BrainSwarming makes gamification easy!

Divide your group into teams of 3 or 4 each and give each team Post-It notes of a different color. After the BrainSwarming graph is built, then count up the points in the following way.

1) 1 point for each Post-It note on the graph
2) 3 points for each solution path that a Post-It note is on. A solution path connects the goal to the resources. It is a way of indicating how to use the resources to achieve the goal.

The team with the most points wins.

Let's look at an example.

Suppose your teams are trying to save everyone on the Titanic. They have to keep people out of the icy water until help arrives in four hours.

The manager starts with the following graph. The goal, "save Titanic passengers," is at the top. One known resource, "lifeboats," is placed at the bottom.

Suppose two team, Red and Blue, contribute to the graph. They rephrase the goal and add that to the top. They add new resources and add that to the bottom. They interact resources together and place those in the middle.

After some work, the BrainSwarming graph looks as follows.

The Blue team notices the iceberg and mentions many of its features. The Red team phrases the goal in a key way, "put people on floating things," that becomes part of all six solutions.

The Blue team used 10 Post-It notes while the Red team used just 6. So, it looks like the Blue team will win. However, the Red team's Post-It notes are involved with more solutions than the Blue team's, so maybe they will win. Let's count things up to see.

1) 1 point for each Post-It note on the graph
Blue: 10 Post-Its x 1 point each = 10 points
Red: 6 Post-Its x 1 point each = 6 points

2) 3 points for each solution path that a Post-It note is on.
Blue: 3 Post-Its x 3 point each = 9 points 
The iceberg is involved in one solution. There were many cars on the Titanic, so rubber tires and inner tubes could be used to build a raft that wood was placed on.

Red: 11 Post-Its on Solution Paths x 3 points each = 33 points
"Put people on floating things" is part of 6 solutions, so that Post-It note yields 18 points (6 x 3). Five other red Post-Its are each involved in one solution yielding 15 more points (5 x 3).

Total Points:
Blue: 10 + 9 = 19
Red: 6 + 33 = 39

Although Blue had more Post-Its, Red's were part of more solutions so Red won!

If you have suggestions for other scoring methods, please let me know. Contact me at tony@innovationaccelerator.com

BrainSwarming was applied to this problem and we focused on the goal "prevent car from heating up."

After 5,000 years, are there really any novel candle designs or accessories? Yes, if you know how to uncover the overlooked features of candles.

If someone just creates a new color of candle, we would not call this innovative. But how could we quantify our sense of what is innovative and what is not?

In contrast, the self-snuffing candle uses the fact that candles lose weight when they burn (an overlooked feature) and the fact that candles do not normally move (an overlooked feature). How could we quantify the innovativeness of this design?

Here is one way.

The graph below consists of 32 types of features on the x-axis that any object might possess: color, shape, size, material make-up, and many more. Subjects listed all the features and associations that they could  for a candle and we then categorized the features they listed according to the 32 categories.

As you can see, some features like color (#5), material make-up (#2), shape (#3), size (#4) , and others are commonly noticed. Other features are overlooked such as weight (#9) and motion (#26).

Based on this information, we can create a formula to calculate the innovativeness of a design. I am still working on the specifics of the formula based on the degree of obscurity of each of the manipulated features of the new design.

Suppose you give a person the problem of saving everyone on the Titanic. Instead of just counting final solutions, is there a more fine-grained way to measure the quantity, diversity, and uniqueness of ideas as the solver tries to create full solutions?

BrainSwarming graphs are ideal for just this quantitative, fine-grained measurement.

A BrainSwarming breaks innovative thinking into four main components. As the figure below shows, the goal is placed at the top and refined sub-goals grow downward. Resources are placed at the bottom and their features extend upward as signified by solid lines. Resources are interacted together, as signified by dotted lines, to produce effects that may contribute to a solution. When the top-down network connects with the bottom-up network, then a candidate solution arises.

Based on the BrainSwarm graph, there are initially 5 types of things that can be counted: (1) the number of sub-goals that refine the main goal, resources across the bottom, the features that each resources is decomposed into, the number of interactions among the resources, as well as the number of full solution paths that were devised. These five measures (and others) together constitute a Creativity Quotient (CQ).


A Profile of Creative Strengths and Weaknesses

People could be strong on some of these measures and weak on others. For example, a person might be good at noticing many resources that others overlook, but be weak at interacting them together to form a solution path. Once a person's strengths and weaknesses are uncovered, the person could then work on their weaknesses to improve their overall CQ.


