"A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts" - Richard Branson

As I was channel surfing through the cable lineup last week, I ran across 'American Inventor' and I realized just how much that show resembles many of the better Idea Review Boards I have run across in my consulting work.  The show is fun, sometimes ridiculous, and often lends itself to sparking new thoughts and idea combinations in my head.

Innovation does not have to be yet another omninous process within your organization.  In fact, if it is loaded down with too many metrics, rules and approval committees, I am going to bet that your idea stream is pretty weak.  Generating great ideas for your organization, and thus creating potential innovative value, can be just as simple and fun as modeling 'American Inventor.'

Depending on the size of your organization and the goal of your innovation program, you will have to determine the best method of challenging your employees and soliciting ideas.  For some companies, you can ask for any ideas that may improve the company, enhance the customer experience, or other global improvement effort.  For other organizations, they may wish to limit the ideas based on a specific need or chronic business problem.  Regardless, keep it simple and keep it fun.

Here are a few fun idea submission and generation examples:

• Have an 'American Inventor'-style competition
• Rent a dumpster or have a garbage can available for people to write down and throw away anything in your organization they don't feel works very well
• Hold a "Make Your Idea Real" day where people can build models or prototypes of their ideas
• Buy a roll of butcher paper and line the walls of the lunchroom with it and post a "starter problem" to solve
• Have people write down a problem they are having, then have them gift wrap it and exchange it with others who do the same thing
• Give every employee one of those poster boards that kids use for Science Fair projects and have them come up with an idea and fully describe how it works and/or would be implemented
• Have an Idea Picnic with your customers, suppliers, and vendors where they can mix with your employees and share ideas/solutions/complaints
• Sponsor a field trip to a museum or other idea rich environment for employees
• Encourage senior leadership to visit department meetings to share what keeps them up at night and solicit ideas

These are just a few ideas that I have either observed or already developed for customers.  There's even one on that list that just popped into my head as I was typing.  You see, it isn't that difficult to mix in a little fun with your idea campaigns and idea selection processes. 

I cannot stress enough that every great journey into innovation starts with the first step or first courageous decision to move forward.  Just get one started and see what happens.  Your employees want to help you succeed...because when you succeed, they succeed. 

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!