One of the primary ways we seek to build a competitive edge isto come up with great ideas – ideas that give us an advantage overcompetitors.  But there seems to be more competitors everyday, so the pressure to create a more unique value proposition isamplified daily. So where do ideas come from? Let's start withmoments of inspiration.

Some good ideas come from a eureka moment. Classical scholarswill recall the story of the Greek philosopher Archimedes ofSyracuse, who coined the term. He was pondering a problem — how todetermine whether a gold crown given to his patron was real solidgold or a worthless substitute.

As he was thinking of the problem, he went to take his dailybath, got into a full bathtub, observed that the more his body sankinto it, the more water ran out of the tub, and realized he hadfound a method for measuring the volume of irregularly-shapedobjects, meaning he could find out whether or not the crown waspure gold. When he figured this out Archimedes shouted, “Eureka!”(roughly meaning “I've got it”).

Although this eureka method is one method for developing a goodidea, we will not, however, advise acting out the rest of the story— which is that Archimedes then jumped out of his tub and ran nakedthrough the streets of Syracuse. That wasn't such a good idea. Thetrouble with relying on eureka moments for inspired ideas is thatthey tend to be related to a specific, well-definedproblem. 

Frequently, we are dealing with more ambiguous problems. We haveto think up the right question to consider before we think throughthe best solution. This is the concept behind disciplined methodsof improving processes and developing new products and services. Ifyou can clearly define the most important problem for yourcustomer, you are much more likely to come up with good ideas thatwill help your organization satisfy those customers.

Techniques used by great thinkers can help everyone besuccessful at idea generation. For example, Albert Einstein isreputed to have come up with his great ideas by using a systematicmethod. While walking or riding a bike, he would conduct thoughtexperiments, wherein he would imagine a set of conditions and thinkthem through to their logical conclusion.

As another idea source, think about the creation of Facebook asdepicted in the movie “The Social Network.” Since Facebook seemedto come out of the blue, there is a temptation to say it wascreated via a eureka moment. However, as you watch the movie, youbecome aware that Facebook was an evolutionary idea, not arevolutionary one. Myspace already was out in the public as asocial networking option.

Facebook evolved from combining elements of Myspace with theidea that college students want to find dating partners. Soconsider combining familiar ideas to create a new approach. Alsoremember collective knowledge exceeds personal knowledge. Bysetting up a good method of eliciting ideas from a group in acontext where members can brainstorm, you'll generate ideas andimprove them in the crucible of immediate peer review.

One example where this has worked for me is in a small groupenvironment, where ideas are shared, discussed and prioritized by agroup of subject matter experts, with the planned outcome beinggeneration of one or more ideas to put into action.

This works best when the group shares a common objective andinterest.  To avoid the “too many cooks…” problem, thegroup must have an arbiter, someone who decides the shape of thefinal idea. Our Declaration of Independence came from such agroup.

Of course, it didn't hurt that Thomas Jefferson was the arbiterand major author. Finally, “we can top that” thinking is always away to come up with ideas. This works especially well when you aredealing with segmented products to meet specific demographics.

For example, when one brand of beer puts 64 calories into abottle, another squeezes the calorie count to 56. Is either of thembetter than a nice bottle of IPA? Not to me. Which gives me anidea…

Marty Traynor is vice president of voluntary benefits at Mutualof Omaha. He can be reached at [email protected].