Hello folks, I am back on writing my blog after a very long time. Too many things have happened during last two months since I was active on blogosphere.  Some of them are shareable and some, definitely not.

One such thing that I can definitely share was the experience I had when I participated in the Innovation forum in my company to do some more structured learning around innovation techniques.  Although it was a half day session, it has definitely left a mark on my perception on how the innovation could be done and a change of thinking is brought within the team.

We discussed quite a few methods on how the innovation could be introduced and more importantly sustained in a company, where innovation is a mandatory requirement for sustaining and thriving in the competitive market.

One of the most important aspect of innovation is the “Idea Generation”.  Unless ideas are generated, innovation can not fly.

There are quite a few idea generation techniques that would help generate large number of ideas to find new solutions and different ways of achieving the purpose.  Here in this article, we are going to have a look at three common techniques of idea generation.

 

Brainstorming / Brain writing

group-discussion One of the most often known and used IG technique is ‘Brainstorming’.  ‘Brain writing’ is another form of brainstorming where most of the thinking is done by writing your ideas on the piece of paper rather than discussing with the group initially.

 

  • For the brainstorming or brain writing session, we need to gather a group of participants who are familiar with the challenge statement. 
  • Create a challenge statement and the attribute list and make them visible to the team.
  • For the purpose of brain storming, it is recommended that the group of participants is typically less than 7 people.  If you have more than 7 people in the room, then you should go for Brain writing technique.
  • Ideas should be put up spontaneously verbally during brainstorming session and written on a piece of paper during brain writing session.
  • During the brain writing session, after each idea is written on a piece of paper, it is recommended to crumple the paper and throw in the middle and pick up someone else’s crumpled paper to write next idea.
  • Ensure that some rules such as non-criticism of any idea, welcoming unusual ideas and encouraging other participants to build on other’s ideas should strictly adhered to.
  • Encourage ‘quantity’ of ideas. For the purpose of idea generation, quality follows quantity.
  • Overall ideas should be rated based on the benefits it can give and easiness of achieving them.
  • All the ideas should be properly documented for future reference.

 

Scamper

SCAMPER is a checklist of lateral thought technique that can expand one’s creativity.

SCAMPER is a acronym of the following words,

  • Substitute – Try and see what can be substituted in the current situation in order to improve upon the scenario. Ask the questions on what can be substituted, how, when, why ?
  • Combine – Try to enhance the synergy by combining, merging, attaching, adding and uniting separate attributes together for the issue.  This might give a different solution altogether.
  • Adapt – Try and make adjustments to certain aspects and attributes of a product or process
  • Modify/Magnify/Minify – Try and change the size, quantity or quality of the attributes. Try to make things later or smaller, faster or slower and see what difference it can make to the situation.
  • Put to other use – Try and change the place or purpose for which an object or a process is currently being used.
  • Eliminate – Try and remove, omit or get rid of a quantity, part or whole object from the situation and see how it happens.
  • Rearrange/Reduce/Reverse – Try and place attributes against each other, pit them opposite or contrary to, turn around; to change order or adjust, different plan, layout or scheme.

 

Think like a child

thinklikeachild The purpose of this technique is to look at the challenge through the eyes of a six year old child to get a different perspective of the problem.

Whilst, I understand that changing the perspective from an adult to the child itself can be challenging but believe me it can be a fun.  In order to try and generate ideas using this technique, make your mind set similar to that of a child by thinking of a children you know and you can anticipate the reaction of.

Try and see the situation through their eyes and feel what they would like about the situation, what they would be proud of, what they would dislike, feel funny or useful about and note down the reactions. 

Consider the simple example of a muddy puddle. When we adults see it, we try and step over or step around it.  We imagine muddy shoes, dirty clothes and filthy carpets at home if we step into the puddle.  However, if you ask the same to kids, they would call it fun and imagine to build bridges and dams to cross it !!

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Top 10 Secrets of Effective Liars

On December 24, 2010, in Mind thoughts, by Swapnil
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The following post is not my creation, I found it on http://www.psychologytoday.com/ and found it very very interesting and worth sharing with you all here again. 

