3 glasses for innovation

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The 3 glasses for innovation activity foster creativity and sharing of ideas for a group of people that wants to innovate.

Running the activity:

  1. Explain the concept for each of the 3 glasses
    • mirrored glasses: see beyond the status quo
    • glasses-binoculars; see the trends, far away
    • heat map glasses: see groups of people and their heat map
  2. Ask each person (or smaller groups of people) to think about and take notes for ideas that fits under each glass perspective
  3. Cluster similar notes and group conversations

At the end of this activity the group will have listed quite a few interesting ideas.

Glasses type 1: mirrored glasses

The mirrored glasses has special lens that filters the status quo.

Typically, everyone sees the same thing. You are used to the world as it is. Then you put on mirrored glasses. That way no one will notice that you’re not looking in the same direction as everyone else.

You want something new, different. You don’t want to be orthodox like everyone else. For this, your glasses, in addition to the mirrored lens, have a filter for the status-quo. Enough of the sameness. With it you will see a new world.

Glasses type 2: glasses-binoculars

You want to see further. You’ve fitted a pair of scopes to the normal glasses. Now you can see far.

You are looking right ahead. It’s looking to the future, looking at trends, and figuring out how to combine them and create something innovative.

Glasses type 3: Heat map glasses

Glasses with a special lens to see people and their needs, especially the ones that warms them up.

Remember that predator vision (from that old movie)? The predator could see the heat map created by the human body.

You are looking at the world around you. And you see the human warmth, the people, their behaviours and their needs. These glasses have a special filter, which eliminates existing products and solutions. You only see groups of people and their heat map.

Be creative and have fun!

Innovation and ideation activities require creativity. Playful activities help with this thinking. Be creative. Go to the $1.99 store, buy scissors, craft paper and some colored glasses, and have fun with Innovation activities such as the 3 Glasses.

 

>> This content is part of a series on inception activities.

Paulo Caroli

Paulo Caroli is an author, speaker, and consultant specializing in agile transformations, Lean Inception, and OKRs. With over 30 years of experience—including nearly a decade in Silicon Valley and 18 years at ThoughtWorks—he has helped organizations transition from project to product and from strategy to execution. Creator of the Lean Inception methodology and author of bestselling books like Lean Inception and Team OKR, Paulo is dedicated to empowering teams to align, validate, and deliver real business value.
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