Making it stick!

Definition of Innovation

Identify – creatively working out what the

challenge is and spending time on this to make sure
you don’t waste time further down the line. Use the
4 definition tools to help you

Insight – challenging yourself to understand your

customer (whether internal or consumer). Spend
time with them and push yourself to go to new
places to get more clues around your challenge.

Ideas – using your time productively to have

ideas. Use all the tools in your belt!

Impact – Making the ideas real and getting people

excited about them, then getting them out into the
world

Think of innovation as an engine; creativity is the

oil that makes it work smoothly.
Definition of Creativity

• Creativity is too often thought of as being

the preserve of ‘creative people’. We are all
responsible for looking at how we can do
things differently to make a positive
difference – this is creativity.

• Innovation and creativity should not be

restricted to the big things – we need to get
into the habit of doing things in new ways
to make a positive impact in everything we
do – whether it’s in the way we run
meetings or launch a new service.

• Every element of innovation is fuelled by

creativity. If we want to have better ideas
then we must be prepared to look in
different places/ways for areas of
opportunity – and you need to be creative in
the way you make them happen.
Key Behaviours
Greenhousing – is about building and nurturing new ideas until they’re well
enough developed to be evaluated. When an idea is first born you don’t know
whether it’s going to be good or bad. You need to let them grow then you can
judge them.

Top tip:
• 3 steps to help you greenhouse

Suspend
Understand
Nurture

Signalling – is about letting others know how you want them to be

at any given moment . This is important because greenhousing won’t
happen if someone in the group is judging and being analytical.
To get the most from others you need to let them know how you want
them to be.
Top tips:
• You can use physical signals to indicate how you want people
to behave in a meeting (Coors Brewers use Red and Yellow
cards, One of our inventors uses a Gorilla mask!)
• Use verbal signals to get the most out of your interactions
with others. Asking someone to help you ‘build’ an idea than
asking them what they ‘think’ of an idea makes a big
difference.
This is the journey you went on…

IDENTIFY PROJECT COLLECT HAVE HUNCHES &

BRIEF DATA/CLUES EXPLORE

HAVE IDEAS OFF CRAFT INSIGHT

PLATFORMS PLATFORM/ SPOT THEMES
OPPORTUNITY COMING THROUGH
AREAS

CHOOSE BEST
IDEAS, BUILD
FURTHER AND MAKE
REAL

COMMUNICATE
TO OTHERS
 TOOLS FOR
IDENTIFYING YOUR
CHALLENGE
WINDOWS OF
WISDOM
This is a simple questioning
tool to make sure you have
asked all the questions upfront

•In covering the four areas

(Context, Constraints, Politics and
Vision of Success) you’ll get a
greater understanding of the brief
and the problem owner.

•You can also use this on yourself

to make sure you’ve given the
project team all the info they need
to do the best job they can.
 ROPE OF SCOPE
• You are walking away PRINCIPLES of what is IN and
OUT of SCOPE.
• Step 1: come up with some ideas so that the problem
owner has something tangible to react against (make
sure there are a range of ideas from those you think
will be in-scope to those that you think are completely
out-of-scope)

• Step 2: Signal to the problem owner that you are still

exploring the brief and it’s boundaries and that the
ideas are to generate a reaction to you can gather
principles

• Step 3: Present the ideas (one at a time) and ask if it

is in or out of scope
• Step 4: Ask WHY? The tool is no use to you if all you
know if whether the ideas are in/out – you need to
find out WHY

TOP TIPS:

• Don’t get attached to your ideas – they are simply

tools to explore the boundary!
• Really push yourself on the ideas to present

• The aim is not to try and get everything in-scope. Out-

of-scope ideas often give you the best principles
FUNNEL OF FOCUS
This tool helps you explore the brief
to make sure it’s at the right level

The funnel examines a number of

definitions at varying levels and
offers a menu of alternative project
briefs

• Place your brief on the funnel then play

around with it – broaden the brief and
narrow it.

•To broaden the brief ask WHY?

• To narrow the brief ask HOW?

• Do this with the problem owner.

