Author Archives: Mitch Ditkoff

About Mitch Ditkoff

Mitch Ditkoff is the Co-Founder and President of Idea Champions, an innovation consulting and training company, headquartered in Woodstock NY. He is also a big believer in the inspired words of Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a handful of concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, that’s all that ever has.” Follow him @mitchditkoff

The Eight Dimensions of a Brainstorm Session

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

Most people think brainstorming sessions are all about ideas – much in the same way Wall Street bankers think life is all about money.

While ideas are certainly a big part of brainstorming, they are only a part.

People who rush into a brainstorming session starving for new ideas will miss the boat (and the train, car, and unicycle) completely unless they tune into the some other important dynamics that are also at play:

1. INVESTIGATION: If you want your brainstorming sessions to be effective, you’ll need to do some investigating before hand. Get curious. Ask questions. Dig deeper. The more you find out what the real issues are, the greater your chances of framing powerful questions to brainstorm and choosing the best techniques to use.

2. IMMERSION: While good ideas can surface at any time, their chances radically increase the more that brainstorm participants are immersed. Translation? No coming and going during a session. No distractions. No interruptions. And don’t forget to put a “do not disturb” sign on the door.

3. INTERACTION: Ideas come to people at all times of day and under all kinds of circumstances. But in a brainstorming session, it’s the quality of interaction that makes the difference — how people connect with each other, how they listen, and build on ideas. Your job, as facilitator, is to increase the quality of interaction.

4. INSPIRATION: Creative output is often a function of mindset. Bored, disengaged people rarely originate good ideas. Inspired people do. This is one of your main tasks, as a brainstorm facilitator — to do everything in your power to keep participants inspired. The more you do, the less techniques you will need.

5. IDEATION: Look around. Everything you see began as an idea in someone’s mind. Simply put, ideas are the seeds of innovation — the first shape a new possibility takes. As a facilitator of the creative process, your job is to foster the conditions that amplify the odds of new ideas being conceived, developed, and articulated.

6. ILLUMINATION: Ideas are great. Ideas are cool. But they are also a dime a dozen unless they lead to an insight or aha. Until then, ideas are only two dimensional. But when the light goes on inside the minds of the people in your session, the ideas are activated and the odds radically increase of them manifesting.

7. INTEGRATION: Well-run brainstorming sessions have a way of intoxicating people. Doors open. Energy soars. Possibilities emerge. But unless participants have a chance to make sense of what they’ve conceived, the ideas are less likely to manifest. Opening the doors of the imagination is a good thing, but so is closure.

8. IMPLEMENTATION: Perhaps the biggest reason why most brainstorming sessions fail is what happens after — or, shall I say, what doesn’t happen after. Implementation is the name of the game. Before you let people go, clarify next steps, who’s doing what (and by when), and what outside support is needed.

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Why You Need to Ask Why

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

Some years ago, there was a big problem at one of America’s most treasured monuments — the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.

Simply put, birds — in huge numbers — were pooping all over it, which made visiting the place a very unpleasant experience.

Attempts to remedy the situation caused even bigger problems, since the harsh cleaning detergents being used were damaging the memorial.

Fortunately, some of the National Parks managers assigned to the case began asking WHY — as in “Why was the Jefferson Memorial so much more of a target for birds than any of the other memorials?”

A little bit of investigation revealed the following:

The birds were attracted to the Jefferson Memorial because of the abundance of spiders — a gourmet treat for birds.

The spiders were attracted to the Memorial because of the abundance of midges (insects) that were nesting there.

And the midges were attracted to the Memorial because of the light.

Root Cause AnalysisMidges, it turns out, like to procreate in places were the light is just so — and because the lights were turned on, at the Jefferson Memorial, one hour before dark, it created the kind of mood lighting that midges went crazy for.

So there you have it: The midges were attracted to the light. The spiders were attracted to the midges. The birds were attracted to the spiders. And the National Parks workers, though not necessarily attracted to the bird poop, were attracted to getting paid — so they spent a lot of their time (and taxpayer money) cleaning the Memorial.

