Brainsteering: A Better Approach to Breakthrough Ideas

There has to be a better way to generate creative ideas. And this is what "Brainsteering" is all about. This highly-entertaining and innovative book teaches us new ways to spark the creativity we all have inside us.

"Brainsteering" offers a research-based approach that shows us how to steer our creativity in a more productive direction than traditional brainstorming methods take. At heart, the Brainsteering approach focuses on the power of asking the right questions so that great ideas inevitably flow.

For instance, author Gregory Maguire essentially asked, "What might have happened in the land of Oz before Dorothy dropped in via the tornado?" The result of that question was the best-selling novel "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West."

Or we could look at advertising executive Art Davie. In 1992 he started to wonder if someone with a black belt in karate could beat a master boxer in a fight. The result of this musing ended up being The Ultimate Fighting Championship. Since then, ultimate fighting has made billions of dollars through live events and pay-per-view subscriptions.

These two examples might seem like lucky breaks. Or, they might seem out of reach for most of us. The authors stress that all of us have the power to come up with innovative, creative ideas like these. And, this is what we learn how to do in "Brainsteering."

This is the kind of book that we can all benefit from reading. It doesn't matter if you're leading a company or just getting started in the workforce. The strategies and tips you'll learn in this book will teach you how to ask the right questions so that you can quickly start thinking of better ideas. So whether you want to write a novel, or help your organization think of their next best-selling product, this book can help.

"Brainsteering" is also very entertaining, and is full of real-world examples that illustrate the power of the brainsteering technique. We were pleasantly surprised at how compelling and readable the book was.

Kevin Coyne is a senior teaching professor at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. Shawn Coyne is a management consultant with over 25 years of experience in strategy, marketing and organizational leadership.

They're both managing directors at The Coyne Partnership, a boutique consulting firm. Their work has appeared in the Harvard Business Review, as well as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and several other major media outlets.

So keep listening to find out why traditional group brainstorming doesn't work, one strategy you can use to start thinking of your own right questions, and how to tell if the question you're thinking of will work in your situation.

"Brainsteering" is divided into four parts, with a total of ten chapters. There's also a valuable appendix at the end, titled "101 Right Questions to Spur Breakthrough Ideas." We think this section alone is worth the price of the book because it contains so many thought-provoking questions that will surely help people think of great ideas.

The authors begin the book with a look at how most of us brainstorm now. Typically, we gather a group together and instruct everyone to come up with random ideas. We assure them that no one will judge any idea they express, and we tell them that the wilder their idea, the better off we'll be.

The problem is that traditional brainstorming has a pretty poor track record. That's because it goes against how human beings work best in a group setting.

Most of the time, 90 percent of the group will stay quiet because they don't want to speak up, or they don't think their idea is good enough. Next, the person with the most power in the room will fall in love with a truly terrible idea, and the rest of the group will keep their heads down because they don't want to speak up against the boss.

And even when someone does speak up, they may have an unstructured, chaotic way of thinking about the problem.

This is why we need a better way to come up with good ideas, whether we're in a group or sitting alone at our desk.

What's interesting is that the authors give us a compelling experiment right off the bat that proves how effective brainsteering can be - again, "brainsteering" is simply asking the right question. If you're doubting whether this technique can actually work, just go through their short experiment in chapter one. We did, and were amazed at how asking the right question prompted us to think of some really creative ideas.

What the authors show us in this first chapter is that thinking outside the box isn't as effective as we may have thought. When we have just enough constraint, like the right question, we can focus our creativity much more productively and think of something great.

Now you might be wondering about the "right" question. How do you come up with that?

Well, the authors studied dozens of breakthrough companies. They gathered their own teams together, and essentially figured out that there's no one perfect question that will lead to a great idea. Instead, everyone on their teams came up with their own right question that could have led to the creation of one of those breakthrough businesses.

The point? There are always many paths, or many questions, that can lead to a great idea. And even the same question can be looked at in many different ways. By the time you're done with the first chapter you may be really excited because, if you're like us, you'll start to realize that this technique could work for you.

So how do we actually come up with the right question? The authors teach us how in the next few chapters.

One strategy we can use is to borrow questions from successful people who have gone before us.

