頭腦風暴失靈之謎
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親愛的安妮：我們公司有一款產品的銷量一度增長很快，不過現在已經趨于平緩。這款產品有一個14人的品牌管理團隊，我就是其中之一。最近我的老板告訴我，公司高層對銷量趨緩的狀態感到很擔心，他想讓我組織一場“頭腦風暴會”，提供一些“打破思維慣性”的點子來提高銷量。 ????我從沒搞過這種活動，另外還有兩個原因讓我感到壓力很大。首先，公司之前的幾次頭腦風暴沒有得出什么成果，因此大家對頭腦風暴的概念已經比較厭煩了。其次，老板的話給我一種感覺，那就是這次活動可能將成為提拔晉升的一次試金石，所以我不想把它搞砸了。你或你的讀者對此有什么好的建議嗎？——匹茲堡的帕特 親愛的帕特：很有意思，我最近剛剛讀了一本關于創意的有趣的新書，名字叫《在新的盒子里思考：激發下一個大創意的五個重要步驟》（Thinking In New Boxes: Five Essential Steps to Spark the Next Big Idea）。當然，現在教人們如何提升創造力思維能力的人越來越多，已經發展成了一個小小的產業。可能你也注意到了，市面上關于創意的書不勝枚舉。 ????不過這本書卻有些不同。它的作者盧克?布拉班迪爾和艾倫?艾尼長期擔任波士頓咨詢集團（Boston Consulting Group）的創意顧問，他們的“五步法”是根據工作中接觸過的數千名經理人的成功經驗總結出來的成果。而書中開篇就拋出一份很有說服力的分析，指出大多數所謂的“頭腦風暴”都只不過是在浪費時間。 ????布拉班迪爾指出：“大多數頭腦風暴會都要求人們想出一些新東西，但是導致問題產生的舊觀念和舊想法其實并沒有受到挑戰。所以，如果你把人們召集到一塊兒，讓他們就一個問題隨便發表看法，而不去質疑他們的舊觀點，那么他們通常都會回到固有的思維慣性。” ????比如以貴公司的銷量趨緩的現狀為例。根據布拉班迪爾和艾尼的建議，在你向人們征集意見，提高銷量之前，你應該先退后一步，從更宏觀的角度來審視當前的局面。要想跳出“盒子”去思考，首先要看清楚這個“盒子”是什么。比如艾尼說：“問題的癥結真的是銷售方法的問題嗎？可能市場已經變了，或者說市場已經飽和了。也可能是競爭狀況改變了市場格局，甚至還有可能你的業務已經不適合繼續發展下去了。” ????有一個例子能夠證明，從全新的角度看待這些基本問題有時能夠打開一個全新的、乃至更大的盒子。布拉班迪爾介紹，上世紀70年代，BIC公司想方設法地想賣出更多的塑料筆。“后來公司高層后退了一步，思考自己的業務到底是什么。然后他們意識到，他們的業務遠遠不止局限于塑料筆，而是各種一次性塑料用品。”意識到這一點后，BIC公司開始銷售打火機、剃須刀等塑料制品，公司也由此踏上了高速發展的道路。 ????另外你還可以考慮一下當前的一個案例：Facebook的馬克?扎克伯格正在想辦法讓全世界人民用上互聯網。如果他固守在過去的盒子里，他就會想：“我們怎樣能從現有的互聯網用戶身上擠出更多現金？”但是扎克伯格把關注的焦點轉移到了全球尚未用上互聯網的47億人口身上。 |
Dear Annie: I'm a member of a 14-person brand-management team for a product whose sales were skyrocketing for a while but have now leveled off. My boss told me that senior management is "concerned" about this plateau where we seem to be stuck, and he wants me to organize some brainstorming sessions to try to come up with "outside the box" ideas for increasing sales. ????Not only have I never done this before, but it's stressing me out for two other reasons. First, previous brainstorming efforts have led nowhere, so people here are pretty jaded about the whole idea. And second, my boss gave me the impression that this assignment is kind of an audition for a promotion, so I don't want to screw it up. Do you or your readers have any suggestions? --Pittsburgh Pat Dear Pat: Funny you should ask. I've just been reading a fascinating new book about creativity, Thinking In New Boxes: Five Essential Steps to Spark the Next Big Idea. Of course, an entire mini-industry has sprung up to teach people how to think more creatively at work, and, you may have noticed, there's been no shortage of books about innovation. ????This one is a bit different. Co-authors Luc de Brabandere and Alan Iny, longtime Boston Consulting Group creativity advisors, base their five–step method on what has worked for thousands of real-life managers they've coached -- starting with a persuasive analysis of why most brainstorming is a waste of time. ????"In most brainstorming sessions, people are told to think up something new, while the old assumptions and preconceptions that created the problem in the first place are left unchallenged," says de Brabandere. "So if you get people together and just let them loose on a problem, without questioning their assumptions, they will often be drawn right back into the same old rut." ????Take, for instance, your sales slump. Before you start asking people for ideas about how to boost sales, de Brabandere and Iny suggest you take a step back and examine the situation more broadly. To think outside the box, you first have to see the box. "Are sales approaches really the issue? Maybe the market has moved on, or maybe it's saturated," Iny says. "Maybe the competition has changed the game. Maybe you aren't even in the right business anymore." ????One example of how a fresh look at these basic questions can open up a whole new (and way bigger) box: Back in the 1970s, BIC Corp. was looking for ways to sell more plastic pens, "until executives stepped back and asked themselves what business they were really in," says de Brabandere. "They realized their business was bigger than just pens, it was disposable plastic items" -- a realization that soon had BIC growing like mad by selling lighters, razors, and other products. ????Or consider a current case: Mark Zuckerberg's campaign to bring the whole world online. Thinking inside the same old familiar box would prompt the question, "How can we wring more cash out of current Internet users?" Instead, or in addition, Zuck is turning his focus to the 4.7 billion people on the planet who aren't wired yet. |
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