Innovation creativity exercises..

Nobel Laurete Dr Roger Sperry's (Calif. Inst of Tech.) Split Brain theory 

Yesterday in the MBA classes on Operations Strategy, while taking the topic of Innovation, we were playing an innovation game on creativity.

The class exercise is on a product. The brainstorming creativity exercises can be applied equally well to processes and services too.

The topic given to the students to motivate them to think creatively was " Additional features one would like on his/her mobile phone to make it more feature rich "

There were some really creative and high quality suggestions which came up in the class. 

Some of them are being listed here.

1. Technological

a. 3D virtualisation of the called party

b. use of mobile as a virtual laptop

c. inbuilt card swipe

d. Industrial process controller

e. mobile working on solar energy

f. using mobile as universal remote

2. Financial use

a. using mobile to provide financial intelligence

3. Security

a. voice recognition of criminals

home security

b. QR code home security

4. Features

a. virtual book

b. mobile GPS health monitor

c. GPS health bracelet

d. anti-theft cloud storage

e. make up kit

f. satellite phone

g. drone mobiles

h. mobiles that never go out of power

i. IOT interface to control industrial and domestic processes

j. 3D gaming with sensors

k. retina scanning security

l. automobile monitoring with google apps

Copyright 2017 Alliance University, Bangalore.
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The initial creativity exercise is a very important step in promoting innovation in organisations. By means of brainstorming, after generating the ideas,(keeping only the right creative hemisphere of the brain working), top three or four ideas are selected which are feasible and tractable (keeping the left rational hemisphere of the brain working ). Teams are assigned acording to skills to oursue these three four creative ideas with a particular time period for design and execution and with limited funds.  

In a lean exercise, ideas are generated but funds are not provided for improvement, that is how innovation is different from lean thinking and continuous improvement.

An extension of the creativity exercise is done in a slightly different way.

Product : An item of common use is shown to the students and each of them is asked to list out five to ten additional uses of that product other than the one for which the product is being presently used. This thinking exercise motivates the participant to relate applications from different fields to the product in question.

Service : In the case of a service setup like a hospital, the participant is asked to list out five to ten new applications of the service which benefit the user in the long run with high utility, but which does not involve heavy expenditure and promotes good health in the long run.

Once the participant is made aware of the great innovation potential of creative thinking and the benefits it can bring to the participant and the society in general, the learning is permanent. The participant will employ this strategy throughout his lifetime as and when opportunities arise.

george.

Copyright Alliance University, Bangalore 2017