[Imagination Club] Challenge: In what ways might WE add value to the imagination club?

My Arabic Story myarabicstory at yahoo.ca
Fri Aug 3 11:03:07 GMT 2007 

Dear Andy, 

I have read your post several times in order to respond to your definition of innovation. I am far from being a scholar or even a research-type student. so I cannot negotiate on any terms with you and your expertise. However, as a note from someone just introduced to the creative problem solving techniques, I found that this is only one way of doing things (a very good way, but only one). and I think that innovation can go beyond CPS in terms of definitions. 

for example, I saw a documentary once on children's play in rural parts in Africa. lacking the resources and means to get toys, but not imaginations, they were able to construct very complicated 3D cars just from wires, along with a steering wheel, seats, and even an open in the ceiling (yes, it is all open, but that was a deliberate opening). for me, I think that is true innovation, coming from a 5 year old who has no clue of 3D technology or construction toys, yet no CPS was used. what do you think? 

my point is, why confine innovation to CPS?

many thanks
Randah


"Arthur VanGundy Ph.D." <avangundy at cox.net> wrote: Hello all,

I finally found some time to join in. I've been writing books and consulting in creative problem solving, creative thinking, and innovation for close to 30 years now. I've been at the University of Oklahoma as a Professor of Communication for almost 32 years and was an organizational consultant before that. I will retire from the university next May to pursue the on-the-side creativity consulting business I've had during this time.  


For starters, I will share my recently formulated definition of innovation for feedback:


"Innovation is an organizational change process involving the deliberate, strategic, and systematic application of the Creative Problem Solving process to create and sustain value for organizational stakeholders and consumers."Â 


(Consumers in the broad sense as receivers of some tangible or intangible benefit since not all organizations see themselves as having consumers in the commercial sense.)


I've specialized in designing and facilitating brainstorming retreats. My early books were mostly on idea generation methods. More recently I've shifted focus to the "fuzzy front end" of innovation and have become involved in how to reframe challenges for more productive ideation (I'll plug my most recent book here, "Getting to Innovation"). For a number of years, I've worked as the "CFO" ("Chief Framing Officer") for the Global Innovation Challenge (www.innovationchallenge.com) in which corporate sponsors submit challenges that I reframe based on my seven criteria and then, after sponsor buy-in, are submitted to international teams of business students to resolve.  (BTW, Jeffrey Baumgartner, as some in the club may know, has the capability and expertise for small to  large-scale idea competitions or just idea collecting and evaluating using his Jenni software.)


This club now seems to be in the perfectly natural condition of the fuzzy front end as we begin sorting out objectives and focus (Ansel Adams quote: "There is nothing worse than a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept.") So, ONE possible approach for the IC is to defer judgment and brainstorm a list of potential challenges of interest to the members, organize them by commonality, and then converge to decide where to go next, e.g., clusters of members (e.g., 5 to 10) might select specific challenges of interest to them, work on them together, and then share results with the larger group in the club. OR, something similar. Problem solving research shows that some agreed upon procedure is better than none at all, so just view this as one potential starting point.


An illustration would be Mica's case below in which he? (sorry for my lack of "name gender awareness") brings up several possible objectives that might be framed as, for example, those below (again, just listing and not advocating any at this point):


How might we encourage more innovation in our organization?
How might we encourage submission of creative ideas?
How might we create a culture supportive of innovation?
How might we create organization buy-in for an emphasis on innovation?
How might we stimulate social networking? (


The latter one could be viewed as a solution to the first four listed above. There is a fine line between solutions and problems as it is all relative, depending on desired levels of abstraction. I've also found that, in some complex situations with inter-related objectives and varying degrees of abstraction, that it can be helpful to creative visual concept maps (not mind mapping). I believe my original paper on this stuff is posted on Jeffrey's site, www.jpb.com.


OK, that's my two Euros worth (which is approximately two cents in the US!)


