POINT your Way To Better Ideas!
What’s one of the biggest barriers to innovation? The way new ideas are treated! Typically, the more novel an idea is, the more likely it is rejected right away. In order for creative ideas to succeed, they need time to be nurtured and developed! So, how might you develop and strengthen a new idea?
For close to a decade, I have been working with individuals, teams, and
organizations to support and nurture creative thinking. One of the
most powerful tools for encouraging creative thinking in yourself and others is a very simple tool known as Praise First: POINT!
Use the tool known as Praise First POINT to deliberately evaluate new ideas and watch creative thinking thrive!
POINT stands for Pluses, Opportunities, Issues and New Thinking. Here’s how it works.
When presented with an idea: First start with Praise!
1) Pluses - List at least three things that are good about the idea as the idea stands now.
2) Opportunities – List at least three future benefits that might occur if this idea was pursued. For example, it might lead to more jobs.
Use the statement starter, "It might" to help you generate opportunities
It might…
It might…
It might…
3) Issues – what concerns or issues do you have with this idea? List your key issues or concerns and phrase your issues as open-ended questions starting with how might?
For example, if one of your issues is we don’t have the funding, you might phrase it as How might we obtain funding?
How might…
How might…
4) New thinking: For each of your key issues, brainstorm ways to overcome the issue. For example, use new thinking to overcome the issue, How might we obtain funding? What ideas do you have?
The next time you are presented with a new idea or you have a new idea yourself, use POINT and see what happens!
Posted: September 24th, 2007 under Musings.
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