Thinking Big
Recently I taught a course as part of the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business Executive Education program. The program "Creating the Strategic Mindset" was attended by 33 senior managers. Half of the participants were from NORINCO, the China North Industries Corporation (Chinese national companies) as part of a US Chamber of Commerce exchange initiative.
My session was focused on Innovation Management for Business Growth, and during the session we conducted several small group activities. One such activity really opened my eyes!
I presented the small groups a photo of a very crowded (Rio I think) beach and asked them to study the photo and identify the human needs and desires represented in the photo (10 minutes). After Identifying the needs I asked the groups to brainstorm ideas for serving the needs and desires they had identified. Once they had brainstormed a list of ideas (10 minutes), I asked each team to derive a single idea and develop a concept, including illustrations, that represented their concept (20 minutes).
The groups had formed with native Chinese speakers (NORINCO) on two teams and native English speakers on the other three teams. The English speakers were all but one from the US (the other was from Canada).
The results were stunning! The native English speakers ideated on individual needs (food, drink, toilets, tracking individuals, etc.), while the NORINCO folks ideated on collective needs (total space, group dynamics, big picture foci, etc.). The ideas presented by the native English speakers served individual needs (finding toilets, accessing food and drink, sun screen and shade), while the NORINCO ideas were massive.
One of the NORINCO ideas was to build a new beach (including stadium like dome to cover a big section of the beach on unpleasant days). This new beach would be exclusive (fee) and would start with parking away from the crowded beach and transport to the man-made beach by speed boat. Think Dubai.
The other NORINCO team came up with a similar idea in that they would provide a large ship (recycled Navy boat) that would leave a port and have sides/bays that would open when the ship was offshore and these bays would be small beaches; the idea went further to say an aircraft carrier would be ideal because the flat-top could be used for sun bathing and a music venue. The drawings were fantastic!
I report this only as a curiosity and ask if anyone has seen similar results? Is there research that explores this phenomenon? If so, let me know.
My session was focused on Innovation Management for Business Growth, and during the session we conducted several small group activities. One such activity really opened my eyes!
I presented the small groups a photo of a very crowded (Rio I think) beach and asked them to study the photo and identify the human needs and desires represented in the photo (10 minutes). After Identifying the needs I asked the groups to brainstorm ideas for serving the needs and desires they had identified. Once they had brainstormed a list of ideas (10 minutes), I asked each team to derive a single idea and develop a concept, including illustrations, that represented their concept (20 minutes).
The groups had formed with native Chinese speakers (NORINCO) on two teams and native English speakers on the other three teams. The English speakers were all but one from the US (the other was from Canada).
The results were stunning! The native English speakers ideated on individual needs (food, drink, toilets, tracking individuals, etc.), while the NORINCO folks ideated on collective needs (total space, group dynamics, big picture foci, etc.). The ideas presented by the native English speakers served individual needs (finding toilets, accessing food and drink, sun screen and shade), while the NORINCO ideas were massive.
One of the NORINCO ideas was to build a new beach (including stadium like dome to cover a big section of the beach on unpleasant days). This new beach would be exclusive (fee) and would start with parking away from the crowded beach and transport to the man-made beach by speed boat. Think Dubai.
The other NORINCO team came up with a similar idea in that they would provide a large ship (recycled Navy boat) that would leave a port and have sides/bays that would open when the ship was offshore and these bays would be small beaches; the idea went further to say an aircraft carrier would be ideal because the flat-top could be used for sun bathing and a music venue. The drawings were fantastic!
I report this only as a curiosity and ask if anyone has seen similar results? Is there research that explores this phenomenon? If so, let me know.
posted by Sutherland on Innovation at 1:14 PM
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