Innovations promote corporate success

The advantages and disadvantages of group work can be here as PDF download

Creativity techniques

There are over 100 creativity techniques in existence worldwide that can be used to generate ideas, with some of the methods differing only by minor variations. If you want to use creativity techniques, start with techniques such as brainstorming, the 635 method or stimulus word analysis. The more often creativity techniques are used, the better the results achieved. Regular use of the techniques promotes the development of creative thinking skills and can thus, in a positive sense, become routine.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a method of creative thinking and is used to find solutions to almost all types of problems. The knowledge of several people is used to solve the problem, so that synergy effects are created here. You start with the problem analysis, from which a question is derived. Thought-psychological blockades are switched off and the subconscious is activated so that fantasies can develop freely. After a first collection, the "raw protocol" is revised together, ideas are concretized and unrealistic ideas are sorted out. The group work ends with the implementation. Five to seven participants with different knowledge and experience are optimal. If possible, no superiors should participate in a meeting. They influence and block the free flow of ideas, consciously or unconsciously. Use a moderator.

635 method

In the 635 method, ideas from other participants are taken up and developed further. This leads to an improvement in the quality of ideas. The area of application is almost unlimited and particularly suitable for clearly defined issues. The synergy potential is particularly high, as the focus is on the further development of other ideas.

It starts with six people writing down ideas about the problem they are looking for on forms with six rows, three columns and within five minutes (hence the 635 method). Then the forms are passed on in a clockwise direction. In five minutes each, everyone adds to and varies the previous idea. After 30 minutes, the round is completed and the ideas can be evaluated by the participants together. In this way, a reduction to the most suitable ideas is made. The (target) number of participants for this method is six, but it can also be carried out with fewer participants.

Mindmapping

Mindmapping activates the pictorial-spatial thinking ability and thus enables a new way of looking at a problem. The topic is mapped in a structure and can be restructured as desired. Essential points are worked out, new connections are made and secondary aspects are illuminated. The structure remains open and can thus be supplemented at any time.

A large sheet of paper and different colored pens are needed as working materials. The central concept is written in the center of the sheet. New ideas, which are arranged radially around the initial idea in the center, form paths and chains of associations. This reveals connections that can be discussed and prioritized. Mindmapping can be developed alone but also in a small group, for example on a flipchart.

Thinking Hats according to de Bono (Six Thinking Hats)

The six-hats method offers another way to improve meetings and structure thought processes. This method uses hats, with each hat having a different color, each representing a specific role:

• Weiss: Analytical thinking - Focus on facts and requirements, achieve goals
• Red: Emotional thinking and feeling - Focus on feelings and opinions, in need of harmony
• Black: Critical thinking - Worry about the future, anxious, looking for problems and negative aspects
• Yellow: Optimistic thinking - What is the best-case scenario? Counterpoint to the black hat
• Green: Creative, innovative and unconventional thinking - new ideas, creativity, practice is in the foreground
• Blue: Ordering, moderating thinking - Maintains an overview of the processes and sees himself as a moderator

Participants take turns assuming each of the aforementioned roles, arguing and expressing their ideas according to their respective roles. Parallel thinking sets in. Conflicts are avoided by each participant taking each role and yet all positions are considered.

Thinking Chairs

The Walt Disney method of thinking chairs consists of three roles, with the same approach as the six-hats method:

• The dreamer thinks in images, subjectively oriented and enthusiastic, is open to others' visions and is not constrained by rules.
• The realizer takes a pragmatic-practical point of view, thinks about what to do and what is needed for it. He tries out the dreamer's ideas before they are criticized.
• The critic challenges and checks specifications of others, the goal is constructive and positive criticism, asks what has been overlooked and where the risks lie.

By putting oneself in a situation, person or role, a problem is seen from different perspectives. This creates a playful approach to ideas and an expansion of the radius of ideas through projection onto certain roles or viewpoints. Both the thinking hats method and the thinking chairs method offer the following benefits:

• Creating distance from the problem
• Capture multiple perspectives
• Resolving tensions, preventing positional battles and confrontations through anonymity
• High acceptance of the result

An essential element for the successful collection of ideas is putting them in writing. A lack of minutes can have a negative impact on the motivation of the participants as well as on the evaluation of the ideas. Therefore, the following points must be observed:

• The minutes are to be kept in public, all ideas are to be written down on the flipchart, made visible in the form of cards or visualized with a laptop and beamer.
• Errors can creep in through abbreviation or through incorrect interpretation of the ideas. Therefore, the formulation should always be approved by the idea provider.
• When summarizing to a generic term, there is a danger that original ideas will be lost. The concrete identification of ideas must not suffer as a result of keyword-like logging.
• All ideas must be written down, there must be no filtering or evaluation by the recorder or moderator.

Creativity techniques can be used to generate ideas that can then be developed into innovations. Case studies have shown that successful creative companies do not use just one measure to increase creativity, but rather a mix. Incidentally, training courses for creativity techniques are also part of this mix.