents. Imagine the amount of his non-patented work…

Another interesting fact about breakthrough ideas is that their quality is completely unrelated to the quality of other ideas by the same person. As a matter of fact, if you look at many geniuses’ most prolific periods, you’ll find a common pattern: it was exactly when they produced their masterpieces that they also produced their greatest failures.

Great innovators, then, don’t seem to care about having remarkable ideas: all they care about is having ideas – any ideas, lots and lots of them, anywhere and at anytime.

We need to feel free to create - and to do this, we need a supportive environment.

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SMIRK - Idea generation or ideation by Bernard Leong, Lee Iwan and Litemind blog modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.slideshare.net/bleongcw/7-tips-for-idea-generation-for-startups and http://leeiwan.wordpress.com/2006/08/28/5-ways-to-promote-creative-thinking-and-idea-generation/ and http://litemind.com/6-tips-generate-outstanding-ideas/

# Promoting creative thinking

If the best way to get quality ideas is by creating them from a vast pool of ideas, then our job is to have as many ideas as possible. Here are six tips that can help you develop an “idea abundance” mindset:

#### 1. Expect to have ideas

The first step is to get rid of common beliefs such as “I’m not a creative person”. Drop any preconceived notions that ideas are reserved just for a privileged few. That’s often enough to have ideas start coming to you.

#### 2. Welcome dumb ideas, or any ideas for that matter

Your focus should never be on having great ideas. Always strive for quantity. Most people don’t ever try having ideas because they’re socially afraid to have their ideas labeled as stupid. Get over it! : your ideas that are regarded as stupid today may be the foundation for something groundbreaking tomorrow. And when you eventually have such an idea, nobody will remember your less successful ones. On the matter of being afraid to show your ideas, keep in mind that teasing is a disguised form of shaming, of others trying to throw you off balance.

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SMIRK - Idea generation or ideation by Bernard Leong, Lee Iwan and Litemind blog modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.slideshare.net/bleongcw/7-tips-for-idea-generation-for-startups and http://leeiwan.wordpress.com/2006/08/28/5-ways-to-promote-creative-thinking-and-idea-generation/ and http://litemind.com/6-tips-generate-outstanding-ideas/

# Expose yourself to
new experiences

Your senses capture the basic information that your mind uses to generate associations. The more you expose yourself to different situations, people and places, the more fuel you will give to your mind to make connections. Learn to welcome variety in your life: travel, try out new foods, read different magazines than usual. Just don’t be afraid of doing things differently.

- Look at various magazines that have nothing to do with your subject (not news or analysis). Mark or highlight any interesting articles or ideas. Set a time limit, 3 or 5 days. You can do this in a group, so when the magazines come back, send them out to different people. Examples would include trade magazines from different industries, magazines dedicated to; design, art, travel and living, tattoos or wresting, music, movies, technology and leisure equipment.
- Read a book! Recommend great books to others in your group, no matter what the subject.
- Move the furniture.
- Bring in toys or puzzles that require manual manipulation. Toys unlock reasoning and assist in activating parts of the brain required for creativity.
- Ask everyone to identify where or what makes them creative or gives them inspiration. Where are they when they get their ideas? What triggers innovative or creative thinking? What time of day and what day of the week?

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” Mary Lou Cook

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SMIRK - Idea generation or ideation by Bernard Leong, Lee Iwan and Litemind blog modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.slideshare.net/bleongcw/7-tips-for-idea-generation-for-startups and http://leeiwan.wordpress.com/2006/08/28/5-ways-to-promote-creative-thinking-and-idea-generation/ and http://litemind.com/6-tips-generate-outstanding-ideas/

# More tips

#### 4. Capture Ideas Immediately

Get in the habit of capturing all your ideas. Use a paper notebook or mobile device. It doesn’t matter how you capture them, just make sure that you carry your idea capturing tool everywhere you go. If you don’t capture your ideas the minute they come up, it’s guaranteed you’ll forget most of them - even worse, you won’t even be aware that you had ideas in the first place. Also, each time your mind notices you’re paying attention to its ideas, it rewards you with more ideas.

#### 5. Be Thankful for Ideas

Every time you have an idea - any idea - be thankful for it. By developing this habit, you create an additional positive reinforcement that works as a “pat on the back” of your mind, encouraging it to produce even more ideas.

#### 6. Realize that Ideas Come in Bursts

It’s perfectly normal to go through several days and not have one single idea. But then, suddenly, ideas will come to you one after another, just like a surging river. Sometimes, the ideas will come so quickly you’ll barely have time to write them all down. Don’t worry about the natural slow times, but make sure that you take full advantage of those idea bursts when they come.

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SMIRK - Idea generation or ideation by Bernard Leong, Lee Iwan and Litemind blog modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.slideshare.net/bleongcw/7-tips-for-idea-generation-for-startups and http://leeiwan.wordpress.com/2006/08/28/5-ways-to-promote-creative-thinking-and-idea-generation/ and http://litemind.com/6-tips-generate-outstanding-ideas/

# So what next?

The next step in the innovation process is evaluation of the ideas by others in the group. Our ideas will eventually be analyzed and criticized to determine their viability or economic impact. This is a separate and distinct process, and should occur only after the ideas are generated and not during the brainstorming period. Here are some suggestions:

- Ideas are cheap so don’t get too hung up on them
- An idea may not be an invention and an invention may not be good business
- Break the whole process with a time limit and be disciplined about time
- Generate as many ideas as possible and forget about the constraints first
- Select the three best ideas from the list and identify the best one by elimination and debate
- With the best idea, start imposing constraints by asking the following questions:

- What is the product, service or idea involving the industry?
- Who are the paying and non-paying customers?
- How do you market the product?
- How do you charge for the product?
- When do you know that the product fails?

- Once you have worked that out, test the idea by creating a prototype and testing it.

#### You will fail if:

- You keep harping on about whether you will get a grant
- You don’t even think about creating a prototype to test the market
- You don’t listen to feedback when you let the market respond to you

You should quit and start again if the idea really has no market traction.

Finally - good luck!

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SMIRK - Idea generation or ideation by Bernard Leong, Lee Iwan and Litemind blog modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.slideshare.net/bleongcw/7-tips-for-idea-generation-for-startups and http://leeiwan.wordpress.com/2006/08/28/5-ways-to-promote-creative-thinking-and-idea-generation/ and http://litemind.com/6-tips-generate-outstanding-ideas/