Think of the biggest, most frustrating problem you have. You've thought about it endlessly, and can't come up with a workable solution. Now think about a "kitchen cabinet", a term invented by the opponents of President Jackson. The
"kitchen cabinet" is a group of people as diverse as you can think of,
who can consider your problem from different angles. They may be diverse
in their ages, genders, race, ethnicity, professions or trades, where
they were raised, or any other way. Ideally they all meet together once or twice, but if not, maybe they can meet online.
The
Ideo company in "The Art of Innovation" uses diverse groups when
starting a project, putting together a multi-disciplinary team from many
fields. Some other companies do this as well. Why can't you do it as
well?
Many
business leaders participate in "mastermind" groups, carefully selected
from non-competitors, who can advise each other over a year or longer.
Often only 1 person per industry is allowed in a group.
Another
strategy to improve idea generation is to encourage employees to choose
the problem they would like to help solve. Increased motivation can
lead to better results; people work harder to resolve a problem that is
important to them.
A
third strategy is to run a silent brainstorming session. This
research-based method, done using a specific format, neatly sidesteps
many of the problems with the traditional brainstorming technique.