I used to work at IBM, which used to have "Think Fridays"- you were supposed to use Friday afternoons for creative purposes.<p>Patents at IBM are very easy to submit and the process is somewhat like a game: basically you fill out a web form with the idea, which triggers a process to vet the idea and eventually get the patent written and filed if it's good. You get a small bonus for each accepted patent (and another after filing I think). You get a larger bonus after your first patent and after every fourth patent (called a plateau). You get a nice plaque for each plateau.<p>I have eight patents from this system, but there are IBMers who use it to enhance their income and have 100s of patents (they have a large stack of plaques). They have the discipline to use every Think Friday to come up with and submit a new idea- maybe one out of three will make it all the way through and be filed. Some form brainstorming groups. They often pay attention to new technologies and get ideas from how they could be used as components. Many ideas come from the interaction of components. (Many of mine are from hardware/software interfaces).
Thanks for sharing this. I read this around when it came out, but giving it a second read has helped clarify some of my thinking.<p>Something I find helpful is to have sessions where the goal is to come up with the <i>worst idea</i> you can about a specific topic or problem. This can be for both fun or profit. The key benefit of this is really opening up the field for a free and open discussuion. When a friend and I did this recently (for fun, not profit) and asked ourselves what is the worst "uber for x" we could imagine, we came up with Stork: an app that matches children as they are born with optimal parents, exchanging newly-born babies if the naive approach, having your own kid, would be bad match based on measurable variables. This is an awful, awful idea. But is it the seed of something interesting in adoption, babysitting, matching children to the right school, helping small children who have difficulty making friends find them? Maybe.<p>I thing good ideas rarely become great ideas, whereas great ideas frequently have some seed of initially being horrible ideas contained within them, e.g. en app that lets you sleep in strangers' homes on air mattresses, sending dvds via usps in paper envelopes, etc.<p>Something else I frequently do is preface a wild idea with "This is a horrible idea, but: " which I find helps lead to an open discussion, without people feeling challenged, or overly seriously approaching a conversation that is meant to be open. It can help signal that you want their thoughts and comments, and aren't explicitly issuing a challenge, trying to have a debate, or making a statement you already believe to be true and they might feel obliged to disprove.
>But how to persuade creative people to do so? First and foremost, there must be ease, relaxation, and a general sense of permissiveness. The world in general disapproves of creativity, and to be creative in public is particularly bad. Even to speculate in public is rather worrisome. The individuals must, therefore, have the feeling that the others wont object.<p>Absolutely true. Brainstorming only works if anything goes.
If you work at or are otherwise involved in a startup, here is your key takeaway: <i>cross connections between fields is fundamental to creativity</i>. If you eat, breathe, and sleep software, you will only look at your problem space from the perspective of a software engineer. Startups already nail pre-requisites like informality, permissiveness, and relaxation
>My feeling is that as far as creativity is concerned, isolation is required.<p>And it isn't too hard to imagine, in this age of perpetual connectivity and distractions and mandatory use of a mobile phone (by social pressure), creativity has dwindled to almost nothing...
Actually, ideas often comes up when you do not seek them, during sleep, while driving, while meditate (although meditation is meant to help us managing our brains and thoughts), etc...<p>I tend to create into my calendar all these spaces to allow me to think about new ideas and to always have a pen or an iPhone to note everything I think about!<p>Individuals and Groups create value, make sure you create your value from your side.
His suggestions at the end for how to structure such a thing are glaringly similar to DnD. This is maybe why DnD remains so popular yet small and intimate.
Love the article but disagree on a couple points. First, the ideal is two where both are creative as they work off each other. You can NOT do the creative part with non creative it is too hard. Tons of miss understandings. If they talk about the session they will explain wrong and cause a lot of angst in the group, division, company, etc. Or explain but not provide the reasons as they might not understand the bigger picture.<p>A huge issue is if the creative person is not the boss or have very strong Influence it is very difficult to get a non creative on board.<p>With that said I really enjoyed the article. Plus would not be surprised if others disagree with me based on their own experiences. Think parts could be very individual and dependent on external factors.