Arthur ("Andy") VanGundy  (I go by Andy, no, not logical, but creative--my mom did it :-))



On Jul 31, 2007, at 6:53 PM, Mica Julien wrote:

 Hi imagination club members,
 Â 
 I have been a little slow in putting down my ideas for vamping up adding value to the club. Paramount for me is to hear more stories from people about what has worked and what has not. What people are currently working on and how they are going about it - use it as a communities of practise.
 Â 
 OR we could choose a common issue that we are all grappling with and use our current practise/job/situation to apply agreed techniques, ideas etc and report on the results - ie 
 Â 
 I would love to join you for your get together in Belgium, but unfortunately I live in Brisbane Australia and a short trip to Belgium is out of the question just at the moment. 
 Â 
 To all those Aussies out there especially those in South East Queensland I would be interested in starting up our own local club - any takers?
 Â 
 As to ideas for the club overall I would love to hear more form those of you who provide - innovation advice and support to organisations - what does that mean, who do you target, how do you put something together, what tools do you use etc?
 Â 
 In my role I am responsible for supporting and encouraging innovation in my division. My thoughts on this so far have been to draft a framework/model for how it will work (very rational of me) just to give staff, mgt and the board a sense that there is some structure around it and to get support funding. The crux I believe is the culture of the organisation to accept, look for and encourage ideas and creative thought. So I am intending to work on developing, encouraging and supporting the creation of this type of culture. How I am not sure yet. But I know it will involve some level of social network stimulation and understanding. Has anyone heard of Dr Karen Stephensons work on social networks?
 Â 
 If any of you have any thoughts about this please I would love to hear them. 
 Â 
 Thank You
 Â 
 Mica Julien
Manager
Business Development and Innovation
cityWorks Business Unit
 Â 
 "Quality is not an act it is a habit" Aristotle
ph 3403 7011
fax 3403 7029
mob 0408 793 814
email mica.julien at brisbane.qld.gov.au


>>> jeffreyb at jpb.com 1/08/2007 3:05 am >>>

 Dear Mariana..

Thanks for your post and welcome to the Imagination Club! 
The Imagination Club is whatever you - and the rest of us - 
make it out to be. You can see some of the previous 
discussions in our archives at 
http://davie.textdrive.com/pipermail/imagine/

My original vision for the Imagination Club was to focus on 
business related creativity and innovation. But there are 
educators, students, managers of charities and all kinds of 
other people here who would like to see issues pertinent to 
their interests. 

The Imagination Club is an unfunded, unstructured and 
slightly anarchic place for playing with imagination, 
creativity and more. Unfortunately, most of us are busy 
with professional obligations, so  any thoughts about 
directions for the Imagination Club must be reasonable in 
terms of resources. 

One of the components of the Imagination Club which we are 
are working on here in Belgium is: local Imagination Clubs. 
These would be small groups either started as Imagination 
Clubs, or existing creativity groups that could associate 
with the on-line imagination club. I will have more news 
about local imagination clubs soon. I am working on a web 
site at www.imaginationclub.org.

I am thinking about forming a board of advisers - people 
who are keen on putting a little more time into the 
Imagination Club in order to help make it a better place. 

In the meantime, this latest challenge about adding value 
to the Imagination Club has been an exercise in learning 
more about your - and others' - thoughts on making the club 
a better place. 

One idea that has been repeated is the idea of turning the 
Imagination Club into a corporate think tank. That's an 
interesting thought and one to explore.

So, I've probably posed more questions than I have 
answered. When I have time, I am reviewing your ideas, my 
ideas and what is possible with no resources. 

So, keep your ideas coming. More from me soon!

Jeffrey Baumgartner
Your Fearless Moderator


On 31 Jul 2007 at 11:23, Cursos wrote:

