[humanser] Why Innovation By Brainstorming Doesn't Work

[Mary Ann Robinson]

Why Innovation By Brainstorming Doesn't Work
  By Debra Kaye February 28, 2013
  Anything--even doing laundry--will help you dream up new ideas
better than sitting in a meeting, says Debra Kaye, author of "Red
Thread Thinking." A case study of the history of the single-use
detergent pod.
  Eleven men and women file into a conference room and take their
places around a large table.  Coffee cups and pastries are
assembled in front of them.  George, the leader, steps up to a
large whiteboard and scrawls across the top "SOAP STORM SESSION
9/18/1`.was "Okay, let's begin," he tells the group.  "Let's just
start free-associating.  What do we think of when we think clean
laundry?" he asks.  "To get the ball rolling, I'll write a few
words down," he says and dashes off chore, piles, whites and
brights, and fresh on the board.  "What else?" he asks.  Several
people add a few more words: time-consuming, fold, bright,
uncontaminated, pretty, nice, old-fashioned, and pleasant.
  The meeting continues for about an hour, with more words and
thoughts added.  The plan was for the team to come up with a new
idea for laundry detergent.  When the meeting is over, the team
members file back to their cubicles, word lists in hand, to
ponder the outcome--but none of them ever produced any new
insights into doing laundry that would lead to a new product.
That's because the group made the fatal error of trying to
innovate by brainstorming around the idea of the central
attribute of laundry--cleanliness.  So while they came up with a
pretty long list of words, none of the few concepts that came out
of the meeting--"cleans in a shorter time," "cleans without
presoaking," "brightens without fading"--was out-of-the-box
spectacular.
  This scenario takes place every day in office suites around the
world.  That's an important point to remember, because companies
everywhere are brainstorming the same things about clean laundry
as my imaginary team.  Everything about clean laundry likely has
been thought of before.  It turns out that a brainstorming
session is a great place to load up on baked goods and caffeine,
but it's not so great for generating ideas.  In fact, the team in
my imaginary example would have come up with more original
associations and innovative thoughts had they stayed home and
sorted a sock drawer, taken a hike, relaxed in a bathtub, or done
just about anything else autonomously--including a load of
laundry.
  The conventional wisdom that innovation can be
institutionalized or done in a formal group is simply wrong.
Part of what we know about the brain makes it clear why the best
new ideas don't emerge from formal brainstorming.  First, the
brain doesn't make connections in a rigid atmosphere.  There is
too much pressure and too much influence from others in the
group.  The "free association" done in brainstorming sessions is
often shackled by peer pressure and as a result generates obvious
responses.  In fact, psychologists have documented the
predictability of free association.
  You can see this clearly from the responses to "clean laundry"
in my example.  One association feeds off the next in an expected
fashion.  The leader does what leaders often do--inadvertently
gets the upper hand by throwing out certain words that generate
conventional results, thereby dominating and directing the "free"
association of the group.
  As I said earlier, the team should have been given the day off
to do laundry.  That's pretty much what happened at
Philadelphia-based Cotbn Wash Inc.  Originally the company was a
cotton mill that spun cotton and made sweaters.  In the 1980's,
the owner's wife developed a gentle detergent that would wash the
sweaters without yellowing or stretching.  Flash forward about 30
years.  Nina E.  Swift, wife of the original owner's son,
Jonathan Propper, was doing laundry one day and realized that
even though she loved Cotbn Wash, she disliked measuring and
pouring liquid or powder from a jug or a box.  Both were messy,
and she used far more detergent than was recommended (measuring
is imperfect and people err on the side of generous, she
discovered).
  This was a mega consumer insight.  Was it just she who felt
this way, or was it everyone? She talked to Jonathan, who thought
she was on to something.  So he brought the idea to his small
company and created Dropps, a single-use package of detergent.
One small package, similar to those used in dishwashing packets,
washes a load of laundry--all you have to do is toss it in the
wash and go.  It solved a lot of problems--no more measuring,
mess, or waste.  The product also benefited the environment by
using less water, plastic, and packaging.  No phosphates or
chlorine means it's green.
  "The technology actually existed for the dissolvable laundry
detergent package," says Dropps's Remy Wildrick, who calls
herself the pragmatic side of Propper's creative mind.  "And the
patent happened to be owned by a person in Philadelphia, which
was just a nice side note.  We bought the technology from him and
developed Dropps." The product is sold online, at independent
retailers, and at Target.  Other larger manufacturers didn't
introduce their versions of the single-serving detergent pod
until years later.
  "What's funny is that the technology was sitting there for
quite a while, but none of the big guys were using it.  They were
sticking to the same old jugs and boxes--but in mid-2012 they all
started coming out with uni-packages," says Remy.  Since Dropps
is small, it can't compete on volume sales with the big guys, but
it can compete on the product's green aspects and focus on the
fact that it contains Cotbn Wash detergent, which has an almost
cult-like fan base, especially among the environmentally
conscious.
  Fresh ideas come when your brain is relaxed and engaged in
something other than the particular problem you're embroiled in.
In the Dropps situation, Jonathan Propper's wife identified a
problem, and he made a connection to a solution, a technology
that existed for another application.  This is the polar opposite
of what happens in brainstorming sessions.  Long showers, soaks
in a tub, long walks, or doing chores are frequently when those
"synapses" that find alternative solutions to a problem in new
ways all hit together so that the big idea can spring.
  Published as an excerpt from Red Thread Thinking: Weaving
Together Connections for Brilliant Ideas and Profitable
Innovation with permission from McGraw-Hill
  Debra Kayeinin is a trends consultant specializing in brand
strategy.  Follow her on Twitter at at DebraAKaye.
  Copyright B) 2013 Mansueto Ventures LLC.  All rights reserved.