The Innovator's Toolkit: 50+ Techniques for Predictable and Sustainable Organic Growth, 2nd Edition

Technique 24

Provocation and Movement

Bust through the roadblocks in your thinking.

 

The overall idea of provocation and movement is to create a shocking statement that is strong enough to move people out of their psychological inertia—their tendency to think the way they've always thought. For example, “We need customers to generate revenue” is a statement one might take for granted. However, if we said, “We don't need customers to generate revenue,” this provocation would certainly generate discussion that would point us in a different direction and generate new ideas.

As such, provocation and movement is one of the best tools for generating outside-the-box ideas—if you're open to questioning the status quo, imagining what if, and shocking yourself into a new reality.

Often, frustration is the initial force that creates a provocation and spurs movement toward a better product, service, or solution. The Diner's Club card, precursor to all credit cards, was born out of the frustration of always having to pay for a meal with cash. And no one should be surprised that, today, the world is making another huge evolution from conducting transactions with credit cards to conducting them with smart phones and tablet computers.

Steps

Scenario: The Private Pools company designs and builds Olympic-sized swimming pools for homeowners. Recently, the company has watched its profits plummet, thanks in part to an economic downturn in the housing market. A cross-functional team hopes to use ...