Practicing Concept Coherence
Practice a couple of strategies to effectively communicate novel ideas to share your idea for a novel toy with classmates.
Innovation increasingly involves collaborating with experts from a variety of disciplines, this can present challenges because 1) innovation is an inherently ambiguous process as it involves creating things or ideas that do not yet exist, and 2) experts apply highly specialized knowledge that their teammates may not understand. Creative leaders know how to transcend these challenges, and this week we’re going to practice doing so.
Process
Create a brief story about your toy. It should feature a protagonist who encounters a problem, and the product/toy helps them solve that problem. Stories typically establish the users’ or customers’ needs so teammates know how to design the product accordingly. For more detail and some examples, see “Managing the Repertoire” particularly the sub-section on stories that begins on page 699. Your story should be at least 3 – 5 sentences.
Step 2: Metaphor
Create a metaphor that clarifies the toy’s desired attributes. Metaphors are commonly used to make new and novel concepts understandable to others, and highlight what is ‘new’ abut the concept. For some examples, see “Managing the Repertoire” particularly the sub-section on metaphors that begins on page 700. Your metaphor should ideally be 1 sentence.