How did the situation resolve? Very simply.

After reviewing the curious chain of events that led up to the problem, the decision was made to wait until dark before turning the lights on at the Jefferson Memorial.

That one-hour delay was enough to ruin the mood lighting for the midges, who then decided to have midge sex somewhere else.

No midges, no spiders. No spiders, no birds. No birds, no poop. No poop, no need to clean the Jefferson Memorial so often. Case closed.

Now, consider what “solutions” might have been forthcoming if those curious National Parks managers did not stop and ask WHY:

  1. Hire more workers to clean the Memorial
  2. Ask existing workers to work overtime
  3. Experiment with different kinds of cleaning materials
  4. Put bird poison all around the memorial
  5. Hire hunters to shoot the birds
  6. Encase the entire Jefferson Memorial in Plexiglas
  7. Move the Memorial to another part of Washington
  8. Close the site to the general public

Technically speaking, each of the above “solutions” was a possible approach — but at great cost, inconvenience, and with questionable results.

They were, shall we say, not exactly elegant solutions.

Now, think about YOUR business… YOUR company… YOUR life.

What problems are you facing that could be approached differently simply by asking WHY…. and then WHY again… and then WHY again.. until you get to the core of the issue?

If you don’t, you may just end up solving the wrong problem.

THE FIVE WHYS TECHNIQUE

  1. Name a problem you’re having
  2. Ask WHY it’s happening
  3. Get an answer
  4. Then WHY about that
  5. Get an answer
  6. Then ask WHY about that — and so on, five times

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Brainstorming versus Braincalming

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

If you work in a big organization, small business, freelance, or eat cheese, there’s a good chance you’ve participated in at least a few brainstorming sessions in your life.

You’ve noodled, conjured, envisioned, ideated, piggybacked, and endured overly enthusiastic facilitators doing their facilitator thing.

You may have even gotten some results. Hallelujah!

But even the best run brainstorming sessions are based on a questionable assumption — that the origination of powerful, new ideas depend on the facilitated interaction between people.

You know, the “two heads are better than one” syndrome.

I’d like to propose an alternative for the moment: “two heads are better than one sometimes.”

For the moment, I invite you to consider the possibility that the origination of great, new ideas doesn’t take place in the storm, but in the calm before the storm… or the calm after the storm… or sometimes, even in the eye of the storm itself.

Every wonder why so many people get their best ideas during “down time” — the time just before they go to sleep… or just after waking… or in dreams… or in the shower… or in the car on the way home from work?

Those aren’t brainstorming sessions, folks. Those are braincalming sessions. Incubation time.

Those are time outs for the hyperactive child genius within us who is always on the go.

Methinks, in today’s over-caffeinated, late-for-a-very-important-date business world, we have become addicted to the storm.

“Look busy,” is the mantra, not “look deeply.”

We want high winds. We want lightning. We want proof that something is happening, even if the proof turns out to be nothing more than sound and fury.

High winds do not last all morning. Sometimes the storm has to stop.

That’s why some of your co-workers like to show up early at the office before anyone else has arrived. For many of us, that’s the only time we have to think.

“The best thinking has been done in solitude,” said Thomas Edison. “The worst has been done in turmoil.”

I’m not suggesting that you stop brainstorming (um… that’s 20% of our business). All I’m suggesting is you balance it out with some braincalming. The combination of the two can be very, very powerful.

HERE’S A FEW WAYS TO GET STARTED:

  1. In the middle of your next brainstorming, session, restate the challenge — then ask everyone to sit, in silence, for five minutes, and write down whatever ideas come to mind. (Be ready for the inevitable joking that will immediately follow your request). Then, after five minutes are up, go “round robin” and ask everyone to state their most compelling idea.

  2. Ask each member of your team to think about a specific business-related challenge before they go to bed tonight and write down their ideas when they wake up. Then, gather your team together for a morning coffee and see what you’ve got.

