CIO BRIEF: The Idea Generation Process
How Workplace Safety Insurance Board and EMC create a fluid yet structured innovation climate that accelerates the ideation cycle and makes solutions-thinking a priority
This discussion paper is based on the proceedings of a CIO Brief meeting focusing on the process of idea generation.
The paper looks at how two organizations developed an enterprise-wide process culture in which employees generate high-value ideas. It offers a five-step process to change IT orientation that involves: focusing on emerging technology; eliminating unnecessary formality; reducing the innovation cycle; collaborating with business; and decommissioning innovation project solutions. It shows how to transform a "skunkworks" mindset around innovation into a legitimate stream of work. And it offers a seven-step ideation process designed to stimulate and develop a pipeline of great ideas.
Contributing to this paper are John Hill, CIO and Vice-President of Transformation for the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), and Calvin Smith, Principal Manager of Global Innovation for EMC.
