By William Grace Frost

As a partner and senior facilitator at Ideas To Go, Inc. for over 12 years, I was privileged to have the opportunity to design and facilitate hundreds of ideation projects for FORTUNE 500 marketing teams helping them generate possibilities for new products, services, advertising, brand names and packaging. Year after year, from Kimberly-Clark to Quaker Oats to AT&T and McDonald’s, their teams came searching for the ‘holy grail’ in the early stages of successful innovation, namely a brainstorming session.

Many years have come and gone since then, and a whole lot of learning and wisdom accumulated. And, what I have come to understand is that by-in-large, Brainstorming is more than likely to create mediocre ideas!

That’s pure heresy in the world of creative problem solving, but a recent study (as well as others from as far back as the 1940’s) has shown that traditional group brainstorming actually reduces both the quantity and quality of ideas generated! (Girotra, Terwiesch & Ulrich, University of Pennsylvania, 2009 INSEAD Business School Research Paper No. 2009/65/TOM).

Having made a substantial living as a professional facilitator for over 30 years, you might think I’ve lost my mind to speak disparagingly about Brainstorming. Well, in a way, yes, I have learned to “lose my mind”, but I do so in service to allowing a free flow of creative ideas and insights to pour through me.

Successful Brainstorming is predicated on the participant’s relative ability to “defer judgment” long enough for out-of-the-box ideas to be imagined, modified, built upon or cast aside. But it’s the Ego part of our psyche that controls the critical part of our thinking that kills the free flow of unusual ideas, and the Ego’s job is to make sure that IT stays in control. So asking the Ego mind to step out of the way for a moment or two while we get really wild with our idea-storming is like the fox trying to convince the farmer to take a coffee break so he can have his way in the hen house. While brainstorming will take you to a certain level of novelty, generating truly game-changing and market-shaking ideas entails a different level of deferring judgment, and that means getting out of your mind.

Recently, I interviewed over a hundred people from all walks of life, asking the question, “Where are you and what are you doing when your best ideas occur?” The predominate answers all pointed to times and places where the individual’s brain was “off duty”, that is to say, not specifically in the process of trying to be creative or to solve a problem.

More pointedly, not a single response suggested Brainstorming as their preferred source of creative ideas and insights; respondents consistently described being either consumed in a passionate endeavor or conversation, engaged in a repetitive or mindless task, exercising, just emerging from sleeping / dreaming, immersed in water, making art, connected with Nature or in a state of quiet stillness / meditation.

For example, Christina Muth, a B&B Innkeeper in Asheville, NC, says “Usually my best ideas come to me when I’m  in a space when I can let my mind get quiet doing some mindless task like chopping vegetables.” Elizabeth Shephard, Program Director of The Animas Valley Institute, Durango, CO, responded with “When I’m dancing, epiphanies come, problems are solved, a deep wisdom steps forth and replaces my overactive chattering mind. Here my creativity is uncorked.” And, Kyoko Seki, Leadership Trainer in Tokyo, Japan added, “Creative ideas usually come when I’m feeling a resonance during conversation with my friend. Other times are during walking, showering and writing.”

What we’ve come to understand is that very possibly the best way to create novel possibilities and breakthrough insights is get folks to begin the idea development process by not thinking at all, and certainly not by trying to be creative.

So, if you really want to get to the source of creativity and originality, you simply have to let your subconscious mind do the work. Forget Brainstorming. Start by getting out of your head, lose your mind and prepare yourself for the Ah-Ha’s that emerge naturally!

At Montara Farm we employ a fascinating blend of techniques and processes (some proprietary) with teams of all kinds to help them quiet the constant distractions of life and incessant chattering of their minds in order to allow the natural emergence of creative ideas to flow. Surrounded by mountain views, dense forest and rolling meadows, Montara is the perfect setting.

Sessions can be from one to six days in length, but a minimum of three days is highly recommended (research shows that it takes a minimum of two sleep cycles for the human brain to adjust to new patterns and to integrate new ways of being).

Contact us today to let us help you and your team design the perfect retreat for your innovation and idea-generation efforts.

William Grace Frost is Co-founder of ekstasis: moving beyond, a creativity training, coaching and facilitation consultancy. William has lead FORTUNE 500 marketing teams, entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations through innovation exercises for new business ideas, team strategies, products, services, brand naming and packaging.