> Hi to all!!!
> 
> I will briefly introduce myself. I am an Executive Advisor speciallized on innovation. I am hired by companies to help them think differently about an issue or problem they are facing and I conduct a lot of in company workshops to help employees develop an innovative behaviour.
> 
> This brief intro of myself is to tell you why I joined a couple weeks ago the imagination club, as I thought it was kind of a business think tank on different topics. Still I am not sure whether this is or not correct. So, my first question is what is the essence of the imagination club? What are we here for? 
> 
> I�ve read some mails asking for ideas to make the club more interesting but in order to come up with ideas I would like to first understand the basics!!! Sorry, I am new!
> 
> I also read about the barbeque in Belgium. I think that can be a great idea we can each develop in our markets. But the imagination club should have a mission and a clear objective. I am sure there is one, but I simply don�t know it! Can you please briefly tell me what is this about? What is the profile of the members, how many members there are? Is there anywhere I can look up this info? 
> 
> Sorry if my questions are too basic....
> 
> Best to all!
> 
> 
> Mariana Ferrari Quijano
> Executive Advisor 
> Especialista en Marketing, Estrategia e Innovaci�n
> +34 618 69 52 82
>Â Â  ----- Original Message ----- 
>Â Â  From: tousif baig 
>Â Â  To: Imagination Club 
>Â Â  Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 12:57 PM
>Â Â  Subject: Re: [Imagination Club] Challenge: In what ways might WE add value tothe imagination club?
> 
> 
>Â Â  i think there should be more quizes which require lateral thinking.
> 
> 
>Â Â  On 7/23/07, Jeffrey Baumgartner <jeffreyb at jpb.com> wrote: 
>Â Â Â Â  Dear Creative Thinkers..
> 
>Â Â Â Â  It's getting quiet around here. So here's a new challenge..
> 
>Â Â Â Â  "In what ways might WE add value to the Imagination Club?"
> 
>Â Â Â Â  You will have noticed that I have emphasised WE. That's
>Â Â Â Â  because I want YOU to think about ideas that YOU or WE as a
>Â Â Â Â  group can do to add value to the Imagination Club. The 
>Â Â Â Â  Imagination Club is something I manage in my free time and
>Â Â Â Â  with essentially no budget. So ideas that involve lots of
>Â Â Â Â  my time and/or lots of money (unless you want to provide
>Â Â Â Â  it!) are great, but not realistic. 
> 
>Â Â Â Â  On the other hand, actions that you, I and others can take
>Â Â Â Â  to make the Imagination Club a better place are more
>Â Â Â Â  collaborative, more fun for all and more sustainable.
> 
>Â Â Â Â  So think away and share your ideas! (By the way, I do have 
>Â Â Â Â  some expansion plans under way for the on-line imagination
>Â Â Â Â  club and local imagination clubs - more about that soon.)
> 
>Â Â Â Â  Jeffrey Baumgartner
>Â Â Â Â  Your Fearless Moderator
>Â Â Â Â  --
>Â Â Â Â  jpb.com 
>Â Â Â Â  Think more creatively ~ innovate more profitably
>Â Â Â Â  http://www.jpb.com | Tel: +32 2 251 7725
> 
> 
>Â Â Â Â  _______________________________________________
>Â Â Â Â  Imagination Club is an e-mail based discussion forum for playing with ideas. 
> 
>Â Â Â Â  You can read the Imagination Club archives at http://davie.textdrive.com/pipermail/imagine/
> 
>     To unsubscribe,  send an e-mail to imagine-request at lists.supertrade.com with unsubscribe in the message subject; or go to http://lists.supertrade.com/mailman/listinfo/imagine
> 
>Â Â Â Â  For more information, visit http://www.jpb.com/imagination/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
>Â Â  _______________________________________________
>Â Â  Imagination Club is an e-mail based discussion forum for playing with ideas.
> 
>Â Â  You can read the Imagination Club archives at http://davie.textdrive.com/pipermail/imagine/
> 
>   To unsubscribe,  send an e-mail to imagine-request at lists.supertrade.com with unsubscribe in the message subject; or go to http://lists.supertrade.com/mailman/listinfo/imagine
> 
>Â Â  For more information, visit http://www.jpb.com/imagination/

--
jpb.com
Think more creatively ~ innovate more profitably
http://www.jpb.com | Tel: +32 2 251 7725


_______________________________________________
Imagination Club is an e-mail based discussion forum for playing with ideas.

You can read the Imagination Club archives at http://davie.textdrive.com/pipermail/imagine/

To unsubscribe,  send an e-mail to imagine-request at lists.supertrade.com with unsubscribe in the message subject; or go to http://lists.supertrade.com/mailman/listinfo/imagine

For more information, visit http://www.jpb.com/imagination/

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_______________________________________________
Imagination Club is an e-mail based discussion forum for playing with ideas.


You can read the Imagination Club archives at http://davie.textdrive.com/pipermail/imagine/


To unsubscribe,  send an e-mail to imagine-request at lists.supertrade.com with unsubscribe in the message subject; or go to http://lists.supertrade.com/mailman/listinfo/imagine


For more information, visit http://www.jpb.com/imagination/
 


_______________________________________________
Imagination Club is an e-mail based discussion forum for playing with ideas.

You can read the Imagination Club archives at http://davie.textdrive.com/pipermail/imagine/

To unsubscribe,  send an e-mail to imagine-request at lists.supertrade.com with unsubscribe in the message subject; or go to http://lists.supertrade.com/mailman/listinfo/imagine

For more information, visit http://www.jpb.com/imagination/


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