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OFFICIAL BULLETIN OF INDIAN NATIONAL SUGGESTION SCHEMES’ ASSOCIATION
B u l l e t i n
For Private Circulation Only
• April '18-June ’18 • Vol.30 • No.1i2i
Dear Members,
Welcome and ThanksSMART ORGANISATIONSThe present buzz word is Smart. We have smart cities ,smart phones ,smart technologies and what not. All these technological and applications or systems oriented changes around us are also transforming the world of Industry.The Government has announced Industry 4.0 programme keeping in line with the desire to push industries for shifting to use of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices with increasing technological world around us.One would expect growing deployment of Internet of Things( IOT) to help manufacturers with increased automation.The biggest challenge is not adoption of new technology, but more of preparing or motivating the work force to adopt to changing expectations.With all systems changing at a rapid pace and compulsion to remain globally competitive,challenge is- motivate the work force to fierce fully be participative and suggestive. I am sure that enough work is being done in member Organisations. Time to have SMART SUGGESTION SCHEMES ! . I believe that the traditional Suggestion Schemes will also need a review. We will like to request our Member Organisations to share the innovative changes introduced, which we can publicise in the bulletin.Our NIC chapter has just concluded the Creativity Summit about which the details are in the bulletin. Our WIC chapter has planned a programme on Industry 4.0 readiness about which you will know more in details in our next bulletin.We eagerly await success stories from our members sharing of which will not only enrich other members but also give recognition to work force.. Umesh Bapat
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EDITORIAL
For this bulletin by your success stories, inno-
vative ideas on improvement in your organ-
isations, Employee Involvement activities for
sharing with others. Your participation will add
value to this bulletin.
- Editor
A REQUEST! All Members, who have not yet paid subscription for The year 2017-18
2018-19 and earlier years, are requested to do so immediately. Kindly quote your GSTIN no. to us.
Dear Member Colleagues,Greetings of the season !We have once again great pleasure in presenting you, our next issue of Bulle-
tin, covering the period of April’ 18 to June ’18.Under ‘ Did You Know‘ series, this time, we learn about the invention of Breakfast Cereals and the hard work behind it,which was put up by Doctor Brothers way back in the year 1900 !We have new members, 8 in nos.mostly from northern part of our country and one from eastern side.INSSAN Welcomes all these new members.The efforts put in by Mr.K.K.Singh for getting the members from northern are appreciable.INSSAN Organised a review meeting to discuss 'Way Ahead For Inssan‘, at Lonavla on 29th of April 2018-courtsey Tata Power Company. The fruitful deliberations of the sustainable growth of INSSAN was the main focus.In all 13 member participants were present, representing HQ,NIC and WIC. Outcome of those deliberations are in the form of Minutes of Meetings,which are part of this issue.Our Northern India Chapter as usual conducted a
programme ‘Creativity Summit' on June 7th and 8th at New Delhi as their ace activity. Report is in this bulletin.INSSAN’S AGM for 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 is scheduled in the month of July 2018 on Sunday 15th, at MCA-BKC,Bandra-Mumbai.Notices of the same have been sent to all members through e-mails.WIC has organised a unique workshop of two days on ‘Being Ready To Getting Ready - decoding Industry 4.0 ‘ on July 17 and 18,2018 at SKF India Ltd.,Chinchwad, Pune. The programme brochure is part of this issue. A report of an inhouse programme organised at IFFCO is part of this bulletin so also our new member Electrosteel Steels Ltd. conducted an award distribution function - report included in this issue.An article by Stephen Shapiro of Innovation Insider-USA, guides us about the innovative approaches.The title of the same is ‘ The Best Way To Boost Your Performance Is Not What You Think ! ‘We are sure you will like the issue.A Request to all our members “ Kindly send us your GST IN no.”
Sudhir Date Mob. No. 9820002373 Tel. No. 022-25221109
Email ID:- [email protected] [email protected]
Members are requested to contribute
For any additional information on INSSAN activities, please communicate at
Indian National Suggestion Schemes’ Association
A 62, Satyam CHSL,Devidayal Nagar,Dr.Rajendra Prasad Road,Opp.Municipal Gen. Agarwal Hospital,
Mulund-West,Mumbai-400080.
Tel. 9820118501
E-mail:[email protected], [email protected]
Website : www. inssanindia.com
Those who wish to receive INSSAN Bulletin, please communicate to The Editor
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DID YOU KNOW?
