Innovate or Perish: One man’s journey to destroy dull thinking in the workplace

He started out as an advertising copywriter, but instead of spending his creative powers in the advertising industry, Kishore Dharmarajan set out on a mission to end insipid thinking in the corporate world and now with a new book, he is introducing a new way to generate ideas and breakthrough innovations in the workplace.

Eightstorm: 8-Step Brainstorming for Innovative Managers tells the story of Joe, a corporate executive, who sets off on a journey to save his company from impending disaster. The once-successful company has courted danger by sleeping on its success, while an innovative competitor has come up with a new product that threatens the existence of Joe’s company. During his adventures, Joes learns of a process called Eightstorm, which is an advanced form of brainstorming that can not only help him become an innovative genius but also save his company. To Joe’s surprise, he finds that Eightstorm is not a complex set of theories, but a series of interesting techniques:

1. ASK QUESTIONS. Ask questions for which you have no answers. When you don't have readymade answers, you are forced to leave your comfort zone and bound to stretch your imagination. The better the question you ask, the better your answer will be.

2. SEEK INSPIRATION FROM OTHER FIELDS. Move to another industry for inspiration. If you are in banking, look at scuba diving for ideas. Jot down 5 things that come to your mind when you think of scuba diving. For instance: goggles, floating objects, oxygen tanks, webbed feet and coral reefs. Now find banking ideas that relate to these random inputs.

3. COMBINE DIVERSE ELEMENTS - All new ideas are combinations of old concepts. Look out for existing ideas in your workplace that you can combine to create a new entity.

4. TAKE A 180-DEGREE LOOK - When you are looking for a solution, why not turn a problem around on its head and see what happens. Overturning a situation can lead to more solutions than you had imagined.

5. VISUALIZE THE SITUATION - If you have a problem and have difficulty in describing it, why not draw it. Doing simple scribbles can help you turn complex problems into easy to understand situations.

6. DO RAPID THINKING - If it's difficult to get one idea, try to get ten. Often, the thought of getting ten optional solutions to a problem will lessen the strain you feel in an idea-generating process. Plus the very act of generating multiple solutions in rapid succession will improve your innovative skills.

7. LEAP OVER THE OBVIOUS - The initial ideas that roll out in any discussion or brainstorming session will often be the weakest. Keep your eyes open for these obvious ideas and use them as a support to move ahead.

8. USE HUMOUR - Loosen your tie and make a hilarious comment on your current problem. Humor has the power to spark off unexpected ideas and can take you to new creative heights.

In a single day Joe learns the secrets of Eighstorming and he returns to his company with the power to innovate and with that the ability to succeed in today’s world.

Through Joe’s adventures, Kishore has declared war on mediocre thinking and conventional brainstorming. But judging from the way the corporate world operates, if this is a fight against conventional thinking methods, the war has just begun.

Eightstorm is available on www.amazon.com and more details are available from www.eightstorm.com