CHAPTER 13 On Creative Spirit
to self-organise and manage themselves, enabling them to form ad hoc
teams that bring together the pieces of the jigsaw (in short, allow conduc-
tors to orchestrate teams to create wonderful things); and finally, allow for
serendipitous meetings that potentially lead to new discoveries (in short,
encourage chance collisions).
As we can see from this example (and as you probably know from your
own experience), ideas, contrary to popular opinion, are relatively easy
to come by; it’s the execution of ideas through a meaningful and thorough
implementation that’s the hard part. Set aside time for idea generation
and you should find an endless supply of ideas flowing, far too many to
implement; the hard part really lies in deciding where to apply resources to
develop these ideas. Let’s get started and take a look at the three aspects of
idea generation, outlined above, in a little more detail.Priming the Brain
To foster a culture of idea generation, we need to promote a hunger for
information. Such a process shouldn’t just happen at the start of a project,
it should occur all the time. A naturally inquisitive mind will be forever
overflowing with ideas. The primary task we have to accomplish, then, is
to get the brain in the right place.
One simple strategy to encourage more ideas? Read more, and read
widely.
There are a number of excellent books on ideas and where they come
from. Two that should be at the top of any self-respecting designer’s list are
Scott Berkun’s The Myths of Innovation and James Webb Young’s A Technique
for Producing Ideas. Both are worth their proverbial weight in gold and will
pay for themselves many times over. Perhaps unsurprisingly, both follow
similar pathways, proposing models which — if adhered to — lead inevita-
bly to an endless supply of ideas.