Encouraging Ideation
Background
The current COVID crisis has forced most business owners to ‘pivot’, to ‘reposition’ their business, in order to navigate through these times. But do we know how to innovate, how to be creative?
Ideation is an early phase of an Entrepreneurial journey and a phase business owners are needing to revisit. Let’s explore some thinking on the topic…..
The Interview
Innovate Durban is an NPC formed at the intersection of Government, Universities and Business that seeks to stimulate economic development, whilst solving societal issues, by the promotion of innovation.
They are a key resource in encouraging the Ideation and Incubation of new ideas. Take a look at their website ……
Watch the short video on Design Thinking by Amy Benn at Innovate Durban, and consider joining one of their Workshops or asking them to do a Sprint at your business and embrace the latest thinking in the innovation space.
The Group Discussion
The Design Thinking process was discussed by the group and what was very interesting was that a people-centred approach again came up – it certainly seems to be a recurring theme amongst all the deep dives that have been happening into the various topics. Mention was made of the ‘World Café’ method of group thinking, and it was suggested to use Google and research the technique and try it out in your business in order to rethink as a group, problems which were addressed in ways which were not working.
A business owner had recently pivoted in one of her businesses and it was not working to plan – some excellent advice was given from a perspective of experience and expertise, by other members of the group. She later thought through the new ideas by watching the Design Thinking video and processing in that way, which was found to be very helpful.