4 Selecting ideas

Once you have completed the Fast Idea Generator Template, it is time to review the ideas and select the best ones to explore in greater detail and potentially develop into workable innovations. In Rikta’s case, the individual approaches helped her to see aspects of the teaching system from entirely new perspectives. Although some of the new ideas were a little unlikely, she now has a number of options from which she can choose and develop into a really compelling idea.

Whether you are working alone or with colleagues, you need to decide when you have enough ideas and are ready to begin selecting the best one(s). You could put a time-limit on each approach – this is better than timing the overall activity, as you might run out of time before you’ve completed every section. Alternatively, challenge yourself (or the group) to think of five ideas for each section (or maybe one for each section from each person in the group). However you do it, make sure you have applied a time limit, at which point you can stop and review the ideas that you’ve generated. Some sections will feel easier to complete than others, and it is just as detrimental to produce too many ideas as it is too few. Having a time-limit to your activity will help to relieve some of the pressure either way.

Figure 3: Know when to stop!

Some ideas might seem to be completely unfeasible at first glance but, before you dismiss them, open yourself to the possibility that they could prompt another way of looking at things – just because an idea isn’t directly applicable doesn’t mean that it has no merit whatsoever. Think carefully about each idea, even the silliest, before deciding on the ones that are worth exploring further. If you’re working in a group and are having trouble deciding, you could get people to vote for their top three favourite ideas, or give them timed opportunities (perhaps a minute each) to try to convince colleagues of the merit of an idea.