You need snowflakes to make snowballs

I felt this was an appropriately festive blog post analogy to the world of ideas and problem solving, that someone thought up some time ago, certainly not me.

And I'm comfortable plagiarising because a big part of creative problem solving methodology is about just this - the principle that somewhere, someone else has probably already solved a problem that looks or feels just like yours! And if you can somehow stumble across those 'parallel solutions', you may be able to adapt and apply them for your own benefit.

So the snowflakes and snowballs analogy neatly sums up the collaborative idea development environment - the nature and importance of nurturing everyone's little ideas to contribute toward finding the big, breakthrough ideas that can transform the perspective on a problem, challenge or opportunity.

You need a lot of little ideas to have a big one

It also nicely illustrates the concept of 'volume' (of ideas). After all you need a lot of snowflakes to make a snowball. Perhaps this is the single most important aspect of using innovation facilitation techniques to help 'find better ways to do things that save or make more money'.

Lets consider two extreme types of manager / decision-maker - I accept that most managers are somewhere in between :-)

Manager 1. The autocratic manager. He calls the shots. He has a clear top down management style. He sees this is as a sign of true leadership and strength. He always consults the same trusted, close colleagues on big decisions, since he considers these are the only people who can really contribute to decision-making.

Manager 1: Is not too bothered about hearing

ideas from outside his inner circle...

...and is therefore in a permanent state of having
fewer ideas to stimulate his decisions

Manager 2. He is a democratic manager. He devolves decision-making wherever he can, but still ensures he has the final say on the big decisions. He encourages bottom-up feedback, ideas and perspectives on big decisions and the development of the business. He sees this as a sign of true leadership and strength. By consulting widely he gets a very large amount of stimulus to help him take better big decisions.

Manager 2: Is actively encouraging ideas from everyone...

...and is therefore exposed to many more ideas when it comes to taking big decisions

Manager 1 is in a permanent state of fewer ideas and perspectives when he takes big decisions.

Manager 2 also has the perspectives of manager 1, but has many other ideas and perspectives over and above this. And he still decides what to ignore and which ideas to adopt, develop and implement.

Actually he is 'sucking in' all the ideas and using them to make better decisions that make him look great! And how do you think members of his team feel when they see their ideas or some part of their ideas implemented by him?

The Manager 2 position you can see, especially in these times!, is far more virtuous.

And I would bet my house that over the long term, Manager 2 is consistently beating Manager 1 when they are competing head to head in the same market.

Conclusion? Stop ignoring the snowflakes, and start collecting them to make snowballs!