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The I

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ook

What is ThinkCube

Why ThinkCube

How to ThinkCubate

Group ThinkCubate

How ThinkCube was Innovated

The Future of ThinkCube

Suggested Reading

Table ofContents

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With all this said, there isn’t any one perfect way to innovate. There are as many ways to innovate as there are creative people. We don’t want you to toss away your other creative tools, but we hope ThinkCube will become your favorite.

ThinkCube is the culmination of 10 years of research on creativity and the synthesis of the industry’s best tools, techniques, and processes. Here’s how ThinkCube delivers on the creativity fundamentals we found in our research:

What is ThinkCube?

The best ideas come at the intersection of domains and cultures.

ThinkCube’s Idea Library is a collection of ideas, creative techniques, and words from eclectic sources.

FundamentalFundamental

FundamentalFundamental Breakthrough ideas come from playing with existing ideas and forming new connections.

ThinkCubation’s core mechanic is to combine ideas to form new ideas.

Incubation is a powerful and important part of any innovation process.

ThinkCube not only incorporates incubation, it turns the normally passive step into an active process.

FundamentalFundamental

Brainstorming is a skill to be practiced and perfected.

ThinkCube helps you exercise your creative muscles individually or in a group.

FundamentalFundamental

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A convergence of business trends, specifically outsourcing, off-shoring and increased market competition, has created a new global economy where the demand for innovation

is paramount. To succeed in this new Creative Economy, companies and individuals must make a paradigm shift.

Many companies claim to nurture innovation, but few actually do it behind closed doors. Insincerity isn’t the problem, rather

a misperception that innovation is an end goal achieved by occasional brainstorming sessions or a collection of PhDs and

a stroke of luck. True innovation happens when it’s infused throughout an organization and adopted as a best practice.

Infusion of innovation shouldn’t hinge on a company mandate. It can organically emerge from the bottom-up

through changes in individual behavior. ThinkCube gives you the tools to pioneer the innovation revolution!

Why ThinkCube?

ThinkCube gives youthe tools to pioneerthe innovation revolution.

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ThinkCubating can be done on your own or in a group. Individually it will lead to great ideas, but incorporating group ThinkCubating opens avenues for additional unique sources of input. Try it both ways for optimal output. If you’re ready to ThinkCubate on your own, this section will give you a detailed description of each step in the ThinkCubation process. Refer to the

next section for group instructions. You’ll also find exciting tips along the way to make ThinkCube a

highly personalized and powerful innovation tool!

How to ThinkCubate

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Randomly draw 6 cards from the Idea Library. This action starts you off with a collection of ideas from diverse fields and topics. Additionally, the Library contains a collection of the best creative techniques around. Incorporating these eclectic stimuli in your THINKing increases the quantity of ideas you’ll generate and your odds of creating a winner.

You can enhance this step of the process by reading books and articles on a wide variety of topics and exposing yourself to new experiences, people and places. Record any cool ideas you come across on pages of your Idea Notepad.

You might also decide to immerse yourself in a completely new domain. Immersion allows you to understand the context of a particular field and identify areas that spark an interest for you. Some of the most innovative ideas occur at the intersection of multiple domains. The world’s best scientists and innovators often excel in a broad range of intellectual fields. Again, record your favorite ideas on your Idea Notepad.

Ideas you have recorded on your Idea Notepad can be placed in front of you for use during the THINK phase, or simply added to your Idea Library to personalize it.

Write down your goal for the session, but don’t cast it in stone. At the beginning of a ThinkCubating session, your goal may be quite broad. As you ThinkCubate, you will gain new perspectives and may want to refine your goal. The tighter

your goal definition becomes, the easier it will be to create a solution.

DEFINE STIMULATE

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Combine 2 or more of the cards to create new ideas. Record all new ideas on your Idea Notepad. Remember, the quantity of ideas generated in this stage

increases your probability of creating quality ideas later. Don’t worry about whether the ideas you come up with are great, average, or wacky. All that

matters here is that you capture all of the ideas that you generate.

This action of combining cards, central to ThinkCubating, is a form of combinatory play. Albert Einstein once said, “Combinatory play seems to be

the essential feature in productive thought.”¹ Long before Einstein discussed it, Gutenberg used combinatory play in practice, combining the ideas of a

wine press, coin punch, and die stamps to invent the printing press.²

Assess how well your new ideas relate to your goal.

If you think you’ve created a winner, ELABORATE it. Move any good ideas to the elaboration phase as soon as you can. It’s hard to see the true potential of an idea until you have prototyped and tested it.

If your ideas need refining, INCUBATE them. Some ideas may not be fully formed yet. An idea might be a partial solution, leaving a few open issues or problems to solve. These are prime candidates for incubation.

If nothing’s happened yet, THINK again. Your ideas may have been absolutely unrelated to your original goal. You might have drawn an odd sampling of cards from the Idea Library. Try again with a fresh hand of cards.

Regardless of what you do with your ideas in this step, you should reEVALUATE your original goal and see if it still makes sense. Tweak it if you want to, you didn’t cast it in stone.