The concept of breakfast cereal began with Shredded Wheat, invented as an aid to digestion
by Henry D.Perky in 1893.His idea was soon expanded upon when John Harvey Kellogg invented flaked breakfast cereal in 1895.
Puffed ice was first introduced at the St.Louis World’s Fair in 1904,where it was sold as a snack because it was seen as a competitor for popcorn-but as potential as a breakfast cereal was soon realised.
One of the earliest imitators of the Kellogg brothers’ cereals was Grape-Nuts, manufactured in Battle Creek by Charles Post [ USA ],a former patient of JH’s. In 1911 Kellogg’s advertised in Times Square, New York, with what was then the world’s biggest sign-the famous “K“ of W.K.’s signature was 20 meters high.
Because he suffered badly from dyspepsia, lawyer Henry D.Perky [USA ] did not always live up to his name, often being far from perky. One morning at breakfast in a hotel in Nebraska, he met a fellow dyspeptic who recommended eating whole boiled wheat with milk for breakfast, something that not only improved Perky’s digestion, but inspired him to invent the first ready-to-eat breakfast cereal, Shredded Wheat, in 1893. His invention proved so popular when sold locally that in 1895 Perky founded the Natural Food Co. and began manufacturing Shredded Wheat commercially.
That same year, John Harvey Kellogg [USA, known as ‘J.H.’ ] filed a patent for.’ Flaked cereals and process of preparing same.’” Kellogg “,a qualified doctor, ran the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, where he promoted what he called ‘biologic living', a regime that included treatments such as calisthenics, cold baths, enemas and electroshock therapy. Kellogg was also interested in diet, and often experimented with boiling cereal grains as an aid to digestion. One night in 1894,J.H.’s brother Will Keith [ USA,known as ‘ W.K.’] left some wheat grain overnight between boiling the grain and rolling it out into dough. The grains became moist, and, when he rolled them the next morning, they formed flakes instead of the usual flat sheet of dough.
Fortunately for the future morning routine of millions, instead of throwing away the flakes, W.K. baked them and served them for breakfast. The patients enjoyed them, but although it was W’K. who accidently invented flaked cereal it was J.H. who filed a patent the following year. beginning: ’ be it known that I, John Harvey Kellogg…have invented a certain new and useful Alimentary Product and Process of Making the same.’ Tension between the two brothers eventually came to a head when W.K. added malt flavouring to a cereal without J.H.’s approval, resulting in W.K. buying out his brother and founding the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, eventually simply as Kellogg’s.
Flaked cereal inventors :John Harvey Kellogg & Will Keith Kellogg
1852 J.H.Kellogg born on 26 February in Tyrone,Michigan,the son of a farmer.
1860 W.K.Kellogg born on 7 April in Battle Creek.Michigan.
1875 J.H.graduates from Bellevue Hospital Medical College.
1876 J.H.takes over the running of the Battle Creek Sanitarium.
1894 W.K.accidently discovers a process of creating cereal flakes.
1895 J.H. announces the invention of Granose Flakes in the February issue of Food Health magazine, and files a patent for, “ Flaked
BREAKFAST CEREAL
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cereals and process of preparing same “ on 31 May [ granted 14 April 1896 ]
1898 The brothers apply their process to corn and introduce Corn Flakes.
1906 W.K. buys out J.H. and founds the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company [ later W.K.Kellogg Co.,later Kellogg’s ]
1943 J.H. dies on 6 October in Battle Creek, aged
91, having filed patents for various foodstuffs and for non-food inventions including radient-heat baths, inhalers and body braces.
1951 W.K.dies on 6 October in Battle Creek,. aged 91,having established the W.K .Kellogg Foundation, one of America’s leading philanthropic institutions.
Compiled by : Mr. Sudhir Date
WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS-CORPORATE
Sr. No.
Member-ship No.
Name of the Organisation and address
Principal Nominee Alternate Nominee
1 20508 Electrosteel Steels Ltd.,New Admin Building, Bhagabandh (White House) VILL-Siyaljori, P.O.Jogidih-828303-Bokaro.
MD NASIM-Sr.Manager-BE Mobile : 8651039242 email: [email protected]
Shubhrangshu Adhikari- Sr.Executive Mobile : 8651035141 [email protected]
2 20509 Pearl Printer,5D/8B,Railway Road, NIT, Faridabad-121001.
