As the late, great Robin Williams once said, “No matter what people tell you, ideas can change the world.”  He’s right.  Great ideas are new, unique and meaningful and great ideas have the ability to revolutionize your company’s thinking.

The only problem is — great ideas are hard to come by.  So how can you be the champion of ideation in your startup?

Get ready to follow a systematic process for predictable results, and keep these 4 ground rules in mind –

1. No killing ideas.  During the ideation (brainstorming) stage of your process, don’t kill ideas.  Let them flow free!  Negative self talk is the biggest killer of ideas, but group think and team opinions can also put the kibosh on otherwise brilliant concepts.
2. Initially, go for quantity.  Dr. Detlef Reis of Hong Kong-based Thinkergy Limited says that a good team ideation session could produce as many as 800 new ideas!  Imagine leading your startup to victory with so many fantastic new concepts.  During the initial stages of ideation, go for quantity and forget words like “feasibility”.
3. The wilder the better!  Yep.  Brainstorming is your time to really think outside the box.  There’s no idea too large or too small.  Really wild ideas often result in bite sized actionable projects that eventually come to fruition.  For inspiration, check out a few crazy business ideas that worked.
4. Combine and improve ideas.  After your team has generated a massive list of wildly awesome ideas, it’s time to pare them down.  Combine and improve your ideas to consolidate overlap and get ready to take action.

It’s important to remember that the difference between a dreamer and an innovator is action.  At the end of your team’s brainstorming sessions, you should 80/20 your concepts and begin to reel them in.

Once you’ve nailed down your next great idea, get to work!  Let us know how Startup Stir’s community of entrepreneurs can support you.

Image Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/anieto2k/8624484494/

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