All credit goes to the author on the blog on the above site !

The image is courtesy of http://la-la-land.aminus3.com/image/2007-07-29.html

 


 

#1 Have a reason. "Prisons are filled with bad liars," says psychologist Charles Ford, author of the book Lies! Lies! Lies!. "The good liars are out running HMOs." So what’s the big difference? Basically, says Ford, the trick is to lie as little as possible – only when you actually have something to gain. "Pathological liars can’t stop themselves from lying, so they tell a lot of little lies and wind up getting caught," he says. Truly expert fabricators, on the other hand, save their ammunition – they don’t bother to lie unless it’s going to get them something they really want.

#2 Lay your groundwork. Don’t wait until you’re under the interrogation lamp to start putting your story together. A 1990 study by psychologist Bill Flanagan showed that liars who had worked out the details of their stories beforehand had significantly more success than those who hadn’t. As in everything, practice makes perfect. "It’s easier to catch someone in lie the first time they tell it," says psychologist Dr. Cynthia Cohen

#3 Tell the truth, misleadingly. The hardest lies to catch are those which aren’t actually lies. You’re telling the truth, but in a way that leaves a false impression. Technically, it’s only a prevarication – about half a sin. A 1990 study of pathological liars in New York City found that those who could avoid follow-up questions were significantly more successful at their deceptions.

#4 Know your target. Good liars have the same gift as good communicators: the ability to get inside the listener’s head. Empathy not only clues you in to what your subject wants to hear, it will help you avoid stepping onto trip wires that will trigger their suspicions. "To make a credible lie, you need to take into account the perspective of your target," says Carolyn Saarni, co-editor of the book Lying and Deception in Everyday Life. "Know what they know. Be aware of their interests and activities so you can cover your tracks."

#5 Keep your facts straight. "One of the problems of successful lying is that it’s hard work," says psychologist Michael Lewis. "You have to be very consistent in doing it." That means nailing down the details. Write down notes if you have to. "One of the things that trips people up is that they give different information to different people, who then start talking about it and comparing notes," says Dr. Gini Graham Scott, author of The Truth About Lying.

#6 Stay focused. "When I’m trying to catch a liar, I watch to see how committed they are to what they’re telling me," says Sgt. John Yarbrough, interrogation expert with the LA Sheriff Department’s homicide bureau. "If I accuse someone of lying, and they’re not very committed to the statement they just made, a red flag goes up." One of the reasons most people make bad liars is that they find lying a deeply unpleasant activity. Fear and guilt are evident in their facial expressions. They want to get the process over as quickly as possible, so they show relief when their interrogator changes the topic. That’s a dead giveaway. Really good liars, on the other hand, actually enjoy the process of deceiving other people. "The best liars don’t show any shame or remorse because they don’t feel it," says Cohen. "They get a thrill out of actively misleading others. They’re good at it, and they enjoy the challenge."

#7: Watch your signals. It’s folk wisdom that people fidget, touch their noses, stutter, and break eye contact when they lie – the proverbial "shifty-eyed" look. But research has shown that just isn’t so. In his 1999 study of high school students, Feldman found that nonverbal signals were crucial in determining who got away with telling lies. "The successful kinds were better at controlling their nonverbal signals, things like the the amount of eye contact and how much they gestured," he says.

#8: Turn up the pressure. If your target has clearly become suspicious, it’s time to raise the emotional stakes. "The best liars are natural manipulators," says Sgt. Yarbrough. He cites as a perfect example the scene in Basic Instinct where Sharon Stone is brought to the cop station for questioning and winds up flashing everyone a glimpse of her Lesser Antilles. "She was turning them on," Yarbrough explains, "and that’s a form of manipulation – using sexual or emotional arousal to distract the interviewer."

#9: Counterattack. The fact is, just as most of us are uncomfortable telling lies, most are uncomfortable accusing others. This discomfort can be used in the liar’s favor. "You’ll often see politicians respond to accusations with aggression," says Stan Walters, author of The Truth About Lying: Everyday Techniques for Dealing with Deception. "What they’ll do is drive critics away from the issue, so they’re forced to gather up their resources to fight another scrimmage."

