The heart of successful innovation is not just about coming up with new ideas but come up with relevant ideas. This is critical to do in today’s business world where you are constantly required to come up with ideas to address problems in your company. Furthermore, you may be tasked to come up with ideas for products and services as well. If you think about all the ideas you have come up with in the past, maybe around half worked and half didn’t. But statistically the bigger the idea the more likely it is to fail. For instance, depending on the year and field, anywhere from 70% to 95% of new product launches fail and around 75% of all venture capital backed start-ups fail. The people involved in these failures all thought they had great ideas and then invested a lot effort and money to implement them. But clearly there was a disconnect between their ideas and what actually could be successful. The reason these innovators failed is because they did not have a cognitive process for generating relevant ideas.
This may seem like a blanket oversimplification to most people but it would not have been to a man named Edwards Deming. He was a renowned engineer, professor and consultant who lived by a very powerful phrase, which was: “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” So based on this dynamic, if you don’t have a process to come up with relevant ideas then, simply by default, you don’t know what you’re doing. Hence the high rate of innovation failure throughout all fields. To change this dynamic, OIsource (oisource.com) was launched to teach you a skill that will develop your ability to generate relevant ideas to successfully innovate. This is done through a mental and writing exercise that enables the participant to intentionally originate, interconnect and validate ideas. This exercise is called the ITP, which stands for Innovative Thinking Process.
The ITP is a demanding, self-directed, solitary endeavor that challenges you to think differently. Research studies are beginning to show that this type of isolated thinking is the most productive form of thinking: https://www.inc.com/melissa-schilling/the-science-of-why-brainstorming-in-groups-doesnt-work.html Nikolai Tesla understood this even in his time when he noted: “Originality thrives in seclusion, free of outside influences…”.
The ITP is therefore the complete opposite of the interaction within group ideation sessions you may be used to. But after going through the ITP is when you should participate in a group ideation session. At that point you will have a thorough and deep understanding of the relevance of your ideas. Then you are much better prepared for the group ideation session and it can become more productive and impactful for all parties involved. Ultimately, the skill you develop will empower you to discover your potential of being a high-level innovative thinker.
Experience how effective the ITP can be for you through a new online course that is being offered free for a limited time at: oisource.teachable.com/p/itp
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