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Creativity Comments by Winston J. Brill, Ph.D.

01/03 Creativity Comment

You May Have the Next Great Idea

Can you predict who, in your organization or department, will be the originator of the next great idea?  I’ll bet it won’t be the person you predicted.  Great ideas can come from anyone at any time.  Let me just mention a few great ideas that I learned about through my consulting.

Jeff, a janitor in a pharmaceutical company, thought of—and told others about—an observation he made while cleaning animal rooms.  This led to a new drug, currently undergoing human trails.

High-level managers of a company in the auto industry had a meeting that came to an unsatisfactory consensus about a major design problem.  Sue, a secretary, attended the meeting to record the discussion.  The next day, while preparing breakfast for her family, Sue thought of a better way to solve the problem.  She told her boss, who quickly got the others to agree to her solution.

A very successful advertising theme in a food company was thought of by Sergei, a statistician who came upon the idea while leisurely reading at home about a subject that had nothing obvious to do with his work.

Perhaps you, or one of your staff members will have your organization’s next great idea.

By the way, anything in common to Jeff, Sue and Sergei?  We’ll deal with that in the next Creativity Comment.