Jumpstart Your Creativity (16 page)

There are several advantages to a Criteria Chart:

• It is more objective, eliminating some subjectivity.

• It is more criteria based.

• It is more credible as you can explain how you arrived at your answers.

• It forces people to look at an idea from a criteria standpoint.

There are some disadvantages to a Criteria Chart:

• It is sometimes hard for people to decide on a number from one to five.

• The criteria for the number is too often not clear.

• Even after the process some people are still not satisfied with the answer.

• Too often it is missing measurement (i.e., increase sales).

A measured criteria chart works exactly the same way as a Criteria Chart—the only difference is the criteria will be measured. So instead of writing at the top of the chart increase sales, it will say increase sales by 2 percent in quarter one. The advantage of having a Measured Criteria Chart is the criteria is more specific and clear.

A Weighted Criteria Chart works exactly the same way as a regular Criteria Chart and a Measured Criteria Chart. The significant difference on a Weighted Criteria Chart is each of the criteria now have a weight. Often executives will say, “Well some criteria are more important than others,” which can be true in some cases. The idea behind a Weighted Criteria Chart is to take each criterion and decide the percentage importance of each. For example, you might say profitability is 60 percent, and increase sales is 20 percent, and so on. You follow the exact same process you do for a Criteria Chart where numbers are assigned to each idea. The only difference is that criteria are then multiplied times the percentage to get a final number. This approach gives credence to some criteria being more important than others.

So those are some ways to evaluate ideas that can be extremely valuable and helps eliminate subjectivity.

WORK IT

Which evaluation tools have you used in the past?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Which ones worked the best?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Which ones worked the least?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Which process tool listed in the chapter seems to be most relevant to your team?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Why would they be important?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

CREATIVITY IN ACTION

Whatever creativity is, it is in part a solution
to a problem
.

—B
RIAN
A
LDISS

CONGRATULATIONS
on reading this far! Did you know 91 percent of all books purchased are never read according to the Association of American Publishers? We present this chapter as an inspiration to all of our readers as we celebrate people and organizations who have lived with abundant creativity and created true innovations, leaving this planet better than it was before.

We hope you will read this chapter with an open heart and mind allowing you to be inspired by an idea, technology, process, product, or system. Please be sure to visit
www.creativitylaunchpad.com
to see the most up-to-date celebration of creativity and innovation. We know the following list is in no way exhaustive or far reaching in terms of industries and types of examples. We are sharing what we found to be true innovators either creating something out of nothing, or
creating a wholly new product, resource, or service that fills a real need.

The first “television show” produced for Netflix members only. Congratulations to the producers who had the courage and vision to adapt to the digital age. Possibly as cataclysmic as the disruption of music CDs going the way of 99 cent downloads on iTunes, we may see this new combination of broadcast media and the digital age flourish creating an entirely new platform or distribution channel for creative digital content.

Making filthy water drinkable for 65 cents? Incredibly inspiring global solution. Visit:

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pritchard_invents_a_water_filter.html
and

www.lifesaversystems.com
.

The latest attempt at helping people globally break their addiction to their technology devices, Digital Detox vacations allow people to attend a “dude ranch” type experience with no television, no Internet connection, no cell phones, no alarm clocks or watches, and no video games. The American Psychological Association has officially termed the
addiction “Internet Use Disorder” and will list it in their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders for 2013. The Digital Detox retreat co-created by Levi Felix and Brooke Dean: thedigitaldetox.org. Also visit: whyy.org/cms/justyouwait/2013/01/05/hello-world/.

Tapping into the Minds of Sierra Leone Youth—be inspired by what one child did with transistor radios and other modest electronics. Follow his story as he traveled to America and served in a fellowship at MIT as a fourteen-year-old boy. Visit
http://www.crowdrise.com/innovatesalone
.

This is a donation site, but in no way is a donation expected or encouraged. We simply share the story with you.

The urban legend/parable about how to increase sales of McIllhenny Company's Tabasco Sauce is a great mind tingler. As the parable goes, after hundreds of hours working on a solution including business plans, ad campaigns, and marketing initiatives, a college intern sitting in a meeting said, “Why don't you make the hole bigger?” She meant simply drill the hole at the top of the bottle larger so more sauce would come out when the consumer used Tabasco. While this story is a myth, McIllhenny Company nonetheless credits this story as a valuable parable about innovative thinking on their website.