  3. Conduct your next brainstorming session in total silence. Begin by having the brainstorming challenge written on a big flip chart before people enter the room. Then, after some initial schmoozing, explain the “silence ground rule” and the process: People will write their ideas on post-its or flip charts. Their co-workers, also in silence, will read what gets posted and piggyback. Nobody talks.

It’s your decision, at the end of the idea generating time, if you want the debrief to be spoken — or if you want people to come back the next day for a verbal debrief.

“Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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15 Excellent Quotes on Collaboration

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

  1. “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” – Phil Jackson
  2. “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
  3. “If two men on the same job agree all the time, then one is useless. If they disagree all the time, both are useless.” – Darryl F. Zanuck
  4. “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” – Henry Ford
  5. “Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
  6. “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” – Isaac Newton
  7. “It takes two to speak the truth — one to speak, and another to hear.” – Henry David Thoreau
  8. “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” – George Bernard Shaw
  9. “Politeness is the poison of collaboration.” – Edwin Land
  10. “I never did anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished collectively.” – Golda Meir
  11. “It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” – Napoleon Hill
  12. “No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you.” – Althea Gibson
  13. “It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” – Charles Darwin
  14. “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” – Henry Ford
  15. “The lightning spark of thought generated in the solitary mind awakens its likeness in another mind.” — Thomas Carlyle

Got others? Lay them on me!

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Cultivating the Value of Ideas

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

Everything begins as an idea.

Whether you’re in business, school, jail, or debt, that’s how it all gets rolling. First there’s the idea, then there’s the manifestation of the idea — assuming, of course, that the person with the idea has their act together.

If you have any doubt, take a look around you.

Everything you see began as an idea: The microchip, the chocolate chip, the fishing net, the internet, the company you work for, and the company you keep. All of it. Everything. Even the Universe, some say, began as an idea in the mind of the Creator. There are two schools of thought on this subject.

The first ascribes the origin of ideas to the efforts of inspired individuals who, through a series of spontaneously occurring or purposeful mental processes, arrive at a useful new possibility.

The second school ascribes the appearance of ideas to a transcendent force, a.k.a. the “Collective Unconscious,” the “Platonic Realm,” the “Muse,” or the “Mind of God.”

According to this perspective, ideas are not created, but already exist, becoming accessible to human beings who have tuned themselves enough to be able to receive them.

The first approach is usually considered Western, with a strong bias towards thinking. It is best summarized by Rene Descartes “I think therefore I am” maxim. Most business people subscribe to this approach, as it gives great weight to the power of the mind.

The second approach is usually considered Eastern, with a strong bias towards feeling. It is best summarized by the opposite of the Cartesian view: “I am therefore, I think.” Most artists and creative types are associated with this approach, with its focus on intuitive knowing — a way of understanding that does not lend itself to analysis and quantification.

Both approaches are valid. Both are effective. And both are used at different times by all of us, depending on our mood, circumstances, and conditioning. No matter what our preferred approach, however, the challenge remains the same for all of us: how to honor, develop and manifest our ideas. This is a challenge made increasingly more difficult these days by the fact that, somehow, ideas have gotten a bad rap. If you have one (and most of us do), chances are good you usually apologize before talking about it (if you talk about it at all) with some variation of “Uh… er… um… it’s just an idea.” Most of us, in fact, have made a habit of discounting ideas — in ourselves and in others. “A dime a dozen” is all we think they’re worth.

And so the prophecy comes true.

Our ideas are diminished, not because they are worthless, but because we do not know how to elicit their value. We do not understand how to cultivate them. Afraid we will be judged, or worse, fail — we toss them out long before their time. Like Jack’s mother, of Beanstalk fame, we throw our magic beans out the window, doubting they had any real value in the first place.

Excerpted from Awake at the Wheel

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21 Awesome Quotes on Intuition

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

Thanks to Val Vadeboncoeur for finding most of these quotes.

