Updated: Apr 16, 2022
Top 5 thinking style’s to help your team become better innovatr’s & when to use them
By Richard Lawrence, Tiger Brands Group Innovation Director; Innovatr Founder
How often have you got to an ideation day and someone in the group diminishes creative thinking?
Or you present your innovation Idea to a senior executive for builds & they shut down the idea immediately without exploring it fully?
Or my worst, the opposite when you are looking for a decision from an executive- and they get ‘all creative’ and take your idea into an unnecessary direction or worse backwards.
These are symptoms of not knowing the right mindset your team should be in at each phase of a project.
A wise Innovation coach Matthew Cushen from Uprising Consulting, taught me these 5 Innovation thinking styles & when to use them.
Since then, I still use them & quote them to my team’s even if they sound a bit cheesy
– who doesn’t like a smart, metaphoric type quote to help explain a difficult team situation.
1. Reductive vs. Expansive thinking
Reductive vs. Expansive thinking (NOT &) doesn’t work well at the same time – and can be damaging when mixed-together and will likely cause tension and team stress.
When you are in the earlier phase of the innovation journey (purpose mapping, immersion’s or ideation) it helps to signal when you want your team to be expansive & look for options & build on each-others idea for more possibilities.
Language such as “How would you build on this idea” or using props such as a more playful environment or colorful stationary help expansive thinking.
Reductive thinking is important for when making decisions when in the innovation phases such as (Problem articulation, Idea prioritization, Research, Commercialization & Pitching) and using language such as “What do you think of this idea?” elicits judgement or opting for board-room settings works better.
2. Greenhouse
When in the expansive phases it helps to Greenhouse as no idea is fully formed- so let it grow & motivate your team to water an idea until it grows or fully forms.
Three Greenhousing tips I love using the SUN method:
S: Suspend Judgement
U: Understand them
N: Nurture their thinking
Greenhousing is essential to give options to choose from, grow a culture of collaboration & encouragement.
TOP TIP:
Remember to pause & use SUN which will radically improve the way people value your ideas & improve how your teams collaborate
3. Be Brave
Staying in the same place in today’s changing world is going backwards.
Innovation relies on getting out of the way of our normal ways of operating, it forces us to challenge the status quo, asks difficult questions & giving yourself the freedom to explore something without immediately knowing the answer.
Be comfortably lost. Embrace uncertainty with a plan.
TOP TIPS:
Share your struggles with others frequently
Practice being brave, make a habit of it- it will then get easier
Reframe failure as learning or experiments
Focus on Purpose overly purely Profit
4. Be Curious
Be that nosey neighbor, to the point of being annoying.
Move from someone who asks what or how to forcing yourself to ask WHY?
Be deeply empathetic with the world and document things that frustrate you.
I love to take notes of things that I find I struggle with in my day- and tend to find if I think about them often enough they are an itch that should be scratched – which really is what innovation can become.
5. Trust your Gut
Intuition is the faster part of your brain telling you something.
Your instinctual gut guiding you where you should explore & go deeper into something
– and most importantly the voice that tells you to ask, “Why?”
Strong intuition can spot moments of contradictions, or tensions where logic or words don’t match how someone is expressing themselves or an action is being played out.
If it doesn’t feel right, then let your intuition guide you.
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