Narinder Khurana-Propritor Mobile : 9818201067 [email protected]
Vinay Gupta-CEO Mobile : 9811284589 [email protected]
3 20510 Rikki Plastic Pvt.Ltd.,B-5,Sector-59, Opp.JCB India Ltd.,Ballabhgarh, Faridabad.
Rakesh Kumar Jaggi-Director Mobile : 9810053610 [email protected]
Sanchit Jaggi-Director Mobile : 9899351506 [email protected]
4 20511 ULH Hydro Energy India ( Pvt. ) Ltd. 703,Lakshwari Vatika,Faridabad, Haryana-121012
Vimal Kumar Langer-MD [email protected]
Seema Langer-Director
5 20512-SSI Young Womens Forum,Flat No.-102, Saubhagya Apartment,GH-7,Sector-21 D, North West Delhi Faridabad-121012.
Taniya Kansara-District President-Gurgaon [email protected]
Gunjan Sondhi-District President- [email protected]
6 20513-SSI Parkinson Pharmaceutical Pvt.Ltd. SCF-III,Top Floor,Phase 10, Mohali
Sandeep Kumar Bhambral-Director Mobile : 9815763999 [email protected]
Mohit Kumar Bhambral-Marketing Advisor Mobile : 8586977837 [email protected]
7 20514-SSI Savcon Thermal Engineers (I) Pvt.Ltd., FF-1,Rama Palace-II,Sector-20B, Faridabad-121001-Haryana
Sunil Mehta-Director Mobile :9810265640 [email protected]
Mrs.Surbhi Mehta Chadha-Director Mobile :8527095852 [email protected]
8 20515-SSI Shree Lokenath Engineers, 3650,S.G.M.Nagar,Raja Chowk, Faridabad-Haryana
Sudeep Hati-Manager
Sanyukta Hati-Manager
Mobile :7290986627
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Indian National Suggestion Schemes' Association Northern India Chapter - Delhi
20Th Creativity Summit – 7Th & 8Th June 2018Theme : “Employee Creativity – A Key Factor For Business Sustainability”
INSSAN-NIC has organized the 20th Creativity Summit on a Theme “Employee Creativity – A Key factor for Business Sustainability on 7th & 8th June.2018 at Scope Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi. Total 337 Nos. of
delegates from 29 Organizations attended the convention and participated in the Slogan, Poster, Essay, Poem & poster contest. The presentation on Technical Paper, Case study of best suggestion and also on Unique / Innovation Practices in the Organization was presented on both the days.
The Inaugural ceremony started with the Welcome speech by Mr.V.K.Srivastava – Hon Secy. of INSSAN-NIC. He welcomes the Chief Guest Mr. Devendra Mishra-Executive Director, Shri Ram Pistons & Rings Ltd., Pathredi and Guest of Honour Mr. Douglas Webser – COO – Delhi International Airport Pvt. Ltd.
Mr. Yogesh Munjal – Chairman INSSAN-NIC address the gathering by focusing on the Total Employee involvement & engagement and creativity of the employee towards business sustainability.
Arrival of Guest
Lamp Lighting by Chief Guest
Address by Chairman-INSSAN-NIC
Welcome address by Hon Secy.
Lamp Lighting by Guest of Honor
Audience In the Hall
- V. K. Srivastava, Hon Secretary NIC
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Glimpse of the Day…..
The presentation were conducted parallel in three different halls, more than 150 case studies were presented during the summit.
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Closing Ceremony
In the closing ceremony , the Chief guest Mr. Kishor Naik-Plant Head - Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. Rudrapur address the gathering with a approach of workman on the shop-floor by participating in the Ideas generation,
Kaizen Implementation and in Digital Automaton towards Good Quality Product in a Clean Environment with a safety of personnel.
The Chairman –INSSAN NIC and Chief guest of closing ceremony distributed the awards of Technical Paper & Case study presentation contest.
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Valedictory Session & Award Distribution Function
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Valedictory Session & Award Distribution Function
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SPECIAL INSSAN MEETING ON 29TH APRIL 2018
Main Agenda Way ahead for INSSAN Prepared by HON.SECMOM SPECIAL MEETING ON 29TH APRIL 2018
MINUTES OF MEETINGDay & Date SUNDAY ,29TH APRIL 2018Time 11.00 AMPlace TATA POWER, LONAVALA
Members Present1. Umesh Bapat : President 2. Mangesh Brahme : Hon Sec.3. Sudhir Date – INSSAN4. Amit Mankar5. AM Paranjpe6. J P Zende7. Pramod Gijare8. Dr Abhay Kulkarni9. Dr K K Singh10 A S Lakshmanan11 Ashok Sharma12.Sanjay Damle13 Vishwas Dani
Leave of AbsenceMr Mangesh Ashtekar, Mr Savangikar , Mr I Ghosh, VK Srivastava, Dr A.Kulkarni, Dr Deepa Deshpande, Mr.RV Choulkar.
