CEO at BrainsparkerAcademy.com with over 18 years of experience developing leaders to create, innovate and lead the next frontier.
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A recent study by Gallup discovered that 61% of employees believed that their employers expected them to be creative in the workplace. But the same study pointed out that “simply telling employees to think creatively isn't enough — leaders must continually facilitate innovation and infuse creativity in their work culture.”
New problems need more innovative solutions. Leaders can inspire this type of out-of-the-box thinking by using “divergent thinking” methodologies that encourage their team to explore problems from multiple angles.
Here are three of my favorite techniques for brainstorming with teams:
Mind Mapping
When Tony Buzan, a British author and educational consultant, studied the notebooks of Da Vinci and Thomas Edison, it inspired him to create a new approach to capturing ideas by mapping them around a central theme. He called it “mind mapping,” and today, it’s widely used as a tool to enhance creativity, learning and memory retention.
Here’s how to use it in your brainstorming sessions:
• In the middle of a blank page, write the central problem you are trying to solve (e.g., “Retaining Customers”).
• Create branches off this central problem with different strategies that could solve this problem (e.g., loyalty discounts, VIP passes, monthly subscription, etc).
• Take one strategy and brainstorm all the different ways you could implement this (e.g., for "loyalty discounts" you could offer a points card, an extra 5% discount, free products, etc).
• Then repeat this for all the other strategies.
• For extra clarity, you can color-code each branch and add images.
Mapping your ideas out in this visual format instantly expands everyone’s thinking. Plus, the radial layout allows your team to see new connections between branches and discover ideas they hadn’t thought of before.
Mind mapping is a fun and collaborative technique. For in-person meetings, draw your mind maps on a whiteboard or use Post-It notes on walls or flip charts. For virtual meetings, you can brainstorm live using mind mapping apps like iMindMap and MindMeister.
SCAMPER Model
When your team is feeling stuck and needs a boost of inspiration, SCAMPER is a great technique to use. It was originally proposed by advertising guru and brainstorming pioneer, Alex F. Osborn, and was based on a checklist of 83 questions. Then educational expert Bob Eberle went on to simplify it in his book SCAMPER: Creative Games and Activities for Imagination Development.
One of the key benefits of the SCAMPER model is that it challenges assumptions that may be blocking new ideas without you even realizing it.
So, the next time your team is stuck in a rut, ask them these questions:
• (S)ubstitute: What elements could we substitute for something else? (e.g., replacing sugar with Stevia)
• (C)ombine: What could we combine together with something else? (e.g., mixing Oreo cookies and ice cream)
• (A)dapt: How could it be adapted to other contexts? (e.g., using your smartphone as a flashlight)
• (M)inify/Magnify: How could we enlarge or reduce a particular element? (e.g., producing travel-sized shampoo bottles)
• (P)ut to another use: How could it be used in a completely different setting? (e.g., when perfumery LVMH produced hand sanitizer)
• (E)liminate: What could we remove or take out? (e.g., no CD player on Macbook Air)
• (R)everse: How could we reverse the order of the product or process? (e.g., fast-food restaurants make you pay before you eat)
Moving through the different stages of SCAMPER forces your team to consider the product or service from multiple perspectives, opening their minds to completely new ideas and solutions.
For in-person brainstorming sessions, I recommend you break the team into sub-groups and allocate one stage to each group. For virtual sessions, apps like Miro and Mural have pre-set SCAMPER templates you can use.
Business Model Canvas
Often when we think of innovation, we immediately think of new products. But innovation can occur at any point along the value chain, from the raw ingredients right through to the customer using your product or service.
The Business Model Canvas is a revolutionary tool developed by business theorist Alexander Osterwalder. It’s based on nine main building blocks that consider all aspects of the value chain, with each one offering opportunities to innovate.
Fire up your team's creativity by asking them these questions:
• Customer Segments: What new customer segments could we expand into?
• Value Proposition: How are our customer’s needs and wants changing, and how could we add more value?
• Customer Relationship: How could we strengthen relationships with our customers to improve loyalty and retention?
• Channels: What other channels could we use to communicate with, and reach, our customers?
• Revenue Streams: How could we develop new streams of revenue both from existing customers and new audiences?
• Key Resources: How could we optimize the resources needed to deliver our product or service?
• Key Activities: How could we improve the productivity and profitability of activities involved in delivering value to our customers?
• Key Partnerships: Who could we collaborate with to expand our reach and deliver even more value?
• Cost Structure: How could we optimize costs to enable us to scale and expand?
As you can see, the Business Model Canvas is brilliant for divergent thinking and exploring multiple possibilities to innovate along the whole value chain.
When brainstorming in person, use one flip chart for each building block and have everyone walk around and contribute ideas. In a virtual setting, you can use online tools offered by Strategyzer and Canvanizer.
In our fast-changing world, new problems are cropping up every day. These three techniques are ideal for leaders who want to fuel creativity in their team in order to diverge thinking and reveal new and better ideas to solve today's problems — as well as those of tomorrow.
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