Avoid the destructive editing trap!
The process of divergent thinking is more successful in a playful and open environment. The exploration and creation of new concepts that address unmet needs can bring many novel alternatives to the table. However filtering through all this newly generated brain food requires a more focused and serious environment.
It is often at this point when we deploy critical thinking skills and tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
We suggest that in this more serious convergence phase of the creative process it is important to remain highly collaborative and leverage one another’s ideas with an integrative mindset. This form of editing process can be a springboard to breakthrough innovations.
Here are three points to consider:
1) Your editing process needs to be robust enough and prevent over or underselling of team members ideas.
2) Bring the key value drivers for customers and the business to the forefront. Use that yardstick as a synergizing force for team members.
3) Assess all concepts relative to each other at the micro level (one value driver at a time). This way team members can acquire a deeper understanding of all available alternatives. This sometimes tedious process allows new and potentially more novel ideas to emerge naturally.
Next up from the Enders Group, New Concept Review Process – Three Virtual Rooms - a short missive including some questions leaders can ask to help their teams innovate and push through their breakthrough performance targets.
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