It is easy when you watch our horses, dogs and cats interact with guests and with each other to ascribe to them human qualities, motivation and emotions.  They do seem to plot, plan, and act to some playful or diabolical purpose.

Our wonderful alpha dog Zorro, a stray border collie, had more things on his agenda than the average  CEO.  He had the responsibility for training the other nine dogs on farm protocol… be nice to the guest, don’t chase the cats, poop in the woods not the yard, don’t beg or annoy the guests, and of course be available to sit quietly and listen.  He governed with confidence and compassion, mentoring each new stray into the community, never having to growl.

He had the role of chief security officer and daily patrolled the farm perimeter for invading hordes of bunnies and terrorist coyotes or bears.

A skilled facilitator, Zorro led groups of humans on hiking and running trails and always led the trail rides, prancing proudly in the front.

He anticipated the guests’ need for excitement and adventure, rounding up deer and herding them toward unsuspecting horse riders.  On occasion, he would deliberately lead a group on a wild goose chase when they thought he knew where the clues were hidden during a team building game.

Always the team leader, an I/S on the DISC personal inventory, even the horses recognized his quiet leadership style.  He rounded them up into the corral without even a bark or snarl.  Always loving, caring and good humored, he never showed aggression even when provoked, and was never moody.

Zorro came to Montara when he was two or three years old and never strayed a day afterwards.  He never missed dinner and snuggled close to us in front of the TV at night.  For fifteen years he brought comfort and joy to all who met him.

His intelligence, his grace, his style, and his loyalty are qualities to be admired.  What an amazing role model for us humans aspiring to be leaders, even if it is only anthropomorphism.

Zorro died about three months ago, in his sleep, in his owner’s bedroom as always, and with his best buddies, Monte and Lucy by his side while the other seven dogs of his community slept nearby.

The following is her view on Kaizen and why Montara Farm is the perfect place to hold  Kaizen Events:

Are you tasked with pulling off a miracle next year?

Are you doing more with less, and needing to take it even farther? Do you need to get the best and the brightest in a room to imagine something that will truly set you apart from the competition? Is the spirit of continuous improvement and innovation stifled because people are still smarting from the last wave of change? Are you all waiting for performance, and the economy, to bounce back? Have your last few attempts at “kicking off a game changer” fizzled into the dust of daily firefighting?

If you answered “yes” to any of these, it may not take a miracle, but it could take a fresh approach. LEAN, Kaizen, Office Kaizen or Kaizen Experience could do the trick!

The legendary LEAN methodology, kin to the incredibly successful Toyota Production System (TPS), has improved manufacturing productivity by 30-90% (cycle time, inventory, quality, on-time delivery etc). But since only about 10% of the US workforce belongs to a manufacturing team, the methodology was evolved to address administrative, engineering and office environments. Kaizen, a Japanese word meaning “ongoing good”, is more than just a process improvement methodology which seeks to eliminate waste in the energy spent, processes used, information passed and efforts spent, it can be the catalyst for a cultural change rooted in a relentless spirit of continuous improvement.

Because Kaizen is a philosophy, a leadership style and a set of tools that work together to improve performance and provide consistent, long-term repeatable excellence, it actually hinges on thinking about what we do, in a new way.

How you know that your team could benefit from something like Kaizen?

• Customers complain about the same issues, despite endless task forces or process improvements to address it
• Internal stakeholders struggle to communicate about key issues and make improvements that avoid those same problems in the future.
• Blame Shifting is prevalent in the organization when deadlines are missed or errors discovered.
• Employees aren’t excited about what they do and the delivery of service is not world-class
• Employee efforts are often focused on serving the organization, taking away from serving customers.

 What’s in it for my employees? Why will they adopt this one and not the others we’ve tried in the past? One of the most important elements of the Kaizen philosophy is an effort to make work easier on employees to accomplish, while simultaneously ensuring that our efforts are focused on getting customers what they need. When the barriers to success are removed and people are empowered to keep looking for ways to own the experience, happy employees translate into happy customers and profits.

 What about service environments?

