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IDEAS- Issue 5 (July 2006) Monthly newsletter dedicated to organisational innovation, creativity and change. Slippery Ideas: Capture Them or Lose Them As the tale goes, about 2000 years ago, King Hiero II of Syracuse asked Greek mathematician Archimedes to determine whether his royal crown, supposedly made of pure gold, had been adulterated with silver. For Archimedes, it was a king size problem with no ready-made solution. Then, one day, while going for bath, he noticed that as he stepped into the bath tub, which was filled up to the brim, some water got displaced and overflowed onto the floor. At that very moment, he got so excited that he leaped from his bath and ran out into the streets of Syracuse, shouting, "Eureka! (I have found!)" So excited he was that he forgot to even put on his clothes. Archimedes' solution was simple: Take a bowl of water and put in it pure gold equal to the weight of the crown. Fill it up to the brim. Then remove the piece of pure gold and dip the royal crown. If the crown is made of silver, it would have greater volume (because silver is lighter), and that will make the water to overflow out of the bowl. Guess what? The king's suspicion was correct! The crown was not pure gold. The Archimedes' story is as much about getting hit by a breakthrough idea as it is about capturing an idea. Archimedes could have enjoyed his bath and went about his business. Instead, he latched on to the idea that popped up in his mind, got excited--rather over excited--and ran with it. Just like Archimedes, ideas can hit you anytime, anywhere. Are you ready to capture and run away with them? >>IDEA: Many of us worry about becoming more creative. But ironically, at our present level of creativity, we often keep ignoring our ideas and letting them slip away. When it comes to innovation, ideas are like seeds. Everything starts with an idea. Seasoned innovators and innovative companies know this well. They use variety of ways to capture ideas.
Ideas need to be captured at three different levels: Personal level: According to Tom Peter's book, "The Circle of Innovation," Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin (airlines, music, hotels, drinks), is obsessive about writing down ideas in his notebooks. He seems to have filled up over 227 notebooks! Let's start with number one, today! Indeed, something as simple as a notebook and a pen by the side is enough to capture our ideas as and when they strike. Departmental/group/organizational level: When Michael Eisner, former CEO of Disney, joined Paramount Pictures, he called a meeting and told the participants that no one was going home until they together came up twenty good ideas for new movies. The hit movie "Beverly Hills Cop" was born out of that meeting only. The truth is that, at organizational level, people often share ideas only when asked or provided an opportunity to do so. If you wish to capture the ideas of those around you, create conducive opportunities and channels (meetings, brainstorming sessions, suggestion schemes, online forums, etc.) for them to come forward and share ideas. Beyond organisation: Few months back, I saw an advertisement by Toyota in the Reader's Digest magazine. It was about a drawing contest which invited children to draw their "dream car." What Toyota was trying to do? Obviously, it was tapping into the imagination of kids for its future cars. Do you know that Proctor & Gamble has made a policy (yes, policy) to get at least 50% of company's new product ideas from outside? Today, innovative organisations are not only relying on the ideas of their own people, but are also systematically tapping into vast pool of people outside the organisation. But before you worry about tapping others' ideas, don't forget to tap your own with a simple device: pen and notebook! The Richard Branson way! Next time, when you're taking a shower, watch how ideas come and go. Capture them or lose them! Atul Mathur FORWARD IT: Would you like to share what you've just read with any of your friends/colleagues? Click below to send a link to your friend.To SUBSCRIBE to this newsletter, send a blank e-mail to:subscribe IDEAS ***Copyright 2006 Atul Mathur*** |
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