Understanding and Fostering Collective Ideation: An Improvisation-Based Method

Abstract

Although the collective view is receiving increasing attention in research, this perspective is missing from the approaches for fostering creativity and ideation. The present study aims to fill this research gap by understanding ideation as a collective phenomenon and by introducing a novel method for fostering collective ideation. The study builds on current research on knowledge creation, collective creativity, idea generation, and collective theatrical improvisation to introduce an approach for fostering collective ideation. In addition, as a secondary goal, the study provides empirical findings about the implementation of collective ideation in 13 distinct cases. The study builds links between knowledge creation and collective theatrical improvisation and, thus, highlights social and affective aspects of collective ideation as a knowledge creation.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Assignment for Collective Ideation

The task of your group is to create a business idea concept from incidental ingredients as described below.

1.1 Task

1.1.1 Part I: Ideation

Duration 25–30 min

You will get three random elements/words:

• 1. Object/artifact

• 2. Function

• 3. Target group (users for whom you create the solution)

These three words (elements) are ingredients for your ideation work, and all these elements need to be involved in your final solution in one way or another.

IA: Ideate and co-create

a product, process, or service concept by using the object/artifact and function elements (words 1 and 2) for your target group or users (word 3). Be imaginative!

IB: Illustrate and present

your idea on paper (pictures, sketch, text, etc.) and be prepared to pitch (explain and sell) it to the audience (class)—e.g., what the product or solution is, how it serves the target group, and what the business model is for commercializing it. Imagine that you are seeking funding for your product/solution (50,000 €) for further development and testing of your product and the related business model.

1.1.2 Part II: Pitch

In the pitch, describe and sell your solution to the audience (investors). Prepare a short presentation (2 min max) about your solution (by using sketches or other illustrations).

1.1.3 Part III: Crowd Evaluation

Peer-to-peer (or crowd) evaluation according to instruction

Appendix 2

Implemented collective ideation cases (2013–2017) (Author’s own illustration)

	Case	Year	Participants	Respondents	Typea
1	Working adult university students/M.Sc. (Economics and Engineering)	2013	44	14	S
2	Adult working university students/MBA	2013	15	9	S
3	Working adult university students/M.Sc. (Economics and Engineering)	2013	28	27	S
4	Working adult university students/applied social sciences	2014	22	20	S
5	Working adult university students/M.Sc. (Economics and Engineering)	2014	25	24	S
6	City I/large	2015	75	65	O
7	City II/large	2015	28	25	O
8	University students/M.Sc. (Economics and Engineering), international	2015	27	27	S
9	Working adult university students/M.Sc. (Economics and Engineering)	2016	34	29	S
10	Large technology company	2016	48	44	O
11	Working adult university students/M.Sc.	2017	35	29	S
12	Adult working university students/MBA	2017	10	8	S
13	Working adult university students/M.Sc. (Economics and Engineering)	2017	50	48	S
	Total		441	369

1. ^aS = Student case; O = Organization case

Appendix 3

Positive experiences (Author’s own illustration)

	Second round concept	First round concept	Sample expressions
Positive experiences	Emotionally positive experience, playful, joy, fun, inspiring, pleasure	Fun	“Fun,” “lot of fun,” “great fun,” “Nice and fun co-creation event, usually people utilize humor to manage this kind of co-creation events”
		Nice	“Nice,” “nice co-creation event,” “it was nice,” “nice experience”
		Interesting	“Interesting,” “Interesting and creative! Some brilliant ideas can be triggered here!”
		Inspiring	Inspiring
		Good/great	“Good,” “good co-creation event,” “great,” “The pitches part is really good. Really timely and helps to test and stimulate one’s potential” “Well organized, it kept the attention well”
		Pleasurable	“pleasurable experience,” “enjoyable,” “I like,” “I liked,” “I love this experience”
	New and fresh experience	Refreshing Different Variation New Surprising	“Variation from familiar work,” “Nice variation,” “I experienced this as new compared to on what I am familiar with,” “Awesome,” “Different way to ideate and make impossible possible” “Different exercise is good for you” “New co-creation event, new wonderful companionship” “Energizing”
	Expanding experiences	Breaking boundaries Creative thinking Liberating First difficult – then inspiring	“triggers thinking,” “eye-opening,” “out of the box,” “open-minded,” “Breaking one’s boundaries,” “Stimulates thinking,” “Creates thinking and how to sell quickly your items,” “Creative – let it go, fly!”; “First difficult – then I got inspired”
Contradictory experiences	Unpleasant experiences	Difficult	“Difficult,” “Difficult (I am not familiar with this)”
		Not for me Too fast Didn’t like	“I like larger groups,” “We must have been on different wavelength, or at least we could not connect [at the cognitive level]. As a human she is certainly ok” “We had too little time” “Boring – took too much time,” “a little bit foolish,” “Business oriented, not used in social and health care sector”

Appendix 4

Social and cognitive aspects (Author’s own illustration)

	Second round concept	First round (concept)	Examples of expressions
Social interaction	Communication	Communicative	“Communicative,” “it lead us to a good conversation,” “Supports familiarization,” “Communicative and egalitarian” “Led to good conversation”
	Socialization	Get to know each other	“Interactive – I got to know a new person” “This is fun way to get to know new people and generate new ideas”
	Transcended interaction	Break barriers between people	“It’s a great way to broke barriers between persons and inside group”
		Interactive	“It was even easier to start working with an unknown person than it sometimes tend to be with known person” “Interactive….”
	Trust	Trust	“You have to trust. You have to trust your creativity and your team members’ creativity”
			“new way to facilitate creativity and turn it into a product”
Cognition	Makes knowledge and skills visible	Reveals skills	“I learned to make decision in short time of period”
		Reveals abilities	“This co-creation event demonstrated well mine and my team member’s ability to start working quickly and exchange ideas boldly without knowing her personality”
		Brings knowledge and skills accessible	“counterpart can be surprisingly innovative,” “You can learn about other person quite a lot in short time” “facilitates knowledge sharing and ideation. It gives a good feeling when shared idea is found” “It was great to change ideas wit someone unfamiliar to you” “You learn to know other persons’ logic of thinking, which makes communication easier”
	Collective creativity	Stimulates creativity	“This can really get your creativity going,” I thought I wasn’t creative, but with collaboration with another you may be!” “Thanks for remaining to be innovative and open mind!”

Appendix 5

Collective processes (Author’s own illustration)

	Second round concept	First round (concept)	Examples of expressions
Collective processes	Attention	Attention	“It kept well attention”
	Engagement into collective ideation	Forces to throw into ideation	“A nice and positive way to force one into ideation and innovation” “It was nice to let ideas flow—we had very appreciative and humorous climate” “Effective in throwing into action and in opening group work”
	Mutuality	Support each other building on others’ contributions	“We encouraged each other” “Point of view was broader and other person one said something other than what I had thought about and the ideas was further developed in my head” “We were very good team and inspired each other. It seemed as if we have been working together for years”
	Shared view	Shared understanding	“Showed, how easy it was to find a shared understanding” “Natural and fluent – it was easy to find a shared practice and language”
	Commitment shared idea	Shared outcome	“it was good and creative solutions here made in the class” “given words were difficult, but we succeeded to invent nice solution”
			“new way to facilitate creativity and turn it into a product”