  1. “The only real valuable thing is intuition.” – Albert Einstein
  2. “Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” – Benjamin Spock
  3. “Systems die; instincts remain.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
  4. “It is through science that we prove, but through intuition that we discover.” – Henri Poincare
  5. “Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data.” – John Naisbitt
  6. “A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.” – Frank Capra
  7. “It is always with excitement that I wake up in the morning wondering what my intuition will toss up to me, like gifts from the sea. I work with it and rely on it. It’s my partner.” – Jonas Salk
  8. “All human knowledge thus begins with intuitions, proceeds thence to concepts, and ends with ideas.” – Immanuel Kant
  9. “Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else’s. – Billy Wilder
  10. “Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drown your own inner voice. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs
  11. “The more and more each is impelled by that which is intuitive, or the relying upon the soul force within, the greater, the farther, the deeper, the broader, the more constructive may be the result.” – Edgar Cayce
  12. “I feel there are two people inside me — me and my intuition. If I go along against her, she’ll screw me every time, and if I follow her, we get along quite nicely.” – Kim Basinger
  13. “Intuition is the supra-logic that cuts out all the routine processes of thought and leaps straight from the problem to the answer.” – Robert Graves
  14. “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” – Albert Einstein
  15. “You must train your intuition. You must trust the small voice inside which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide.” – Ingrid Bergman
  16. “The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days.” – Lao Tzu
  17. “People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind.” – William Butler Yeats
  18. “Conclusions arrived at through reasoning have very little or no influence in altering the course of our lives.” – Carlos Casteneda
  19. “Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.” – Jonas Salk
  20. “Trust your hunches. They’re usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level.” – Dr. Joyce Brothers
  21. “Follow your instincts. That’s where true wisdom manifests itself.” – Oprah Winfrey

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Act Like an Innovation Samurai

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

If you expect to innovate in 2012, you will need to be more like a Samurai and less like a Slacker. Towards that end, here are the seven classic virtues of a Samurai. Food for thought… and action!

  1. Rectitude

  2. Courage

  3. Benevolence

  4. Respect

  5. Honesty

  6. Honor

  7. Loyalty

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Naming the Product First

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

Conventional wisdom has it that the best time to name a new product is after you create it. Unconventional wisdom has it the other way around: first you give your product a name, then you create it.

With this approach, the name — instead of being the description of your creation — becomes the catalyst for its existence.

The key is to come up with a compelling name — one that intrigues, delights, and has embedded within it the kind of multiple meanings that stimulate you enough to decode them.

Let’s use the topic of my book — creativity — as an example. If I was looking to invent new products to hawk in the back of the book, but had no clue what they were, I might start by generating some creativity-themed names — and then work backwards.

CreativiTeas: Exotic teas that boost brainpower.

CreativiTees: T-shirts featuring photos of creative geniuses on the front and their inspiring quotes on the back.

CreativiTease: A strip poker card game in which players match famous quotes on creativity with the people who said them.

Invent some products that are sparked by these names:

  • Shower Power?
  • Chakra Chip Cookies?
  • Cheeses of Nazareth?
  • Sing Kong?

USING THE TOOL:

  1. Make up a compelling name for something — even if you don’t know what that “something” is. HINT: Humor, double entendre, and spelling variations are good catalysts.
  2. Now that you have a compelling name for an imaginary product, brainstorm what this something might be.

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Buy Local, Bye-Bye Walmart

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

When the residents of Saranac Lake, NY were faced with having a Super Wal-Mart put in, some 600 residents came together to open their own department store, selling shares in the new venture for $100 and raising $600,000. CBS News business and economics correspondent Rebecca Jarvis reports.

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Everyone's a Genius, But …

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GUEST POST from Mitch Ditkoff

If you want to create a culture of innovation in your organization, make sure you are matching people to projects that have passion for and have enough competence to succeed in.

If you’re sensing that “things” aren’t going all that well, it may be due to the fact that you’ve got fish climbing trees. Your task? Find a pond for the fish… and find some lovers of tree-climbing to pick the fruit or swing from the branches. Problem solved.

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