Example: Save Everyone on the Titanic

Suppose a person is given all the facts about the Titanic collision and their problem solving activity was diagrammed into the following BrainSwarming graph.

The person thinks of only one solution, put people in lifeboats, which leaves 1,500 people without lifeboats to die in the icy North Atlantic waters.

Quantitatively, this person created only one way to phrase the goal (put people in lifeboats), one resource (lifeboats), and one partial solution.

Suppose another person works on the problem and produces the following BrainSwarming graph.

Quantitatively, this person created three ways to phrase the goal, six resources, six features of one of the resources, six interactions, and six solutions that together might save all the passengers. 

Before looking at the solutions from this graph, notice that BrainSwarming graph provides five quantifiable measures as opposed to just measuring one: the number of complete solutions.

The iceberg is listed as a resource and decomposed into features and those solid lines grow upward. The listed features help reveal that the iceberg is a floating surface that, based on eyewitness accounts, was about 50-100 feet out of the water and 200-400 feet long. Possibly, lifeboats could have ferried people back to it to look for flat spots that would keep people out of the water until help arrived. Or, less likely, since Titanic was navigable for 20 minutes after the collision, perhaps Titanic could have navigated besides the iceberg so that people could have climbed directly onto it.

Wooden tables and wooden boards from the palacial dining room might have been used to span between two lifeboats creating a new surface between them that could support people.

Many passengers brought their belongings onboard in steamer trunks. Empty the trunks and close them tight, so they will float. Tie many of them together to create a floating surface. If too unsteady, lay wooden boards across them to make what people stand on more sturdy.

Rubber tires and inner tubes. It is estimated that up to 40 cars were in storage. That means at least 160 rubber tire and 160 inner tubes--not counting spare tires. Again, fastening together the rubber tires and inner tubes in larger round or rectangular shapes could have provided a floating foundation upon which to place boards.

Conclusion

The BrainSwarming graph is a strong candidate for quantifying innovative thinking. It breaks innovative problem solving into five components to measure: subgoals, resources, features, interactions, and full solutions. Counting all these quantities (and perhaps others) creates a profile of the strengths and weaknesses of the innovative thinker. I propose these measures as one form of a Creativity Quotient (CQ).

What manager has not wished that they could measure how innovative their team members are? 

With BrainSwarming graphs, it is quite easy, quantitative, and objective. 

Suppose your team was working on the Titanic problem and created the BrainSwarming graph shown in the figure below. 

First, I will describe the BrainSwarming graph for Titanic solutions and then show how it leads to quantitative, objective measures for each team member.

Remember that in a BrainSwarming graph the goal starts at the top: save Titanic passengers. Refinements of the goal grow downward. Resources start at the bottom: iceberg, wooden tables, lifeboats, etc. The iceberg is decomposed into features and those solid lines grow upward. Dotted lines indicates the interactions between resources. For example, it was estimated that 40 cars were being transported on the Titanic, so that means up to 160 rubber tires and 160 inner tubes--not counting spare tires. Tie the tires together in rectangular shapes to form a floating platform. Then, place wooden boards/planks on the floating tires so people can stand or sit on this make-shift raft. The dotted lines show that by interacting planks and car tires together you can make a platform with the tires beneath. This, in turn, is a way to put people on floating things--which solves the problem.

Here's how a manager can measure the innovativeness of team members.

Suppose your team created the above BrainSwarming graph, using sticky notes and drawn lines on a big whiteboard. Ask each team member to write their initials on the back of the sticky notes they used.

After the graph is built, the manager can count up the sticky notes as follows.

1) Count up how many sticky notes were contributed by each team member. This measures the raw quantity of ideas.

2) Count up how many sticky notes from each team member were on a solution path (a path with dotted lines that connects the goal and the resources). This measures how many practical and useful ideas were created--after all, they were part of a solution.

3) Count up how many sticky notes from each team member were on the solution path that was chosen as the best by management. This measure the IT Factor. How attuned are team members with what management likes?

Although no measurement of innovation is perfect, the one proposed here certainly captures different aspects of creativity: sheer quantity, usefulness, and the It Factor.  

These quantitative measures can be used both to evaluate team members and incentivize them to highly engage in solving the company's problems.

Breakthrough solutions we've found using BrainSwarming!

Reduce Football Concussions

What was overlooked? Magnets can repel each other.

Make each helmet magnetic (there are various ways to do this) with the same pole facing outward so the helmets repel each other when in close proximity. Based on initial tests, helmets approaching each other will slow in velocity and slightly alter their direction. This produces a glancing blow rather than a direct collision. Several physicists have verified the plausibility of this approach for significantly reducing the force during helmet collisions.

