How to get ideas that are not 'a dime a dozen'?

Today, every enterprise has or plans to have some sort of an idea management initiative to capture the ideas of their employees and customers.  This could be because of a very strategic vision or the result of the hype about tapping into the wisdom of employees & customers. Some have mastered the art, but the rest end up being me too. Throughputs - some get as many as 150,000 ideas in a year and some just 15 from the same number of employees and customers. The effectiveness is equally extreme; some making real money from it and it becoming a main stream process for them, while others are completely clueless about the direction to navigate into.

Question is how organizations get hold of ideas that can elevate them to the next level, help them create a service or a product that could define a new market. In other words how do organizations harvest ideas which can make substantial & positive difference to the organizations’ objectives?

Part of  the answer lies in following two strategies, this is with an assumption that all other operational aspects are taken care.

Before you ask for ideas

• Shift your pitch from “Do you have an idea  ... “ to “Do you have an idea FOR  ...” Basically shift your pitch from generally asking for any idea to asking for an idea for a given challenge.
• If you can’t think of a challenge then run a challenge to find a challenge, you will be surprised how many you unearth!
• Stop behaving like you have the right to ask for ideas, instead create an atmosphere of co-creation.
• If you do not genuinely intend to read each of the ideas received and try to figure out the intent behind each idea then stop right here (It saves your time, yes theirs too!). Often the intent of the idea provider will lead you to the ideas you are after. 

After you get the ideas

• Lookout for the possibility of combining two not so good ideas to get the good one out of it. Or pick up the clue to make the not so good one, a really good one.
• Make the review team a mix of someone who could see the bigger picture and also someone who may not. 
• Refrain from judging the idea on the basis of how easy or difficult it is to implement it.
• Look at the act of rewarding the person with a good idea as an act of encouraging the innovation spirit and not as an act of buying out the idea.

In short addressing the points relevant to your enterprise from list above, a well defined challenge with an incentive and a committed evaluation team could fetch you ideas which are not a dime dozen.

Can a bit of insanity nail down the solution?

We all are good at trying the acknowledged path to get to a solution. My question is - will it help if we add a bit of insanity to it?

What if we imagine that the constraints for solving the problem do not exist? If a solution requires air to be passing through the glass, assume it can. If your solution needs a vacuum to operate in the open sky, assume it is available.

Get hold of such multiple imaginary solutions, then start working backwards. Ask what are the alternatives to get those unachievable constraint(s) replaced by something which is practical, while moving your insane solution towards a more practical one.

Reduce one constraint at a time and note down the ideas you get during this elimination. Don’t eliminate your constraint from being there, to not being there in one step, reduce it gradually (if vacuum was the assumption, then assume vacuum available only for one minute in twenty four hours, if it can’t work out, then say it is only available in the closed environment, then, only if there is no way to create the vacuum where your solution will play; then say vacuum is not available).

Reduce the insanity in your solution only when you and your team give up on that particular insanity! Check out if the ideas, the arguments you had during this time are useful to you, if it is, then put it back in your acknowledged path of getting to a solution.

Let’s try an example. A new axe design is required, an axe should be heavy so it can create impact, and light so it is easy to handle. In other words we have contradicting requirements - Axe should be both heavy and light!

What could be insane to think while designing the new axe?

1) Keep on increasing the length of the handle, till the swing provides the desired impact.

2) Make the iron weigh nothing during the swing, but make it heavy when near to the impact.

3) Have an axe filled with heavy liquid, which moved towards the head at the time of impact.

4) One impact creates a ripple of impacts automatically.

5) Grow pre-cut trees, so the axe itself is not needed.

6) The handle does not cut the wood, get rid of the handle.

We do not know what went in the minds of innovator for this new design. But after a few iterations of working backwards, a new axe was designed which sort of achieved both the results of being heavy and light simultaneously.

The center of gravity was moved towards the head by reducing the weight of the handle. Now the axe has more impact and due to hollow handle overall weight of the axe is reduced.

Insane thinking by sane people can lead to a long tail within, and to a desired solution. Give it a try.