Items Discussions Action by
1 President welcomed all the members present and thanked them for sparing time to travel all the way to Lonavala for attending this special meeting.
Similar meeting was held in 2016 to generate ideas for sustainable growth of INSSAN
President emphasized the need for an open discussion for gathering the views of all members so that the efforts of all the chapters will bring in the desired results.
He urged all the members to participate fully ,be forthright and give ideas.
In order that the discussion are focused, it was suggested that meeting starts with re-view of performance of INSSAN for last 4/5 years.Directory There was a presentation by who publish trade directories for organisa-tions. The company will bring out the directory without any cost implication to INS-SAn . The idea was welcomed by members present and the companywas requested to give adetailed proposal
Mr MMB
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Items Discussions Action by
2 Mr Date gave the details of performance of INSSAN over last few years .The mem-bers noted that while the National Conventions have continued to get response and participation over 250 , there have no major activities except NIC and Aurangabad Chapter who had organized first ever convention . South India Chapter has been completely dormant for last few years.The membership strength which was over 600 has been gradually going down over the years and now the annual subscription invoices are sent to 160 members and last three years, only 80 companies have paid subscription.It was decided that all members give their critical views on possible reasons and how we should go about.All the members participated and gave their views on the reasons resulting in the present situation. The discussions were detailed and varied and touched upon many points as listed below.Present position of INSSANDigital MarketingSteps to improve INSSANInssan no visibility ,no connectivityFramework for working5S Model-Strategy-Scope-Systwm-Skeleton-SurfaceAMRI system Approval,Members,Resources,Interests.Value addition tangible and intangibleReward and recognition for SMEs separate?First deal with the needs of larger OrganisationsLack of effective Sugg SchemesFrom peak membership of 1000 the number has gradually come down to 450- 160- 80Info.of awards on websiteLack of sharing of success storiesList of needs of membersCollaboration with other OrganisationsRebranding of INSSANLife membershipAudit requirementsUpdation and Effective use of Web siteEffectiveness of INSSAN/ Customer focusNew categories of Industries to be under INSSANIt was agreed that all these points can be clubbed under following points.1 Communication and Follow up.2 No connect with senior leadership of member companies.3 No clear Benefits / value proposition- Rebranding 4 Awards Review5 Maintaining annual membership/ Life membership6 Learnings from other-QCFI/Competition7 Need to review clusters /category8 INSSAN Value/ Perception9 Training of members10.Sharing Knowledge and Success stories11 Hand holding12 No new Innovative schemes same old formats
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Items Discussions Action by
3 Members further debated and agreed that addressing all these areas at a time will not be possible and it is better to concentrate on 3 or 4 points.Immediate action will be focused onRebranding – Benefits and value creation for membersCommunication with Senior leadershipCommunication and follow upCategories / Clusters
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4.1
4.2
Action Points
In the discussions along with other points several items were discussed and the deci-sions were as follows.
The communication to new members about the benefits and value in becoming members – the present kit ie Leaflet ( Flier) will be supported with a letter/ commu-nication . All chapter will give their views in modifying.
Members noted that though so much good work is being done at member companies there is very little sharing of it . despite reminders and follow up the information is not being received by Mr Date for publishing in bulletin.It was agreed that for bulletin matter and web matter all chapters will nominate a member from their Managing Committee who will be responsible for communication from the chapter. All nomi-nees will be members of Editorial Committee headed by Mr Date. All chapter Hon Secretaries will send the nominees name to Mr Date..
HQ / Chap-ters
Hon Secre-tary/
4.3 Awards. :There was considerable discussion on the awards and need to review . members felt that organisations participating expect that they will get some award to show to their companies. Also the categories of awards could be different . While all this will be discussed it was agreed that everybody cannot get award as it will loose any meaning and while changes could be made the total awards has to be limited .INSSAN awards have always been looked at by companies as prestigious and should not be diluted. All chapters and members will forward their suggestions by end July18
Communication Members suggested that it is necessary to have more frequent communications amongst us ie HQ and Chapters. We should review the possibility of video confer-encing at least once in a quarter. Members were requested to suggest options in this regard.
