Capture, Recycle and Re-use Ideas

Say you hold a brainstorm meeting and generate 100 ideas, what do you do next? You should use some selection criteria to whittle the long list of suggestions down to say a dozen promising ideas. The criteria should be reasonably broad so as not to eliminate radical ideas. You might then vote to select the ideas you want to action - this might be the two or three best. What happens to the other promising ideas that don't make it onto the to-do list? Ideally you should capture them in a database of good ideas and then take a look through that list from time to time.

Many great ideas are cast aside because the time is not right for them. An energy saving initiative which is not justifiable when oil is $50 a barrel could be a real winner when oil is $150 a barrel. Resources that are limited today may become available tomorrow. Sometimes it is hard to see how a good idea could be actioned but later the opportunity presents itself. 3M's post-it note glue that did not stick was an invention that had to wait until Art Fry found a use for it.

Many of the ideas that you need for new products or services may have surfaced in earlier meetings and been shelved for all sorts of reasons. Don't waste all the creativity that goes into idea generation. Store, recycle and re-use ideas. When you need some inspiration just browse through your database of ideas that were promising but not actioned. The solution you need may be sitting in there now.

Paul Sloane is the author of The Leader's Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills. He speaks on innovation.

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