creating

great ideas
a seven step plan
 Professor Dominic Swords
Henley Business School

Having spent months analysing how the world’s most innovative firms create great ideas,
Professor Swords has taken all these secrets, from firms like 3M, Diageo, Bupa and
Orange, and distilled them into this seven step guide to help you generate great ideas.
 step 1
Be clear about what you want to achieve
For example,
do you want to...

Keep ideas focused Develop new products?

To do this, identify what Identify new export markets?
you want the ideas to do. Cut costs?

top tip
write a brief
Don’t do anything until you can write the ideas generation brief
down in one sentence and the project leader is in agreement.

Don’t spend ages drafting a hugely no written? yes

detailed brief – a single sentence will do.

Stick to Facebook’s mantra:

“Move fast and break things”
 step 2 ask individuals
Research proves that individuals come up with
Ask individuals to come up with ideas
better ideas than groups, therefore send your
one-sentence brief to four or five employees.

30 minutes
Ask them to spend no more
than 30 minutes coming up
with their own ideas.

When asking employees for ideas, some

firms choose more creative routes than
the standard email or suggestions box.

top tip
Engagement
To engrain the ideas generation culture, For example
ask employees to keep an ideas journal. Entrepreneur Sir Eric
The journal could record ideas they’ve Peacock, founder of Babygro,
had or simply collate interesting articles installed video camera booths
which inspire ideas. Free note taking in the office, encouraging
apps, like Evernote, can simplify the employees to comment on
process of recording ideas by saving business ideas.
photos, text and webpages easily.
 step 3
Prepare for group-think
Set a date for the employees As the facilitator you need
to feedback their ideas in a to invite additional team
group environment. members to take part.

top tip
Diversity
Invite a special guest from outside your organisation
to take part and provide first-hand insights. For
example, if you are coming up with new product Research has shown Ensure you have a mix of
ideas for plumbers, ask a friendly plumber to take mornings are often best. personalities and experience.
part in your ideas generation session.

Choose you participants wisely.

top tip Involving senior employees means

they more likely to buy-into the ideas
Energy and projects that come from it.
Take participants out of their normal environment –
breaking the daily routine can be crucial if you want
ideas which break the mould.
60:05 =
For example, if you’re looking to win business from
an international chain of coffee shops, why not host
the session in one of its coffee shops? Recently 3M 60:00
hosted an ideas generation session on the London
Eye, giving them a different perspective, away from To keep participants focused,
the usual office environment. ensure each session lasts no
longer than 60 minutes.
step 4
Bring the group together and share

Engagement
To break the ice and
Once in a group, restate the stimulate the discussion.
brief and give each person
a chance to contribute their
two or three best ideas.

Keep track of the ideas on a whiteboard

or notepad and keep checking
them against the brief to ensure the
discussion stays on track.

top tip

target audience Notice who is contributing.

Ask each participant to imagine they are the
target audience when giving feedback.
For example, if you are coming
up with new product ideas for
plumbers, your participants
should pretend they are plumbers
hearing the ideas for the first time.
Watch for the ‘quiet reflector’
scribbling ideas on his or
her notepad. Ask them what
they are thinking – they
might well be about to have
a major breakthrough.
 step 5 top tip
Build on the best ideas

Crash test your ideas. Set up specific rooms to build up and

breakdown ideas. When coming up with ideas, Walt Disney

YES
set up three distinct rooms. One to create the most fantastical
ideas he could, the second to re-examine those ideas from a

YES
Encourage participants to say
“yes, and…” to build on each idea.
practical point of view and the third to shoot holes in the ideas
he came up with. The software firm Autonomy does the same,
it has a ‘yes room’ and a ‘no room’ to rigorously develop and
test its ideas. It is at this point that you can employ the “yes,
but” technique productively.

YES
YES
Work on one idea at a time.
Get the group to develop it
into a testable idea that can
be handed over to a work
yellow card red card
team to develop.

the “yes, but...” buster

Energy
Using a yellow and red card system. Anyone YES, YES,
that says “yes, but” gets a yellow card. Do it BUT BUT
again, and they get a red card which means YES YES
they have to go and make the coffee.
step 6
Agree an ideas shortlist

Get your participants to nominate the Give each person some sticky
ideas which best fit the objectives. notes and 100 points.

They then have five minutes to

award their points by writing a score
on the sticky notes and putting them
against the ideas on a whiteboard.

The scores will rank the ideas and

help pick a winner.

top tip
If constructed well the session will contain people
with different views, perspectives, backgrounds
and experience. They are more likely than most
individuals working on their own to spot links
between different markets, technologies or consumer
and business trends.
Diversity
The benefit of the group is in its diversity and
ability to connect the unlinked to create new
ideas. The group is not a good place to create
detailed plans of action. This ideas generation
process is designed for quantity not quality.
step 7
Make it real
Make sure all ideas are allocated to specific
people or teams who will take them to the
next stage and make them a reality.
top tip
At the end of the ideas session,
review how it worked. Why did
it work well and what hindered
progress? Learn from the
experience and aim to do it
better the next time.
Continue to develop the ideas by testing them
out on the audience they are designed for. Watch
how they react and ask for their feedback.
Rank them and use these as part of
the decision making process:
what is the size of the benefit?
how long does it take to realise?
Set a deadline to review the ideas. Identify the what will it take to make it happen?
business benefits each idea will generate and
how well it will fit into the business plan.
Keep an open mind
An idea might have applications you haven’t considered.
top tip - Johannes Gutenberg took the wine press and
developed a printing machine
Don’t lose any ideas. - The founders of Google turned a way of ranking
Keep a log and review academic papers into an algorithm to search the internet
it every quarter.