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Items Discussions Action by
4.4
4.4
4.5
4.6
5
Members discussed the issue of Life membership or 3 yrs/5yrs fees as members have expressed such a need. This topic needs detailed financial working and all members are requested to give some concrete suggestion on amount . This will be discussed in the follow up meeting and then adopted in AGM . For the current year the present structure will continue.
All chapters were requested to forward copies of minutes of their MC meetings and send a signed copy to HQ for records.
This is also a mandatory requirement
All chapters will maintain the minutes in a standard format. Dr Abhay Kulkarni will circulate a format for adoption
Members were briefed about the accounts closing for the previous years. While audi-tors report is expected shortly and will be circulated to all, all chapters were requested to
Finalise their accounts for 2017-18. The annual account should be complete and have balance sheet as well as Profit and Loss along with the auditors report.
All chapters are required to prepare budget in prescribed format form 16A which will be circulated shortly by HQ.
Follow up Meeting
It was agreed that in order to achieve our desired results a regular follow up is re-quired till all the systems are in place.
The next review meeting will be hosted by WIC at Pune on 19th August 2018.
Mr Zende, Dr Abhay Kulkarni and Mr Pramod Gijare will communicate the final ven-ue and Programme .
Meeting ended with vote of Thanks to Tata Power and all members present
All
Chapters
All Chapters
Dr AK
31.5.2018
All
Chapters
HQ
- M. M. Brahme, Hon. Secretary Inssan - HQ
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- Pune
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Electrosteel Steels LimitedGlimpses of Safalta Awards Ceremony
For Cost Savings Initiatives- Business Excellence
Hon’ble Dignitaries & Awardees with their Families in the ceremony
COO Suresh Khandelwal with Awardees from Steel Melting Shop
Dpty COO Santanu Goswami with Awardees from SMS & Refractory
COO Ajoy Kumar with Awardees from Captive Power Plant
CEO Sunil Katial and VP R.N.Nair with Awardees from DIP Plant
- Md Nasim, Senior Manager, BE
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IFFCO's 8th Inter Unit Innovation and Creativity Meet
IFFCO's 8th Inter Unit Innovation and Creativity Meet was held on 21-22 June, 2018 at FMDI,
Gurugram. IFFCO organises Inter Unit Meet every year to promote suggestion scheme among the employees for the benefit of the organisation. Total 71 participants from Head Office, five production Units and twenty state offices attended the meet.
The inaugural function started with the welcome speech by Mr. Satya Prakash, Sr Manager(Suggestions) , IFFCO. He welcomed the chief guest Mr. R P Singh, Director (HR and Legal) IFFCO, Mr. V K Srivastava, Hon. General Secretary (INSSAN-NIC) and Mr. P V Narayana, Unit Head of Kandla and recipient of the "Best Unit Award in terms of Excellence in suggestion scheme 2017-18" and "Maximum Participation Award for the year 2017-18" and other other
the suggestion scheme during 2017-18 in IFFCO. Thereafter, employees from Head-office, respective units and state offices presented their suggestions.
On second day i.e. 22nd June 2018, all the presentations were evaluated and finally Mr. Satyavrat Mahapatra from IFFCO Paradeep Unit won the first prize, Mr. Paresh Pandya from IFFCO Kandla Unit won the second prize and Mr. Prateek Kumar Gupta from MP State (Marketing) won the third prize. Five
- Satya Prakash, Senior Manager Suggetion
senior officers and participants of different Units and Marketing Offices of IFFCO.
The chief guest Mr. R P Singh addressed the participants and gave away the trophies and cash awards to the winners of different competitions. Mr. Nakul Pathak presented the performance report of
merits awards were also given. Mr. Rahul Mishra from Kandla Unit won the award for the best presentation and Mr. Sukrit Shrivastava won the award for the best coordinator.
In the concluding session, Mr. K L Singh, Director(Technical), IFFCO and Mr. Yo-gesh Munjal, MD, Munjal Showa and chairman,INS-SAN-NIC graced the occasion. They shared their views on the value of innovation and creativity and its benefit for the organisation.
