Ebook creative ideas in 10 minutes final

Creative Ideas in Ten Minutes

Creative Ideas in

Ten Minutes


John joined Visa I n t e r n a t i o n a l i n 1985, becoming a S e n i o r V i c e President in 1996. His speciality was service innovation and transformation. I n 2 0 0 1 h e es tabl i shed Yes ! And… to help teams create original ideas that get a “Yes! And…” response and i m p l e m e n t successfully. Vastly experienced as a facilitator, he works regularly with m u l t i c u l t u r a l groups in Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Author John Brooker

About John


A Story to Help Generate Ideas.… 4

Six Idea Generation Tools.… 7

Table of Contents


I w e n t t o p i c k blackberries with the children. As we picked, I mused on what a g r e a t a n a l o g y blackberry picking is for idea generation. You arrive at your site and some big juicy berries hover there, groaning, “Eat me, eat me”(my son politely obliges). Three pickers ensure rapid removal of these “low hanging fruits.” As you pick one you notice it is part of a ripe bunch and delightedly you strip the bramble. You bound around s eve ra l b ra m b l e s , picking away. Then it gets tougher.

A Tale of Blackberry

Picking and Fruitful Idea Generation

Chapter 1


You gently lift prickly leaves to discover one nestling there. You duck down and look up, finding more secreted away. You peer over the top of fo l iage and f ind a tantalising blackberry just out of reach, so you t ramp le down nearer brambles and reach it triumphantly; only to find a maggot on steroids, daring you to eat it. Next, you circle the t a n g l e d m a s s o f vegetation to look from different angles and spy more which have appeared as i f by magic.

You reach it triumphantly; only to find a

maggot on steroids, daring

you to eat it!


Gradually, you find the numbers of easy to gather berries dwindling but there is always one more you can see, so you "reeeeaaaach" for it. You tease it off its stalk but a large bramble snags you from behind, two snag your sleeves and you are stuck fast; you wriggle out of your jacket and wish you had worn leather. So how might blackberry picking be an analogy for idea generation?

How might blackberry picking be an analogy for idea generation?


Here are a few thoughts I had whilst picking and reflecting afterwards: •  You have to make a point of seeking ideas •  There are always obvious ideas, probably

unoriginal or evident to your competitors too. You have to get beyond these

•  More people bring a greater wealth of knowledge, more potential ideas and more fun, but they aren’t always essential

•  Explore ideas, don’t just generate more and more – breadth is important but depth is too

•  When ideas are drying up, don’t settle for those you have until you have tried some techniques to generate more

•  Use t echn iques t o adop t d i f f e ren t perspectives and to spark ideas where none seem apparent

•  Record all ideas before they slip away •  Give everyone time to think •  Know when to stop, but not too soon (it’s an

art not a science)


Six Quick Tools to

Generate Ideas

Chapter 2

5 Ws and H D.R .E .A .M .E .R .S .

G e t F i r e d

W h e r e i n t h e W o r l d ?

Y e s ! A n d …

Random Connection


… to develop a twenty second “pitch” to explain our business, for use when you have a short time to tell someone what you do. This exercise prompted me to develop a selection of tools that will help you create solutions with clients and colleagues in five to ten minutes. On the following pages are six tools for your idea generation toolkit.

On a course

recently we had


This tool is attributed to Rudyard Kipling. He used it as a journalist to elicit all the facts about a situation using questions starting with Who? What? Why? Where? When? and How? For creative ideas, ask questions about a product or service, e.g. “Who uses it?”; “When do they use it?”; “Where might they use it?” To generate ideas, compile a list of answers and ask, “How might that be different?”

5 Ws and H

Tool 1


You can combine 5 Ws and H with another tool; DREAMERS: Divide; Reduce; Enlarge; Adapt (its use and form); Mix; Exclude; Replace; Switch. It helps to generate ideas by challenging various aspects of a situation in a more structured way. To use it, take a category or two, e.g. Switch, Reduce, Enlarge. Use 5Ws and H to prompt questions as in these examples:

D.R.E.A.M.E.R.S.

Tool 2


To SWITCH… Who might use this product other than office workers? What materials might we use instead of plastic? Why might people use this elsewhere? To REDUCE… Where might we make this for half the cost? When might we reduce the price? How could we do this in five minutes not thirty? To ENLARGE… What if this were used by a hundred times more people? How might we keep clients engaged for three times longer?

Ask questions in terms of size and scale;

function and scope; roles and

responsibilities; sequence, flow, etc.


In small teams, generate a number of ideas for how you might tackle your opportunity / problem so that you would be fired or earn the wrath of many people. Choose a radical or fun idea and pass it to another team to devise a practical idea that is not a straight reversal. Have a small prize for the best idea.

Be sure to record only the practical ideas not the radical ideas that could be misconstrued by those not in the group.

Get Fired!

Tool 3


Have people consider other situations in which this challenge may have been faced or in which there is a similar concept. For example, the model for movement of parcels by couriers stemmed from how banks move card payment information between different banks. When the group has identified a few comparable situations, explore in small teams what happens in these situations and “creatively swipe” any useful ideas.

Where in the Wor ld?

Tool 4


Work with one or two other people to create ideas for variants on an existing service or product, e.g. a USB stick. Have one person come up with an idea, e.g. “Make the case out of robust metal.” The next person affirms this with, “Yes! And… build idea we could make the loop on the end a bottle opener.” “Yes! And… build idea we could make tough USB sticks for different trades with two tools on each!” You might record this conversation as it can be quite quick!

Yes! And…

Tool 5


Have individuals choose a random item in the room. Have them swap their item with another person or if it is not movable, e.g. a light fitting, tell them what it is. Create ideas by “force fitting” the item with your challenge, e.g. force fit a clock with a challenge and it can lead you to consider aspects of time. If people generate a “bizarre” (springboard) idea, give it to other people to devise a practical idea from it. Give a prize for the best one.

Random Connection

Tool 6


Have people generate ideas from the perspective of a five year old. For best results, have them be a five year old, not think like a five year old. How would they use this product / service? What suggestions to improve it might they make? Alternatively, have people adopt the identity of a hero, e.g. a top sports person or film star. For more radical ideas, use a superhero. Using other characters moves people out of the tramline of their thinking and can release inhibitions.

F i ve Ye a r O l d

Bonus Tool


I trust this short eBook proves stimulating for your next idea generation session. Take people “blackberry picking’ with the small toolkit I have provided and you should generate many ideas. However, tools that are not used become rusty, so do use them as soon as possible. For guidance to facilitate, innovate and transform, please visit my website following the links on the next page and search over 160 articles and tools.

Tools become rusty if not used.”


If you want your organisation to be more innovative you might like to make your idea generation part of a structured model for innovation. Yes! And… have developed and used the Inn8 Model with a number of organisations to great effect. It forms part of our three layered Inn8 Approach to innovation. Please see the next page for a link to more details.

“Make idea generation part of a structured model

for innovation.


About the Inn8 Approach

Contact Yes! And… here.

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