The Idea Generator by Chris Thomason, reviewed

By @SimonCocking. Review of The Idea Generator by Chris Thomason, 15 clever thinking tools to create winning ideas quickly, available to buy here. more information on the book here.

Brainstorming is the go-to method for generating ideas and solutions in teams, but it’s been proven to be ineffective for over 50 years. The Idea Generator gives you 15 simple, easy-to-use tools that can be used and reused for a variety of purposes to help you generate ideas quickly and focus on developing only the best ideas.

Some of the ideas in this book have already attracted a lot of interest among our readers, particularly his summary of why Brainstorming is out of date and should be retired. Saku Tuominen was particularly in agreement with these ideas, and wanted to know the reference when we chatted with him for our interview at Slush.

14 reasons why Brainstorming is ready for retirement now (65 years later)

The book is well structured, covering enough tools to give you something to think about, but not so many that you have no time to process them before the author gallops off to the next idea. It’s important to question whether open plan offices, and group think activities are always the best way to come up with new and actually good ideas. This book is a good example of the growing awareness that innovation and creativity need (some) structure to deliver effective results. Simply sticking the post-its on wall might not be enough to actually save your company from being overtaken by hungrier, more dynamic, more effective businesses.

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