#10: Bargain. Even when the jig is up, liars can often escape the worst by using a process psychologists call bargaining. "You want to soften, alleviate, or totally eliminate feelings of responsibility for the lie," explains researcher Mary DePalma. "If you can decrease responsibility for blame and the anger that goes with it, you’re really looking at a much better outcome."

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How social are today’s festivals ?

On November 6, 2010, in Mind thoughts, by Swapnil
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This is something I have been thinking for a while during this festival season.  Really, what do you think ? How social are today’s festivals ?

diwali_lamps I remember the days when I was a kid and the way we used to celebrate the festivals. Every festival, be it a Sankranti, Holi, Ganesh Chathuthi, Durga puj, Dussehra or Diwali.  It was always a fun with the family and friends where all of us used to really make an effort to ensure we meet and wish each other in person.  In case it was not possible to meet in person, we actually did try and ensure we at least spoke with them on phone. 

I really miss the days when we, as young kids, with the group of friends used to celebrate each festival with so much joy, passion and happiness. Somehow, I feel that the feeling is lost really !  Do you also feel the same ?

In today’s world, although we claim that the technology has brought the world closer and distances are shorter, unfortunately, I sincerely feel that it has distanced the friends and families. Although the convenience of technology helps us reach hundreds of people across the world in one message, it has made it very hard for us to walk down the aisle and greet our neighbor on this festival.

I feel sad and nostalgic when I remember the good old days when we still had the urge to personally reach out to each other just to say hello.  Today, a simple anonymous Facebook status update, or a tweet makes us feel our job is done.  To put this in cruel way, it feels like putting your wishes on the table and asking people whoever wants to take it, please accept, otherwise don’t care.  Also, there are so many people who ‘show’ you care by wishing you via email in BCC. I wrote about how I feel about them in a quick article last year too.

I am, honestly, not sure about the reasons behind the change in the behavior of individuals over the year, but really can’t help to think and put my thoughts on this topic here.

What are your views on this ?  How much social are today’s festivals really ?

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I am sure in the flood of wishes over the new year, quite a few of you would have received the wishes in the form of “BCC” email.  If yes, what was your reaction? Do you prefer receiving the wishes in the “BCC” ?

For some reason, I have not been a fan of either sending or receiving the wishes to your office colleagues in BCC. It just doesn’t feel right to me. I somehow feel it devaluates the wish and the person to whom you are wishing.

I know its more of the matter of convenience of sending everyone a wish in one single email without anyone knowing the final list of recipients. However, the convenience is for the sender than the recipient of the email.

There are some scenarios where you want to send email to a group of individuals where you do not want the recipients to see or know each other’s address or do a reply-all and start an email chain. Use of the BCC makes sense in such scenarios.

However, at times I have seen a manager using the team’s address in the BCC and sending wish emails to the team. This, to me, is utter silly and does not add value.  If you are anyways sending the email to the team using the team’s distribution list, why don’t just put that in the TO list and send the email?

If someone creates an outlook template (2 mins job) and tries to send the personalized wishes to everyone in the team, it would make everyone feel a lot better and feel bit more valued than receiving an email wish through BCC. Also, there are tools available in the market that would allow you to do so .. so why don’t just use them?

Any comments?

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What I have been at …

On July 13, 2009, in Mind thoughts, by Swapnil
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… all this while ?

Simple answer – struggling to get a rhythm going in my daily schedule since I have joined back at my work in India. Life has completely changed since I have moved the shores and to be honest, it has not been easy.

The working hours certainly have impacted my schedule that allowed me to be in touch with my blog on a regular & much frequent basis. Office surfing restrictions certainly do not help either ..

Still quite a few things need getting done until I would call myself perfectly settled down and unfortunately looks like until then, I would be highly irregular and (hopefully less) irresponsible towards my blog ! Fortunately, I can keep up to few updates on Twitter & Facebook though ..

Pardon me Lord WordPress !!

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