THINK

EVALUATE

1 Hadamard, Jacques. The Mathematician’s Mind. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1945. 2 Watson, Peter. Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, From Fire to Freud. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.

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The incubation phase is arguably the most important in the ThinkCubation process. Day dream, doodle, go on with your life. Your subconscious mind keeps working on your ideas while you do other things. Refer back to the

ideas in your Idea Notepad daily, weekly, or monthly and reEVALUATE.

If you follow these instructions, you’re bound to be struck with what I affectionately call the “One Week Later Syndrome”. This started as an

observation during play-testing for ThinkCube and turned into a consensus among my peers. It won’t take exactly 1 week, but the general principle is you’ll generate good ideas while THINKing, but your best ideas will come after you INCUBATE. The key is reEVALUATEing your ideas after your brain

has had time to INCUBATE them.

Make your new idea a reality! Prototype it: build it, write it, draw it, or design it. A prototype will allow you to test your idea and get real feedback before you invest too much time or money. Don’t be afraid to fail. If your results are less than satisfying, INCUBATE the problems you have yet to solve and reEVALUATE. If it was a real disaster, THINK again and be thankful for the lessons learned.

Multiple iterations through ThinkCubation may be necessary before you’re ready to take it from a prototype to the real deal. Read about how other people in similar situations did it successfully. Make a plan for implementation and follow it. Take calculated risks and self-fund your initial implementation whenever possible. Don’t expect interest from investors until you demonstrate profitability. An idea is just an idea until you ELABORATE it!

INCUBATE

ELABORATE

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Grou

p Thin

kCub

ate Group ThinkCubating yields

its best results when each participant has had an opportunity to ThinkCubate individually on the session’s goal. If time does not allow, simply ask participants to think about the goal prior to the start of the session. The optimal size for a ThinkCubating group is 4-7 participants. With more than 7 participants, divide into multiple groups of 4-7. Use the individual ThinkCubating map as your guide and follow these modifications:

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Kes Sampanthar, Creator of ThinkCube

The idea behind ThinkCube was conceived in 1999 by self-proclaimed idea addict, Kes Sampanthar. After years of collecting ideas and longing to share his passion with the world, an “Aha!” struck him while sitting on a beach in Australia. By recording his favorite ideas on small cards, he could assemble an Idea Library to provide creative inspiration to others.

But the Idea Library on its own wasn’t enough. Kes needed a way to explain the complex internal creative process he was using on a daily basis. This defined his goal. For stimulation, he turned to board games. He bought and played as many board games as his wallet would allow. It didn’t take long to see that a great board game had more to do with a great mechanic than fancy pieces or a nifty theme. Kes began to think of ways to combine his Idea Library with game mechanics.

Kes iterated through thinking, evaluating and incubating for years.

It nearly drove his wife mad. He eventually picked an idea and

elaborated it in the form of building a prototype. “MetaMemes – Early

Adoption Release” was self-published in 2004. It was a game of ideas

about ideas with a perceived market of 20-30 something game playing

geeks. “MetaMemes – Early Adoption Release” sold-out within a year, but largely to an unexpected market of innovative professionals intending to

use it with a purpose!

With a new understanding of the market and audience, MetaMemes

(the game) was refined to form ThinkCube, a professional creativity

tool. MetaMemes, LLC is based in a suburb of Boston, MA and is

managed by Sue Sampanthar, Kes’ wife. For more information about

MetaMemes, LLC or ThinkCube, check out: www.metamemes.com.

How ThinkCube was Innovated

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The innovation revolution can’t happen without you. Take the next steps with us. Organize a ThinkCubating club to gather your coworkers over lunch or your friends at a coffee house. Build a social network of ThinkCubologists like yourself. Rise up from your cube and join the innovation revolution!

ThinkCube is first in a series of products and services aimed at building innovative cultures. Watch for ThinkCube expansion packs in areas like nanotechnology, biotechnology, and management strategy.

Email us at ideas@metamemes.com with your requests.

Visit www.metamemes.com for resources, links, and the latest information on new products and services.

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Build a social network of ThinkCubologists like yourself.

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During the creation of ThinkCube, I consulted a vast array of books on innovation. Here are a few of the best:

How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth About How Companies Innovate Author: Hargadon, Andrew. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2003.

The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm Authors: Kelley, Tom, Jonathan Littman. New York: Doubleday, 2001.

The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures. Author: Johansson, Frans. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004.

Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. Author: Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. New York: Harper Perennial, 1997.

Suggested Reading Copyright © 2007 by Kesavan Sampanthar.

ThinkCube™ is licensed property of MetaMemes, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

ThinkCube, the ThinkCube logo, MetaMemes, and the MetaMemes logo are trademarks of

MetaMemes, LLC.

Product and packaging design by XO Create!

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in

this product, and MetaMemes, LLC was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in

caps or initial caps.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this product, the author assumes no responsibility for

errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information used herein.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

ISBN 978-0-9792050-0-2

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