Page 207 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

IMPLEMENTATION 101
CREATIVE
Having an idea is not enough. Specific action plans for bring- PROBLEM
ing the innovation to the market, or for incorporating the SOLVING
innovation into the organizational process must be deter- TECHNIQUES
mined. Resources must be obtained to complete these ac-
tion plans. Often, other members of the organization must 191
be convinced of the merits of that idea. Selling an idea re-
quires different behavior than creating one. You must mas-
ter both creative and selling processes if your idea is to reach
fruition. Implementation therefore is largely a matter of
working within the organization's culture. This chapter ex-
amines creativity techniques designed to help the manager
within that context.

9911. HOW-HOW DIAGRAM

The how-how diagram is similar to the why-why diagram
described in Chapter 3.6 It seeks to identify the steps neces-
sary to implement a solution. Instead of asking "Why?" the
problem solver(s) ask "How?" The agreed-upon solution is
stated on the left side of a piece of paper, with more detailed
action plans placed on the right in a decision tree format.
(See Figure 6.4 for an abbreviated how-how dia-
gram.) Each time a solution is listed, the
question "How?" is asked. Problem solv-
ers answer with a more detailed action plan.

Using the problem suggested in Chap-
ter 3 for the why-why diagram as an
example, the first solution mentioned
is "improve product." Asking "how"
results in four principal ways of im-
proving the product: "improve packaging,
improve product quality, lengthen shelf