Posts Tagged ‘method’

Six Serving Men – problem analysis technique

Friday, April 16th, 2010

This problem analysis method examines an issue from twelve different viewpoints.  It is based on the words of the poem by Rudyard Kipling:

I keep six honest serving men, they taught me all I knew.

Their names are What and Why and When

and How and Where and Who.

We probe the topic using these questioning words from a positive and negative perspective.  The issue is defined as a question and then 12 sheets of flip chart paper are arranged around the room.  On each sheet one of the 12 questions is written as the heading and the team then comes up with answers to that question.  Suppose the issue is, ‘How can we improve customer service in our retail centres?’   The questions could be constructed as follows:

1. What is good customer service?

2. What is not good customer service?  (Or what is bad customer service?)

3. Why do we get good customer services?

4. Why do we get bad customer service?

5. When is there good customer service?

6. When is there bad customer service?

7. How do we get good customer service?

8. How do we get bad customer service?

9. Where is there good customer service?

10. Where is there bad customer service?

11. Who gives good customer service?

12. Who gives poor customer service?

By repeatedly approaching the questions of good service and bad service and by forcing people to come up with new answers and inputs a broad picture is painted of the issue and the underlying factors.  The ideas on the sheets are analyzed, prioritized and combined to give a deeper understanding of the problem and some insights as to why it is happening.  These ideas then become the starting point for a plan to address the issue.

Paul Sloane

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Freewriting – a method for unblocking creativity

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Freewriting is a personal creativity technique that is particularly useful when you have hit a mental roadblock.  You simply write the challenge or topic at the top of a large piece of paper and then start writing.  You can write anything related to the topic.  Here are the rules of freewriting as given by Natalie Goldberg: 

  • Give yourself a time limit. Write for ten minutes say, and then stop.
  • Keep your hand moving until the time is up.  Do not pause to stare into space or to read what you’ve written. Write quickly but not in a hurry.
  • Pay no attention to grammar, spelling, punctuation, neatness, or style. Nobody else needs to read what you produce here. The correctness and quality of what you write do not matter; the act of writing does.
  • If you get off the topic or run out of ideas, keep writing anyway. If necessary, write nonsense or whatever comes into your head, or simply scribble anything to keep the hand moving.
  • If you feel bored or uncomfortable as you’re writing, ask yourself what’s bothering you and write about that.
  • When the time is up, look over what you’ve written, and mark passages that contain ideas or phrases that might be worth keeping or elaborating on in a subsequent free-writing session.  

The idea is that the process overcomes apathy, fear, hesitation and other blocks to creation and action.  Once you have reached your time limit, read over what you have written and circle any points of interest.  You can use these as starting points for action, for brainstorming or for further freewriting.  Although this is designed as an individual activity it can be done in groups with people sharing the key points after an agreed time.  Once again the most important thing is that everyone keeps writing.

Paul Sloane

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SCAMPER – a powerful product innovation tool

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

One of the methods I teach on my Ideas Workshops is SCAMPER.  It is a productive and versatile technique for examining a product or service from differing angles and for generating plenty of strongly innovative ideas.  SCAMPER is an acronym and you ask the following types of question when you use this tool:

  • SUBSTITUTE – What elements of this product or service can we substitute?
  • COMBINE – How can we combine this with other products or services?
  • ADAPT – What can we alter or adapt it?
  • MAXIMISE OR MINIMISE – How can we greatly enlarge or greatly reduce any component?
  • PUT TO OTHER USE – What completely different use can we have for our product?
  • ELIMINATE – What elements of the product or service can be eliminated?
  • REARRANGE OR REVERSE – How can we rearrange the product or reverse the process?

Now I have found a site which enhances the tool and offers a range of supplementary resources.  Luciano Passuello has posted a blog on SCAMPER together with a SCAMPER random question generator and a SCAMPER mindmap.  If you want to use this tool in your next brainstorm meeting then these resources are highly recommended.

Paul Sloane

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Sports and Innovation

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

Watching the Olympics leads me to comment on the lessons that sport has for business.  I believe that the benefits of sporting lessons for business are exaggerated.  Business success is based on more than motivation, discipline and hard work.  It depends heavily on innovation – and sport is a very poor guide to that.  In sport the rules are clearly defined and everyone has to conform to them.  In business every assumption and rule can be challenged. Organisations must be prepared to change everything including their fundamental business model.  Sporting coaches cannot help here.  Creativity, lateral thinking and innovative leadership are needed.

Of course there are innovations in sporting methods but compared to the pace of change in business they are tiny.  There is little real innovation in top level sport – mainly because the rules are so stringent. The Fosbury flop is a true example of lateral thinking and an entirely new approach.  But it is 40 years since Dick Fosbury came up with it and there have been precious few similar examples since.  What creativity can a 400 metre runner really show?  Sure he can train differently but this is not radical innovation.  If you look at business you see innovative companies taking big risks with completely different models, methods, combinations and approaches.  Torvill and Dean doing a different ice dance is creative but it is not in the same league as the Nintendo Wii. If T & D tried anything really innovative, like jet powered skates, the judges would ban it. But you can try just about anything in business and that is the crucial difference.  Sports can teach us about mental toughness, goals, belief, handling pressure, motivation and concentration.  In other words mostly left brain disciplines.  If you want to develop right brain skills in creativity, lateral thinking and innovation then look to the arts, theatre even warfare – but not sport.

The 100m race is essentially exactly the same event now as it was 50 years ago. Golf has hardly changed. If you took Arnold Palmer or Sam Snead or Bobby Jones and put them into a golf tournament today they would be completely at home. Similary Lew Hoad or Fred Perry could compete at Wimbledon.  The standard would be higher but the only significant innovation they would notice would be the tiebreaker.  Now think about taking a businessman from the 1950s and dropping him into business today.  He would be amazed at how everything had changed and he would struggle to cope. Business faces innovation challenges every day and has to adapt, learn and innovate to survive.  Most sports are frozen in one mode which essentially changes very little. Sport is artificially constrained by rules that make it easy to understand for spectators, officials and participants.  Business is real life where all bets are off and anything can happen. That is the difference and that is why sport has little to teach us about the most important aspect of business today – innovation.

Paul Sloane

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Book Review – The Future of Management

Monday, August 11th, 2008

In this significant new work, Gary Hamel challenges our thinking about management.  He argues that the management methods used in most organisations are relics of systems designed over 100 years ago to control and command.  They are inappropriate, inadequate and obstructive for knowledge-based 21st century organisations that want to be agile and innovative.  He gives detailed case studies of companies that use new and advanced management methods.  In particular he describes Whole Foods, W L Gore and Google.  He advises that we completely replace conventional systems of management with a much more democratic and empowered environment where people can take responsibility for their own decisions and express their creativity in a trusted community.  He gives Web 2.0 as the model for the new world of management – powerful peer networks. 

His writing style is excellent – intelligent, articulate and stimulating.  His examples are very useful for putting the points into context.  The Future of Management will challenge your thinking and ask you some uncomfortable questions.  It is highly recommended.

Click here for a full list of my recommended books on Innovation, Leadership and Creativity.

Paul Sloane

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