For more details, read more at this blog. 

http://ahauniverse.weebly.com/blog/brainswarming-solves-concussions


Save Everyone on the Titanic

What was overlooked? Many things.

The iceberg was a large floating surface 50-100 feet out of the water and 200-400 feet long, according to eyewitness accounts. People could have possibly found flat spots on the iceberg to stay out of the frigid water until help arrived. Read more about this possibility.

http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/05/overcoming-functional-fixednes/

Wooden boards and planks could have been used to straddle between lifeboats creating a platform above the water for holding people.

Many wooden tables from the palacial dining rooms would float and perhaps they could have been tied together to make a large floating surface to keep people out of the icy north Atlantic waters until help arrived.

Many passengers brought their belongings onboard in steamer trunks. Empty the trunks and close them tight, so they will float. Tie many of them together to create a floating surface. If too unsteady, lay wooden boards across them to make what people stand on more sturdy.

Rubber tires and inner tubes. It is estimated that up to 40 cars were in storage. Again, fastening together the rubber tires and inner tubes could have provided a floating foundation upon which to place boards.

These are just a few of the resources that our BrainSwarming process uncovered.


Adhere a Coating to Teflon

What was overlooked? Magnets again.

An engineering company approached us with this unsolved problem. Everything they tried failed and most often damaged the Teflon. They were stuck on chemical solutions.

I listed out the assumptions they were making when they used the verb adhere to describe their problem. Two assumptions were crucial to devising a solution. They assumed they should use a chemical solution and they should fasten together two surfaces.

I challenged those assumptions and created the Teflon Sandwich Solution.

The solution consisted of a sandwich of three surfaces (i.e., coating, Teflon, and magnet) in which the coating indirectly stuck to the Teflon due to its attraction to the magnetic surface beneath the Teflon. The coating, of course, must possess the proper chemical makeup to attract the magnetic surface.

Create New Uses for a Product

A company asked me to create new uses for pouch packaging. Pouches stand up and reseal at the top. They are already used to hold many things, including candy as shown in the figure below.

What was overlooked? Many things.

Empty pouches. All pouches sold contain something. Sell empty pouches so that the customer can decide what to put in them. Sell these empty pouches in supermarkets next to the sandwich bags and freezer bags.

Multiple Compartment Pouches. All pouches have one inner compartment. Two-compartment pouches could hold two things that you want to mix together later: salad and salad dressing, milk and cereal, etc.

Aroma Control Pouches. Smell is an overlooked potential of pouches. Sell potpourri in resealable pouches so you can reseal them and stop the aroma. Sell pouches the size of  office garbage cans that reseal to keep the garbage smell inside.

Larger Pouches.  Most pouches sold are about the size of one's hand. As described above, make standing pouches the size of office garbage cans. Or, sell a gallon of paint in a resealable pouch.


How were these things noticed? The List of 50 Features

We have an extensive list of 50 features that any object can possess (e.g., shape, material, etc). My research shows that people overlook 66% of the features on this list. That is a lot of overlooked features that could be manipulated to produce new uses. Using this list of 50 features quickly uncovers these overlooked possibilities.


Restructuring U.S. Postal Deliver

What was overlooked? Where people go frequently, perhaps daily, besides home.

Imagine going through the drive-through everyday to pick up your morning coffee and your mail. 

Imagine subway commuters picking up their mail at a bank of mail boxes in a subway station that they frequent every weekday. Subway stations are locked at night.

Postal workers deliver the mail to this frequented locations and save incredible money by eliminating so many home deliveries. Postal workers deliver the mail to banks of boxes at coffee drive-throughs and hand it out in the morning as people commute to work.


Self-Snuffing Candle

What was overlooked? The fact that candles are motionless, so make them move!

How was this noticed? The List of 50 Features (described above with the pouch example)

Candles also lose weight when they burn--another overlooked feature! Use weight loss to cause motion and you have the self-snuffing candle. Adjust the counterweight and you change the time the candle will burn before rising into the snuffer and extinguishing itself.

Submit your problem to tony@innovationaccelerator.com. The problem should be a technical or business problem. Examples of breakthrough solutions we have created to problems are listed below.

Once a month, I will use BrainSwarming techniques on a select problem. Maybe yours. There are only two stipulations. First, I need to be allowed to publish the results of my work on the problem except for the confidential aspects. Second, if my work on your problem is successful, your company will provide a recommendation about the merits of the BrainSwarming approach. If you need more confidentiality that will not permit me to publish sufficient details about your problem, then I am available for hire to apply BrainSwarming to your problem and will then keep everything confidential.

