WHAT is an idea? How do you define it?"

This is my favorite question to participants in the Creative Block Busting Workshops.

"It is a creative thought."

"It is a new view."

"It is a solution to a problem."

"It is the result of imagination."

"It is something that occurs spontaneously."

"It is not easy to get."

After I hear several such definitions, the group gets to do an exercise.

"Give me suggestions to make this room more cheerful."

"Add more flowers."

"Change the seating."

"Open the curtains."

"Crack more jokes."

"Make the room look informal."

"Paint the walls and ceiling in bright colors."

"Add a mild perfume."

"Have a continuous supply of coffee."

The suggestions are plenty. The participants are surprised at the number that come up in such a short time.

"What is common to all these suggestions?" I ask

On closer examination and analysis, we discover that every suggestion statement has built into it an active verb.

We will make the room more cheerful by adding something, changing something, painting something, opening something.

That is how they seek to transform the room. Every statement is therefore a prescription for action. The group agrees that what they have given in fact are `ideas.' We then arrive at the definition of an idea. An idea is a prescription for action. It is not an ordinary comment, vague opinion or a passive thought.

Therefore, an idea, by definition, must transform people, places and situations.

If an idea is a prescription for action, what is creativity? What is innovation?

Creativity is simply a new way to look at things or do anything. Innovation is about implementing the new idea and benefiting from it. In the context of business, the benefits are commercial.

Once we have this clarity and understand the difference between an idea, creativity and innovation, it is easy for us to generate ideas, isolate new ideas and convert them into profitable innovations.

Expressing an idea

In most situations, people run dry of ideas within a very short time. One way to overcome this problem is to give yourself the permission to fantasize or let your imagination take flight.

Use expressions like "What if ...," "Why not ... ," "Suppose ... ," "How about ... ," and "I wish ... "

Let us try these for the same task of making the room more cheerful.

"How about having a clown to chair the meeting?"

"Why not have a hukka-like device from which to sip coffee?"

"I wish we could have eight-channel piped music with headsets for each one of us."

"What if every participant could stop the meeting and ask for a break whenever the meeting got too heavy or boring?"

You will see that some of these ideas are quite radical. Phrases such `what if' and `why not' help you in coming out with such ideas.

How to get fresh ideas

This is the biggest challenge all of us have at work. We want fresh, new ideas. Not the same old ideas no one is interested in.

There are two simple ways to get such fresh, new ideas.

The first step is to allow all kinds of ideas and defer judgment, no matter how silly or impractical it might seem.

The second is to think about the issue in ways that we may not have done in the past.

One useful technique is to ask provocative questions.

"If money was no constraint, what would you do?"

"If time was no constraint, what would you do?"

"If resources or materials were no constraints, what would you do?"

"If Cyrus Brocha of MTV was to give us ideas, what would he suggest for this issue?"

"Give me ideas that you know will irritate the boss or get you in to trouble."

"Give me ideas that you know will be rejected by senior management outright"

These questions stretch our minds and trigger our imagination. Very often, the ideas that people generate in response to these questions are highly imaginative, wild, and fresh. Ideas that no one has thought of or tried before.

Idea selection is critical

Idea selection is the most critical stage in hunting for fresh ideas. Fresh, new ideas are scary. They will seem unfamiliar and risky at first. It is like meeting a complete stranger in a party where none of your friends has arrived. How comfortable is that thought?

It could be like landing in a new country. You do not know the people, place or the language. You become alert and conscious about everything around you. You are bound to suffer from pangs of anxiety.

A new idea might make you feel that way. However uncomfortable it might be, we must continue to court the new idea. "If at first an idea does not seem absurd, it probably has no chance." — Einstein

A practical way to handle selection is as follows:

Concentrate on selection. Imagine you are a member of a high-powered creative team and not a member of the censor board. Therefore, you are consciously looking at what is good, interesting or different. You are not approaching the ideas with a pair of mental scissors.

Short-list ideas that seem intriguing, powerful, interesting and seem to have the potential to deliver the goods. Concentrate on the possibilities. Like what an architect would do when looking at a new plot. (He rarely gets a perfect plot of land!)

Once you have selected promising/potential ideas, segregate them into four categories:

a) Completely fresh ideas. Something you have never thought of or tried before

b) Ideas that may have occurred to you but you never tried them before

c) Ideas you have tried (successfully or otherwise)

d) Miscellaneous

If you are really looking for fresh and new ideas spend your time processing the group of ideas marked `a'. Spend time thinking about the plus points of each idea. Consider the benefits and advantages that would accrue if you executed the idea. Imagine the `life after' executing the idea. How would it be different and better? What will you be able to do more of? What will you do less of? What will no longer bother you?

While you do this, do not consider the `cons' of the idea. Concentrate only on the pluses.

Once you have exhausted everything you can consider the practical limitations of implementing this idea. These are not inherent negative points but temporary question marks. For some of the most important concerns generate further ideas. It might modify your basic idea and make it even more powerful.

Go ahead. Board that flight of imagination and get some new prescriptions for action.

(The writer is a creativity consultant & Partner, IDEASRS.)