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The Best Way to Boost Your Performance Is Not What You Think
Many years back I worked with a Formula One racing team. At that time, pit crews consisted of 19 guys who serviced the ultrafast, high-tech race-- refueling cars, changing tires, and performing required main-
tenance in a matter of seconds. The pit crew members continually shifted positions to find the optimal config-uration of the team. As they practiced, they used a stopwatch to measure their time to the millisecond. There was a point where they hit a performance plateau. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't go any faster.
Then, they tried a counter intuitive approach. Pit crew members were told that instead of focusing on speed they should focus on style. They were to go fast, but they were to think "smooth" as they performed their activ-ities. Movement was more significant than speed. Astonishingly, the pit crew shaved several tenths of a second off their best time, even though they "felt" they were moving more slowly.
The more you focus on a goal, the less likely you are to achieve it. By worrying about the future, you take your eye off the present. And this reduces performance.
Selling Without Selling
This concept applies in all areas of life and business. For example, sometimes the best way to sell is to not focus on your sales goals. A woman's clothing store had a competition to determine who among its employees could sell the most in two months. The winner would receive a bonus and small raise. All had their eyes on the prize, except for one sales rep who decided on a different approach. Instead of trying to make a sale, she zeroed in on serving the customer. If a customer needed help for eight hours to pick out a blouse, that's what she would do. If she felt customers would find a better product at a competitor, she would send them there. After two months, this sales person who was not trying to make sales outsold everyone else by a significant margin.
We have seen similar results in many sales and service organizations. We all know (and believe) the expression, "You get what you measure." But a serious question arises: will you get what you want? Often, targets and goals create stress and dysfunctional behavior.
Less Motivation, More Performance
The concept of reducing goal-obsession to improve performance is not new. In the early 1900s, Robert Yerkes and J.D. Dodson developed the eponymous Yerkes-Dodson Law. The premise is, performance increases rela-tive to motivation only to a point, after which performance drops. Typically, it is drawn as an inverted U-shaped curve where the x-axis is motivation (their word was arousal) and the y-axis is performance.
Low motivation results in low performance. This is not surprising. As your motivation increases, your perfor-mance increases--to a point. This point is the sweet spot of optimal performance. Then, as you become more goal-obsessed, performance paradoxically decreases. Goals increase stress and cause you to fixate on the future rather than the present.
Yerkes and Dodson suggest that different tasks require different levels of motivation. For example, physically de-manding tasks often require higher levels of motivation. This explains why professional athletes are inclined to be very goal-driven. Even so, as athletes approach major milestones (e.g., 400th home run), their performance drops.
Creativity Has its Own Rewards
Within the business world, Yerkes and Dodson found that intellectually challenging tasks required low levels of motivation. The more creative the work, the less motivation required to hit peak levels of performance.
Interestingly, creativity diminishes when individuals are rewarded (externally motivated) for doing their work. Why? The desire to achieve the goal overtakes the personal interest in the endeavor. A myopic focus on the outcome overshadows the intellectual stimulation of the process. As a result, risk taking becomes reduced and creativity vanishes.
"Working hard" may not be the best way to improve productivity and creativity. Maybe it isn't even about "working smarter." As we have seen, perhaps the answer lies in trying less.
Where else have you seen that not "giving it your all" actually improved performance?
STEPHEN SHAPIRO
Author of Best Practices are Stupid Author, "24/7 Innovation," "Goal-Free Living" and "Personality Poker"
7512 Dr. Phillips Blvd Suite 50-933 Orlando FL 32819 USA
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Innovation Excellence Try this Ideation Method – The Ideas Exchange
BY PAUL SLOANE Lateral thinking innovation and creativity Speaker-UK
The Ideas Exchange is a brainstorm method which works well for
larger groups. It is easy to run, quick and effective. This is the procedure:
1. The problem is clearly stated.
2. Everyone is given two colored cards (or post-it notes). Say one white and one pink.
3. Working silently and individually they write down a sensible idea to solve the problem on the white card and a bizarre, crazy idea on the pink card.
4. People then mill around and swap cards (without reading them) so that they end up with a white card and a pink card from two different people.
5. Each person now has to combine the two ideas they have received. They ‘force fit’ them together or adapt them in some way so that they now have a creative idea.
6. People now work together in teams of 4 or 5. They share their new ideas and everyone is encouraged to support and build upon the ideas they hear.
7. Each team selects its one best idea. At this stage they can adapt or improve the idea in any way they see fit. They then present this idea back to the whole group.
