The following is an excerpt from "Blueprints for Innovation" by Dr. Charles W. Prather and Dr. Lisa K. Gundry.

THE FIVE PITFALLS THAT HINDER INNOVATION

Below are five major pitfalls people and organizations tend to fall into when trying to become more innovative. As you read, see how many of these apply to you or your organization, so that you can sidestep them at every upcoming opportunity.

1. Identifying the Wrong Problem

You may have wondered why problems often don't stay solved, or solutions never quite work out as expected, despite your best efforts. Many times it's because the wrong problem was defined. For example, consider the case of a large synthetic fiber producer. The company's management originally sponsored a workshop to help find ways to reduce the manufacturing cost of a particular product-but instead, the participants developed a highly successful way to increase the sales of a profitable segment of that product line. How were they able to change their focus in this way? They simply examined the problem within the broader context of profitability, and discovered that the real problem was low profits.

2. Judging ideas too quickly

We've already discussed how adults tend toward convergent thinking when the task calls for individuals to be divergent. This tendency always leads people to judge ideas too quickly, thereby effectively squelching the creative process. All employees (but especially, the experts) need to understand the distinction between divergent and convergent thinking, and need to learn to put their tendency to converge "on hold" at certain times, to allow new ideas to flourish. Children are naturally divergent in their thinking because they don't yet have a great storehouse of knowledge and experience against which to judge new ideas. We must learn to become more "child-like" by putting our strong tendency to converge "on hold" for a little while, asking, as children do, "What's right about this idea?"

3. Stopping with the First Good Idea

The first good idea is never the best. That's because it was the easiest to come up with, so there's little doubt that competitors have already thought of it, too. Also, the first idea is generally derived from brainstorming-and brainstorming, effective as it is, isn't set up to change thinking patterns. Most often during a brainstorming session, the "usual ideas" emerge. Perhaps they are slightly rearranged, but they are almost never the truly unexpected ideas that are needed to surpass the competition. By contrast, the very best ideas-the ones most often chosen to be implemented-are two to three times more likely to come from thoughts that occur after the ability to generate ideas via brainstorming has been exhausted.

4. Failing to get the "Bandit on the Train"

Imagine you are on a train in the American West in the late 1800s. Your train is traveling from Laramie to Tombstone, and you fear that bandits will come from behind tall rocks and dynamite the track. How can you keep that from happening?

One answer is to "get the bandits on the train." In an organizational sense, this means figuring out whose support you must have or who could derail your project, and finding a way to get them on the train-to have them become part of the project early on. At DuPont's Center for Creativity and Innovation, leaders confirmed that when a manager (or managers) with the authority to commit dollars and personnel actively participates throughout the problem-solving process (from problem definition through idea generation and action planning), he or she does not "dynamite the track."

5. Obeying Rules That Don't Exist

There's a Gary Larsen cartoon that shows two cowboys crouched behind their covered wagons as flaming arrows head their way. One says to the other, "Hey, they're lighting their arrows! Can they do that?"

Many times we hamstring ourselves by assuming we cannot do something, when in fact there is no reason why we can't. We may assume that a rule must be obeyed when actually there is no such rule at all. For example, have you ever assumed that you had to do all the work assigned you? Or that you had to do everything anyone asked? Of course you have. Examining our set of assumptions, and then reversing them, is one easy method of generating new ideas.

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