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The Creative Judge

By Peter Lloyd

When I happen upon a innovative idea, I'm often struck by where I usually find it—right under my nose. Typically I remark to myself, why didn't I see it sooner?

I've come to conclude that there is an unlimited supply of ideas, ready to become inventions and innovations, right under my nose.

In response to Brainstorming Better. A little help for my friend, Hub member Marc Hurwitz wrote, "Some interesting ideas coming out here on brainstorming and idea generating, but the challenge I'm having is getting people to recognize the best ideas. Does that take expertise? Can it be done by a group?"

Artists, innovators, and inventors, often confront the question, not of how to get ideas but, which ideas to chase.

When you're working on a scrapbook, looking for the right words while writing a letter to you invalid aunt, or trying on shoes at the store, it's easy to generate lots of workable alternatives. You might even be able to try them all. But if you're working in the new-products research lab of a big corporation, you might have to judge which idea of many to chase.

Finding the best ideas among a number of ideas by recognizing and measuring their value before implementation should be a matter of creative judgment. Simply measuring anticipated outcomes and selecting the winner, can get you into trouble. It certainly won't take you beyond what the other ordinary evaluators among your competition come up with.

book cover: A Kick in the Seat of the PantsRoger von Oech may have been one of the first to include the evaluator of ideas among the people we normally identify as creative. His Explorer, Artist, Warrior, and Judge all play a role in creativity, invention, and innovation. In A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, Roger expands the role of the Judge from simple measurement to creative selection.

For instance, instead of just listing the drawbacks of an idea and using them to judge the value of that idea, von Oech recommends that you force yourself to identify the benefits of the drawbacks. He shows how objections that would typically kill an idea, when re-examined and uncolored by our assumptions and prejudices, can turn out to be unexpected benefits.

When you do eliminate an idea, Roger further recommends that you force yourself to identify what would make the eliminated idea workable. Or, if that's not possible, suggest at least one new idea to take its place.

Judging in this spirit continues to present opportunities, often to the point where an unexpected idea emerges that makes selection utterly uncomplicated.

A final recommendation from my experience: Always embrace one idea that intrigues or amuses you for no apparent reason. Champion an idea that makes you laugh or keeps you awake wondering. An idea that sounds completely out-of-bounds but refuses to leave you alone.

These kinds of ideas are speaking to you on a level you have yet to understand. Your intuition is telling you to take a chance. Trust it.

Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.
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