Kaizen is typically kicked off with a structured, multi-day event or “Blitz” that seeks to attack a single problem, like an area that the competition is winning in, the length of time it takes to get something out the door, or to collect money owed. However, when those things need to be looked at as symptoms of an overall mission to re-engineer the Customer Experience, what you need is a Kaizen Experience Event!

Our facilitators have evolved Kaizen even more to ensure that your culture morphs into the experience delivery machine your customers are asking for. Using the Kaizen methodology, we systematically remove barriers to World Class Service and Innovation with these principles:

• Deep and intentional, Root cause analysis with proven tools (5 S, 5 Why’s, etc)
• The elimination of overly hard work or non-value add (to the customer) activity that prevents delivery of your vision and frustrates employees and customers
• Experience Engineering using customer, employee and stakeholder data to define measurable outcomes and map implementation milestones
• Customer Touch Point Analysis, process alignment and skill development planning
• Employee empowerment to perform experiments on their work to eliminate imperfections
• Transition Management and Change Mapping for implementing
  

Why is Montara Farm the perfect place for a Kaizen Experience® Blitz?

For one, Montara Farm is the only place you can find the hybrid Kaizen Experience. A “Blitz” is a multi-day event, systematically facilitating your brightest cross-functional team through a journey to reinvent and innovate the things that will minimize costs and maximize ROI. This requires distance from the endless distractions, focus on the right issues and a comfortable balanced environment that promotes the best brain work.  Montara has all you need onsite to maximize time and effort, while providing an exclusive and balanced environment in which to work.

A private estate just 65 miles north of Atlanta, tucked in the foothills of the beautiful North Georgia Mountains. The estate is exclusively yours for your kick-off to greatness.  As a  facilitator,  Montara staff worked with me to customize a program for my clients, and helped me meet their  needs  through the Kaizen transformation.  If you are already working with another Kaizen expert,  they will work to complement his or her efforts with program activities and energizers during this all inclusive retreat.

If it is time for something new, a real game-changer, contact  Montara  or me,  Lisa Reuth at Trinity Solutions, lisa@teamsolveit.com.  We will provide a free Kaizen Assessment and customize a retreat that will kick off your next miracle, leaving you with the skills and tools to get a team fired up and making endless daily improvements.

This was never the case here at Montara.  Companies that came here had a commitment to creating an experience that would have a business impact even when the fun was over.  Regardless of the intent, in recent recession years just the perception that something might be fun has been enough to slash it from the budget.

Such a pity since we desperately need the playful, the innovative,  and the creative right side of the brain applied to business issues.

There is , however, a new trend emerging in corporate retreats and business meetings which we have seen here at Montara and are very excited about it.

Companies are coming to us with a clearer idea of what they want to accomplish.  Bonding over a few beers is not enough.  Gaining clarity of purpose and sharing values, norms and goals in a macro and micro way is seen as a way to bond groups together.

Tackling tough issues through creative activities,  inviting a diversity of ideas and opinions,  inviting diverse participants from a variety of functional areas and utilizing  trained facilitators who move people towards understanding and consensus is viewed as a bonding experience.

Just recently we had a group of 20 mangers from a financial company.  The executives organizing the event invited key people from three functional area- marketing, product management and IT, all of which have their own silos.

The goal was to get each area to understand the others in terms of what they do, how they do it, why they do what they do and how it affects the other  areas.

To do this, the silos had to be temporarily dismantled so that defensiveness did not take over.

The program was carefully structured to go from individual awareness to cross group interaction to group demonstrations  and discussion.

Using a personal style instrument and a Montara facilitator, the group explored each persons thinking and communication styles.

They then spent an afternoon in cross cultural competitive teams engaging in outdoor “fun” activities which are metaphors for real world issues.

Finally, each group was assigned an area different from their own and asked to draw a graphic representation of what the area does, what their processes and decision points are, and what values drive them.

The result was that each area made assumptions and judgements about the work of others that were not correct.

The retreat ended with a plan to synergize the processes and to move to a continuing mapping of the different functions to be discussed inter departmentally on a regular basis.

More importantly,  all wanted to do more to better understand each other and work more effectively instead of creating a silo culture that  wastes time and energy to push a point of view.

Could this have been done in an office environment…perhaps, but the environment and exclusivity of Montara, the structure of the program and the intense pleasure of the experience made it happen faster and will remain more memorable.