8. The whole group votes for the best ideas using agreed criteria – e.g. we want a solution which is effective, novel and appealing to customers.
A key consideration is that the bizarre ideas have to be really bizarre in order to provoke and stimulate the people who receive them. Tame ideas will lead to bland suggestions so ensure that participants understand that their bizarre ideas must be outrageous. Say we are a charity looking for new ways to reach donors. You receive a white card with the idea of running a Facebook campaign to promote the work of the charity. Your pink card says, ‘Shoot anyone who refuses to donate.’ You have to come up with a combination. You might suggest that you shoot videos of the stories of people you have helped and post the videos on Facebook and Youtube. Or you might suggest that you target known wealthy philanthropists and shoot them a message via social media, email or direct mail. In either case it is the outlandish concept of shooting which stimulates the fresh ideas.
There is a variant of this technique where everyone gets three cards. On each card they write just one differ-ent word. The cards are then shuffled and dealt out so that everyone receives three cards. Each individual has to construct a proposition based on the three words they have received.
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How to Turn a Left-Brained Workforce Into a Creative Machine
STEPHEN SHAPIRO
Author of Best Practices are Stupid Author, "24/7 Innovation," "Goal-Free Living" and "Personality Poker"
7512 Dr. Phillips Blvd Suite 50-933 Orlando FL 32819 USAHow do you structure your innovation teams? If you are like most companies, you put your most creative people in a room to develop ideas who then hand off those ideas to a team of implementers. But is this always the right structure?A fascinating study may give us clues to what is most effective. And the answer may not be what you expect.Managers who attended a leadership course at Eckerd College in Florida were tested to determine whether they were good innovators (those who do things differently and break the rules) or good adapters (those who do things better within the rules). The managers were then broken into teams to solve a given problem. Each team was composed of two groups: the "designers" who had to work out a solution to the problem, and the "builders" who were charged with making it work. There were three teams, each made up of designers and builders.The first team used "innovators" as designers and "adapters" as builders. The second team split everyone up, with both "innovators" and "adapters" doing the design before handing it over to the "innovators" and "adapters" doing the implementation. The third group turned things upside down, with "adapters" doing the design and "innovators" building it.Which of these three combinations would you expect to be the most effective? One thing we know is that different styles, left to their own devices, do not communicate well with one another. Therefore, we can eliminate the second team--the one comprised of heterogeneous groups. In this scenario, as soon as an innovator developed an idea, an adapter would find reasons why it would not work. If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, then innovators are from Iowa (where their slogan is "Fields of Opportunities") and adapters are from Missouri (the "Show Me" state). Without any support, communication can be a disaster.But which of the homogenous approaches was more effective? In order to answer this, you need a bit more information about the design of the experiment itself. Peter Hammerschmidt, the author of the study, told me that "The design environment was very rule-bound (there were seven rules that they needed to follow in completing the task) while the build instructions had virtually no rules at all." Although we typically associate innovators with design, in this environment, the innovators worked most effectively in the build environment where the rules were undefined while the adapters worked most effectively in the rule-oriented design envi-ronment. Given this, team three was the most effective. Peter concluded, "When people were aligned with their preferred environment, they excelled. But when I placed them in a less preferred environment, their success rates dropped significantly."
When people are put in the wrong environment, they are always less effective. It is not so much the task itself, but the rules we put on those tasks. Intuitively we might want to assign innovators to design tasks while leaving build tasks to the adapters. But as this study showed, it is not the specific task that matters, but rather the struc-ture of the task. Innovators naturally work better in less structured environments while the adapters work best inside a set of rules. Although the idea generation aspects of innovation tend to be less organized, adapters can effectively participate if the roles and rules are changed to provide more structure. Equally, the more structured development phases of innovation can appeal to innovators if some of the rules are relaxed for those individuals.
As Peter Hammerschmidt concluded, "There were two primary factors impacting the success rates: role pref-erence and communicating with others of differing styles. Both groups were equally 'creative,' but their styles of creativity were very different."
Getting the right person in the right role with the right set of rules is fundamental to the success of a team. And it's critical that people know how they contribute to--and detract from--the innovation process. Adapters can and should participate in idea generation without letting their "yeah, buts" stifle the creative process, while innovators can contribute to implementation without letting "bright shiny objects" derail progress.
20Printed by Editor, S. H. Date, INSSAN Bulletin for Indian National Suggestion Schemes’ Association, Mumbai.
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