Breakthrough solutions we've found using BrainSwarming!

Reduce Football Concussions

What was overlooked? Magnets can repel each other.

Make each helmet magnetic (there are various ways to do this) with the same pole facing outward so the helmets repel each other when in close proximity. Based on initial tests, helmets approaching each other will slow in velocity and slightly alter their direction. This produces a glancing blow rather than a direct collision. Several physicists have verified the plausibility of this approach for significantly reducing the force during helmet collisions.

For more details, read more at this blog. 

http://ahauniverse.weebly.com/blog/brainswarming-solves-concussions


Save Everyone on the Titanic

What was overlooked? Many things.

The iceberg was a large floating surface 50-100 feet out of the water and 200-400 feet long, according to eyewitness accounts. People could have possibly found flat spots on the iceberg to stay out of the frigid water until help arrived. Read more about this possibility.

http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/05/overcoming-functional-fixednes/

Wooden boards and planks could have been used to straddle between lifeboats creating a platform above the water for holding people.

Many wooden tables from the palacial dining rooms would float and perhaps they could have been tied together to make a large floating surface to keep people out of the icy north Atlantic waters until help arrived.

Many passengers brought their belongings onboard in steamer trunks. Empty the trunks and close them tight, so they will float. Tie many of them together to create a floating surface. If too unsteady, lay wooden boards across them to make what people stand on more sturdy.

Rubber tires and inner tubes. It is estimated that up to 40 cars were in storage. Again, fastening together the rubber tires and inner tubes could have provided a floating foundation upon which to place boards.

These are just a few of the resources that our BrainSwarming process uncovered.


Adhere a Coating to Teflon

What was overlooked? Magnets again.

An engineering company approached us with this unsolved problem. Everything they tried failed and most often damaged the Teflon. They were stuck on chemical solutions.

I listed out the assumptions they were making when they used the verb adhere to describe their problem. Two assumptions were crucial to devising a solution. They assumed they should use a chemical solution and they should fasten together two surfaces.

I challenged those assumptions and created the Teflon Sandwich Solution.

The solution consisted of a sandwich of three surfaces (i.e., coating, Teflon, and magnet) in which the coating indirectly stuck to the Teflon due to its attraction to the magnetic surface beneath the Teflon. The coating, of course, must possess the proper chemical makeup to attract the magnetic surface.

Create New Uses for a Product

A company asked me to create new uses for pouch packaging. Pouches stand up and reseal at the top. They are already used to hold many things, including candy as shown in the figure below.

What was overlooked? Many things.

Empty pouches. All pouches sold contain something. Sell empty pouches so that the customer can decide what to put in them. Sell these empty pouches in supermarkets next to the sandwich bags and freezer bags.

Multiple Compartment Pouches. All pouches have one inner compartment. Two-compartment pouches could hold two things that you want to mix together later: salad and salad dressing, milk and cereal, etc.

Aroma Control Pouches. Smell is an overlooked potential of pouches. Sell potpourri in resealable pouches so you can reseal them and stop the aroma. Sell pouches the size of  office garbage cans that reseal to keep the garbage smell inside.

Larger Pouches.  Most pouches sold are about the size of one's hand. As described above, make standing pouches the size of office garbage cans. Or, sell a gallon of paint in a resealable pouch.


How were these things noticed? The List of 50 Features

We have an extensive list of 50 features that any object can possess (e.g., shape, material, etc). My research shows that people overlook 66% of the features on this list. That is a lot of overlooked features that could be manipulated to produce new uses. Using this list of 50 features quickly uncovers these overlooked possibilities.


Restructuring U.S. Postal Deliver

What was overlooked? Where people go frequently, perhaps daily, besides home.

Imagine going through the drive-through everyday to pick up your morning coffee and your mail. 

Imagine subway commuters picking up their mail at a bank of mail boxes in a subway station that they frequent every weekday. Subway stations are locked at night.

Postal workers deliver the mail to this frequented locations and save incredible money by eliminating so many home deliveries. Postal workers deliver the mail to banks of boxes at coffee drive-throughs and hand it out in the morning as people commute to work.


Self-Snuffing Candle

What was overlooked? The fact that candles are motionless, so make them move!

How was this noticed? The List of 50 Features (described above with the pouch example)

Candles also lose weight when they burn--another overlooked feature! Use weight loss to cause motion and you have the self-snuffing candle. Adjust the counterweight and you change the time the candle will burn before rising into the snuffer and extinguishing itself.