The authors suggest we look at a business, a product, or even a work of art that we admire. Then, we should try to think of the question that could have led to that idea if we'd asked it at that time and place.

For instance, look at Amazon's best-selling e-reader, the Kindle. What might have the inventors of the Kindle asked when they were trying to brainstorm that new product?

Maybe they asked this: what is the biggest annoyance reader's face when buying books?

One answer could be that readers might want a new book to read right before they go to bed. But the stores are closed then, and they're already in their pajamas. Readers also find it annoying carting around heavy books when they travel. Those answers could have easily led to the invention of the Kindle.

Once you've thought of a good question for a product you admire, try using that question to come up with some good ideas for yourself.

Some questions work over and over again, for different people in different situations. For instance, there's one that led to the invention of literally thousands of products and services. Here's the question: what emotionally powerful toy or experience did I have as a child that could be transformed into a more expensive toy or experience for an adult?

The answer to that question has led to the invention of rollerblades, high-class circus acts like Cirque de Soleil, adventure camps for adults, and much more. Remember, just because a question has been asked before doesn't mean it can't be used again.

As you heard before, the authors also include a really useful appendix with more than one hundred "right questions" we can use to help jumpstart our thinking. If you're facing a creativity crisis right now, then head over here first. You should find a question to use to help you get some ideas flowing.

And if you're wondering how you'll recognize the right question when you think of it, don't worry. The authors give you four criteria you can use to judge your question to see if it's a good one. These criteria are simple, but incredibly practical.

Even if you use the questions the authors provide at the back of the book, you'll still need to know how to choose the right one from this list, as well as how to modify these questions to fit the specific situation you're facing.

So how do you know if the question is right for your specific situation?

First, ask yourself this. Does this question target an aspect of the problem that's received little attention in the past? And, is this a question forcing me to look at my situation from a different perspective?

Again, the authors say it's often a good idea to reuse questions other people have thought of. What's important is that it forces us to look at our own situation from a new perspective.

For instance, the founders of Compaq computers were not the only entrepreneurs trying to make a fortune in the emerging personal computer market back in the 1980s.

At that time, the people at Compaq asked the same fundamental question that other computer makers were asking: How can we make personal computers more appealing for home users?

Everyone else's answer was to drive down costs. But Compaq came up with a different answer. They decided to make a personal computer small enough to fit into the overhead bin of an airplane. And, they made billions off this one solution.

This is a great example that shows us how one question can force us to look at a situation from different perspectives.

Another question you can ask to determine if the question you're looking at is the right one is this. Does this question prompt ideas that our organization will embrace, or ones that require major changes in the status quo?

If you depend on an organization to implement your ideas, then using questions that produce radical answers usually isn't a good idea. Often, the change required is too large, or just unfeasible for your type of organization.

As you might imagine, "Brainsteering" is chock full of useful information, and we've only been able to scratch the surface of what's in these chapters.

In addition to learning how to ask the right questions to come up with innovative ideas, the authors show us many more ways to analyze our questions so we use the best ones. We learn how to use brainsteering in groups, how to teach others to come up better ideas, and how to turn our own brilliant ideas into products and businesses that could change our lives.

For instance, if you're in a management position, you won't want to miss chapter eight, which shows you how to teach your team how to develop better ideas. The authors give you four simple steps to transform your group brainstorming sessions. These are: establish a baseline standard of success. Teach your team the Brainsteering process in manageable steps. Delegate appropriately. And last, overcome your reluctance to provide feedback.

The authors go into these four steps in great detail, so by the time you're done you'll be equipped to teach your team how to start being more creative.

So what's our last word on "Brainsteering?"

Hands down, we loved it. This is a book that will be useful to anyone in the workforce. The authors have come up with a creative strategy that, we feel, is highly practical and effective for generating truly innovative ideas. They cite over 130 examples that help prove their points, so even the most skeptical reader will be able to see, time and time again, that this truly can work.

The book is also highly readable. The authors' writing style is friendly and engaging, and we were surprised at how compelling every chapter was. We didn't want to put it down. This is definitely a book that will get you excited about being creative, starting with page one.

Without a doubt, this is a book we have no trouble recommending.

"Brainsteering," by Kevin and Shawn Coyne, is published by HarperCollins.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Thanks for listening.