Managing Research, Development, and Innovation: Managing the Unmanageable, Third Edition

2.4. IDEAS

For idea-generating, the personnel needs to be technically competent in one or more fields and have the ability to conceptualize. They must be comfortable with abstract thinking and have a real interest in R&D.

In an R&D organization one finds that some people are particularly good at projecting beyond the obvious and thus generating ideas. To foster an idea-generating environment it is important to allow new ideas to be presented without immediately making judgments about their soundness. A group of researchers was once asked to present its ideas regarding some new research initiatives. After listening to the ideas, the managers quickly gave their comments and told the participants why the ideas were not particularly sound and thus ...