Birds and Bees
By Peter LloydAs the great and innovative inventor of melody and song Cole Porter advised,
Birds do it
Bees do it
Even educated fleas do it
Let's do it
There's nothing new about the old birds-and-bees activity of cross-pollination. NASA has for a long time accepted suggestions from anywhere to help them solve tough problems. For example, when they had trouble retrieving a wayward satellite, they received hundreds of ideas and cataloged every one.
As Vern Burkhardt pointed out in his interview with Michael Gelb, Thomas Edison encouraged his engineers to take ideas from anywhere and adapt them to the problem at hand. He knew great ideas can come from the most unconventional sources.
Henry Heimlich, father of the Heimlich Maneuver, invented a valve for draining chest wounds, inspired by the whoopee cushion.
Stores like Mindware in Minneapolis are devoted entirely to creativity enhancing books and toys. The internet is alive with Innovation Tools like the online Idea Generator to help you cross-pollinate by yourself.
If you don't want to do it alone, you can Brainline or, right here on IdeaConnection, you can enlist people from a variety of backgrounds from all over the world to help you solve your problem.
Subscribe to any magazine devoted to just about any special interest--not just creativity, invention, or innovation--and you'll eventually read an article about creativity. It will usually include a recommendation to solicit ideas from your friends, coworkers, experts, libraries, online, history, dreams...
Where's your next great idea going to come from? It's up to you. And whomever you want to invite. Let's do it!
● Discuss this Workout on The Hub
● Read about Open Innovation at P&G in Business Week
Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.