Ideas

Maybe you are seeking an irresistible marketing hook or a knock-your-socks-off client service concept. Perhaps your ambitions are more practical, like how to totally reenergize your staff after a four-month trial or a never-ending closing. You need more than a typical thought. You need a really good idea. No, you need a great idea. But where do great ideas come from? And how can you get more and still better ones? Great ideas have three important components:

Ideation
It’s the concept, the spark and the “idea” of the idea.

Inspiration
It’s the motivation, the energy or the creative force that moves the idea through to completion.

Implementation
It’s the only way to realize the idea, even if it entails—which it often does—a series of failures before the idea sees the light of day.

Ideation: Whip Up Your Gray Matter

Great ideas are answers to problems, big or small. Think about a problem or challenge you are now facing that calls out for a fabulous solution. How to differentiate your IP practice from that new boutique firm down the street, what to get your parents for their 50th anniversary, how to improve your longtime receptionist’s less-than-charming phone etiquette….

There’s always something, somewhere that requires we come up with a bit of—or a lot of—spark. What can you do to strike that spark? Here are some exercises and related tips.

Try 10 more. Sometimes finding a great idea is a numbers game. Try writing down 10 ideas that might solve your problem, even if only in part. Tough? Try putting down 10 more ideas and look at the list. Did you find yourself coming up with new and creative ideas beyond your initial 10? This time, be aware of the constraints of your problem and stretch to come up with other ideas that challenge those constraints.

List 10 more ideas. See any patterns yet? Write down 10 more. Do any of these ideas, individually or collectively, rise to “great” status? Don’t stop yet. Try 10 more and aim for the most creative and wacky solutions.

Memory games. Author and creative consultant Chic Thompson instructs participants in his creativity workshops to break into pairs, face each other and memorize each other’s appearance. Next, Thompson asks one person to be the “observer” and close his eyes while the other person changes five things about her appearance. The observer then needs to identify the changes made. The two people switch roles and repeat the exercise. Then, Thompson asks the pair to do it again, and again, and again, and again, and again.

After a few iterations, one needs to be very creative. How many times can you switch earrings, remove glasses or put on a hat? Forcing ourselves to come up with more ideas is really asking ourselves to question the boundaries of the problem and its solutions. We are opening the way for more, and often better, ideas. Thompson reports that it is not unusual for workshop participants to end the exercise in various stages of undress, and often sharing clothing and jewelry with strangers to comply with the exercise.

Idea banditry. Another approach is something I call “kleptoideation,” or stealing from the best. While your problem may be unique, others may have developed a solution that could be adaptable in some fashion to solve your problem. But be alert: Having a solid understanding of the dynamics and context of your problem is critical to finding analogous ideas.

Let’s say that a few clients have commented that your secretary has not been the most helpful when you are unavailable. You need a great client service idea that will motivate and empower your secretary. From whom would you consider stealing ideas?
L.L. Bean has an excellent reputation for solving client problems, mostly over the telephone. Ritz Carlton has figured out how to “wow” resort clients in person. Southwest Airlines has earned consistent profits by focusing primarily on client service issues with a healthy sense of humor. What can you heist from them? (For a real-world peek at how it works, see the sidebar “Filching from the Finest.”)

Different strokes work for different folks. Essentially, the premise of good ideation exercises is the same. Our minds are like our muscles. We need to exercise them in different ways to get new and better ideas. We need to go home by another route, and we need to look for ideas in unusual and heretofore unexplored places.

Inspiration: Put the Charge in Your Creative Force

Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Human Transporter (HT), that nifty battery-powered scooter that hasn’t quite yet taken over city sidewalks, is an inventor who thrives on inspiration. The holder of more than 150 patents, Kamen also provides an illustration of how our inspir-ations can differ from our initial expectations.

Before the Segway HT, Kamen had set out to invent a wheelchair that could climb stairs. Wheelchairs have not changed in 200 years and have always had the same limitations: They are great on flat, smooth surfaces, but for any terrain beyond that, they are practically useless. As Kamen interviewed wheelchair users to develop his ideas, he was surprised by what he learned. The wheelchair users liked the idea of climbing stairs, but what really got their attention was the seat-elevating mechanism that brought them to eye level with people standing up. For the first time, the users could look “eye to eye” when communicating with standing people and, thereby, be seen on “equal ground.” Kamen found himself inspired not just by a new mode of locomotion, but also by the newfound self-esteem that users would realize with the new device.

Okay, now it’s your turn. What inspires you? What moves you to take an idea, whether clearly practical or seemingly crazy, through to completion? If you are striving to rev up the motivation to move your great idea into reality, try taking these steps:

• Read something different. Learn something about another profession, industry, culture or time and ask yourself how it applies to your problem or circumstance.
• Do something different. Take up the piano, train for a marathon, learn to carve wood ducks. Seek inspiration off your usual path.
• Meet with different people. Have regular meetings with irregular people, with the purpose of exchanging ideas and inspiring each other.
• Think in different places. Find out what environment best inspires ideas for you and make time for inspiration there. For Bach, it was lying in bed after a nap. For Einstein, it was the shower. For Luther, it was another part of the bathroom. When and where do you feel inspired?

Implementation: Break on Through to the Other Side

Most great ideas go unrealized. The gap between the ideation/inspiration and the implementation is wide. Take Internet reservations, for example.

Hotel chains quickly realized how online reservations could boost efficiency and profitability, as well as improve client service. However, integrating their online client loyalty (or frequent stay) programs with the reservation systems took some hotel chains many years. And many still are not there. Sure, you can view photos of a hotel room, check availability and compare prices, but if you choose to stay using “points,” then you have to start over, often at a different Web site. Great idea, horrible implementation.

Developing a personal process for idea implementation is important. If you want to ensure that your great idea sees the light of day, you must design a process that works for you. These tactics are key:

• Clearly understand the problem you are trying to solve. What are the challenges and opportunities? What are the real constraints of the problem? How firm are those constraints? Think concretely.
• Seek ideas, principals or tenets that may apply to your problem. Ideate, steal or brainstorm ideas.
• Learn how others solved similar problems. What can you apply as you implement your idea?
• Develop a plan to implement your idea. Write it down.
• Connect the dots between your idea, your inspiration and your implementation plan.
• Invite others to share in your idea and incorporate them into your plan.
• Experiment with your plan. Learn from your successes and failures. Try again (and again, and again, and again, and again). Track your progress in writing.
• Do it.

We Can All Use a Few Great Ideas

It’s hard to think of someone who couldn’t benefit from a brand-new idea, either to solve a professional problem or overcome a personal challenge. Or just to increase the fun and enjoyment one can find in life. The tips and exercises here should help you get going.

And remember, there’s no need to restrict your creative juices. Go ahead, think far and wide. The legal profession as a whole can use a few great ideas, too. Clients are increasingly looking to outside counsel for innovation in legal solutions, client service, work product and efficiency. Pressure to increase billable hours and hourly rates has made the concept of work-life balance almost an impossibility for many lawyers and staff. The profession’s future relies on innovators—like you—to light its fire with some great new ideas!

This article originally appeared in Law Practice Magazine, Sept 2004, by Mark Beese