• Ideally you should have enough breadth
for creative exploration, but not so much
that it is difficult to gain focus.
British Airways
first class seats
example
RE-EXPRESSION

• After you have explored the brief use this

tool to get the team aligned and excited
about working on the project.
THE INSIGHT PROCESS
THE INSIGHT PROCESS
IN A NUTSHELL Clues
What have I seen, heard, read?
Absolute fact. Include context /
source. A5 (small) paper

Hunches
Why might they be doing that?
Interpretations or possible reasons
why this might be going on.
A4 (medium) paper

Themes
Clusters of hunches that emerge as
themes.
A3 (large) paper

Opportunity Areas
How can we use this for our
business?
Look at the theme and ask, so what
does it mean for our business?
Insightful Behaviours
Spotting insights is a very human skill. Insightfulness is about getting under the skin of
the issue and finding the ‘sweet spot’. Our natural human behaviours of curiosity,
intuition and playfulness are essential to compliment your existing DATA capture.
The Insight Process: Clue Hunting
The ‘Clue wheel’ is a tool that helps us to plan where we could look and how we can approach people. By
collecting a breadth and depth of clues, go where your competitors cannot or will not go!

Outside of circle – relationship with consumer

Be them – get into their world. Find out what they say and do in
their real life. Go where they go, do the things they do, read what
they read, watch what they watch.
With them – talk directly with the target market. Focus groups,
face-to-face. What do they do/believe? Do things with them - what
they say they do can be very different from what they actually do.
About them – talk to people who know or have a relationship with
the consumer group. This gives you a different perspective or an
expert opinion.

Inside circle – consumers’ relationship with the issue/product

Normal – people who have a normal relationship with your issue /

product etc.
Deeper – stronger than normal relationship, heightened connection
with the issue. Deeper emotional connection, bigger part of their
lives.
Weird – Completely different angle or view on the issue.
Strange/unusual relationship. Not representative of typical consumer
group.
HAVING IDEAS
 Ideas: Productive Idea capture
We often find that the ‘traditional’ way of capturing ideas
- lots of people around a big table shouting out words to
a person who captures them on a flip chart – is not very
productive. The result is a list of thoughts –
undeveloped ideas that you can’t ‘do’.
There is a much more productive way of capturing ideas
that helps to encourage the right creative behaviours and
produces a stack of ideas that are formed well enough
for you to later judge and implement…
More Behaviours
Playfulness – your brain works most effectively when
you relax and allow your self to access the stimulus in your
subconscious.
Our brain function is 12% conscious and 88% subconscious
and how we access the information in our subconscious
depends on the brain-state we’re in. Playfulness helps us
get into the right brain-state to access the subconscious
Top Tip:
It doesn’t have to be high energy – everyone has their own
version of playfulness.

Freshness - is all about seeking new experiences and

perspectives. New perspectives help us make new creative
connections.
This can be done in two ways.
Ongoing Freshness is a personal behaviour that you can model in
everything you do; listening to different radio channels, reading
random magazines, seeking new physical experiences, etc. In so
doing you will top up your subconscious brain with lots of stimulus
which one day may help you approach problems from a different
perspective.
Deliberate Freshness is what’s needed in ideas sessions to help you
get out of your river of thinking and help to have new ideas. [see four
Rs].
 o ls to h el p y o u think
To
differently:

The Four Rs
The Four Rs: Revolution

It’s about breaking the rules and turning things on their head.
This is a great technique for exploring an entire issue or process at once.

1. List the rules. These have to be absolute

fact and not generalisations or assumptions.
E.g. In a bar you have to pay, you need to go
there…
2. Break the rules - e.g. What if you didn’t
have to pay? What if you have to pay €10,000
for a drink? What if you didn’t have to go
there?
You can break the rule by thinking of the
opposite, an exaggeration, or just make it
strange
3. Ask under what circumstances could we
make this happen. As soon as you have the
nub of an idea greenhouse!
4. Capture one idea at a time!
Related Worlds
Steal solutions from other places and apply the principles back to your issue.

Where else has a similar issue been solved?

1. Establish what the issue is you are trying to

solve, e.g. getting attention
2. Think of other places in the world where
that issue has been solved.
3. Dive into that world and talk about how they
solved the problem. If you don’t know do some
research or speak to a person from that world
(we call these people ‘naïve experts’)
4. Apply the principles back to your issue –
use this as stimulus to have ideas.

Top tip: a Naïve Expert is a great way to get rich

information about a new world. They are an expert
in their world but naïve to your problem – so keep
them that way. You want them to stay in their own
river!
Re-Expression
Use alternative words/metaphors, senses, perspectives to describe your issue.

1. Words/Metaphors: Use different

language to stimulate different
thinking – You’ve already done this
with your Re-expression – using
motivating language helps you get
to new ideas

2. Senses: We live in a world of

words! Experience the problem
using different senses smell, taste,
touch. Draw it…Act it out!

3. Perspectives: View the issue from

a different perspective – an alien, a
child, an inanimate object.
Random Links
Take completely random stimulus and force a connection to your
issue.

The two stages of this technique are:

1. Find a random piece of stimulus –

a picture card, an object, a word, a
piece of music – using a system to
ensure that it is truly random:
blindfold people and pick up the first
object, turn to page 17 and choose
the first word on the 4th row, 5 words
in.

2. Force a connection - allow your mind

licence to freely explore new
possibilities. Play around, dig deeper
and go beyond the obvious.
More top tips for ideas sessions
Know what you’re going to do with it and know how its going to work

Use all 4 Rs in the session, if time permits (this is what we call

STIMULUS!)

Appeal to all sensory styles – Verbal, Visual and Kinaesthetic

Never run out - prepare 25% more stimulus than you actually need

Don’t invest too much time in it – 1 hour session…20 mins on stimulus,

40 mins on ideas…don’t forget to come back to having ideas

Use one piece of stimulus at a time

If the stimulus is not working, throw it away and start with something
new

Clearly define the 2 stages. People should know what they are doing
when. Use clear signalling between each stage:
Engaging in stimulus,
Having ideas
 IMPACT
Top Tips

• Keep the team consistent: Try to have a consistency of team owning the ideas - this
will ensure the DNA does not get lost
• Plan for barriers: there’s bound to be some stuff that gets in the way of your end goal.
But if you identify likely barriers upfront and plan how to get around them, you’re less
likely to be derailed when they occur.

Passionometer

• Create a gallery of ideas and view them as a

group
• If any of the ideas are not clear ask people to
add the missing detail
• Ask the group to cast their vote based on their
passion NB - a heart tool, not scientific, so
base it on what you know and feel about your
issue, customers, business etc. Be open to
other ideas, not just your own.
IMPACT

Idea DNA

• Once you have harvested your

ideas to the required number, get
the team to think about what is
crucial to the idea, i.e what is at
the heart of it, that if it is lost will
mean that the idea will fail, and
what you could compromise on in
order to ensure the idea is
launched.

• Do in pairs or small teams as

part of a pro forma and share back
with the rest of the group
IMPACT
Stargazer

• You can do this on every idea, or just

with those that have passion votes –
take a call with the team and the time
you have.
• This is all about rating ideas against
criteria from the identify phase. These
will be the key factors you need to
consider – might come from WOW or
ROS. Top 4 or 5 criteria only.
• Each criteria is the arm of a star. Give
each idea a score along the arm, so
you get a shape that shows you how
well rounded that idea is.
• Once you’ve got your scores, select the
ideas you want to take forward,
remembering that if an idea with lots
of passion is weak on some criteria
then you need to go back to it and give
a creative push. Greenhouse the
challenges and recapture the idea.
Behaviours
Realness - when you have an idea, don’t sit around talking
about it – make it real!

Ideas communicated through words in a power-point often don’t

communicate the excitement or power of the idea. Bring ideas to
life by appealing to all 3 learning styles – Verbal, Visual and
Kinaesthetic.

People naturally build on ideas when they can see what they look
like – prototypes encourage people to help you make your ideas
better.

Top tips:

•Make an idea real quickly, learn from the exercise and now
improve on it – stay in the realness loop!
•Be ‘Blue Peter’ when you make your ideas real, it’s not about
making them look polished

•You can bring make any idea real – whether it’s a product,
service or process.
Behaviours
Bravery - The very nature of creativity and
innovation means that you are trying out new things
which generally requires bravery.

Top Tips:

Always stretch your comfort zone, what is brave for

one person, might be everyday for another – the key is
keep pushing yourself

Have conviction and visualise positive outcomes

Find friends who will support you, and engineer the

positive experiences that build confidence before
taking on the world.