Storytelling can make the idea

The new idea must be externalised, that is, communicated to an audience, be it to inspire or win over a colleague, a team or a client. And communicating the idea is essentially about storytelling, which is a skill that can be developed or improved upon. This skill entails a few characteristics, notably the ability to contextualise the idea, that is, to explain, show or demonstrate how the idea fit into the broader vision or picture of things. Another noticeable feature is to make the idea action-oriented, that is, to present the idea so it becomes clear what real difference it can make if, and when realised. And, not least, build trust into your storytelling by not exaggerate the idea to make it seem larger, more important or better than it really is. Because an effective way to undermine the creditbility of an idea is with impressive-sounding, but ultimately unhelpful, boring or meaningless platitudes.

Ideation as knowledge

Ideation can be seen as a creative process embodied in cognition and knowledge of both practical and theoretical nature. Aristotle distinguished between different types of knowledge required to solve problems in three realms. Techne was craft knowledge: learning to use tools and methods to create something. Episteme was scientific knowledge: uncovering the laws of nature and other inviolable facts. Phronesis was akin to ethical judgment: the perspective-taking and wisdom required to make decisions when competing values are in play — when the answer is not absolute, multiple options are possible. The reason that Aristotle made these distinctions is that they require different styles of thinking. But ideators face challenges appearing regularly in all three knowledge areas. That is, there are plenty of techne problems to find practical and effective solutions to a given problem. There are also epistemic challenges, that is, designing serves not only to develop artefacts but is also a means of acquiring genuine knowledge. And firmly in the realm of phronesis, or practical wisdom, the kind of knowledge that is flexible enoguh to adjust initial thoughts to emergent circumstances, and adaptable enough to learn from successes as well as mistakes. Wisdom, a capacity acquired through experience, helps designers to ask penetrating questions, provide insight into the implications of actions, and to advise appropriate courses of action. Wisdom, then, in the realm of problem solving, involves the ability to understand how complex and messy situations hang together, and appropriate actions might be taken.  Phronesis, then, in the context of design, as argued by Halverson and Gomez (2001)* is the ability to walk the talk. Or rather, for ideators, to walk the idea. *https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241616375_Phronesis_and_Design_How_Practical_Wisdom_is_Disclosed_through_Collaborative_Design

Saying no to ideas

 Ideation suggests ways of generating, developing and communicating ideas. but it's not simply an activity of producing as many ideas as possible for any given task, as may be the case with so called "brainstorming" for ideas. That is, ideation is a purposeful and focused process. It is also a decision-making process. But focusing doesn't mean saying yes to any idea that pops up. To focus, as proposed by Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, "means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.". So difficult choices have to be made along the ideation route: Which idea seems the best? The opportunity may never come around again. In conclusion, then, the best course of action for ideators is to say no to ideas that don't excite, speak to their values, or further their design agenda.

Value of handwritten notes and sketches

Know that tools for the hands are tools for the brain. Handwritten notes are a powerful tool for encrypting embodied cognition, that is, the mind is not only connected to the body but that the body influences the mind, and in turn supporting the brain’s capacity for retrieval of information. And secondly, when you take notes by hand, your hands create a robust external memory storage: your notebook. While keyboarding is an important skill too, notably for written communication, keyboarding does not provide the tactile feedback to the brain that contact between pencil or pen and paper does. Researchers have found that note-taking associated with keyboarding involves taking notes verbatim in a way that does not involve processing information, and so have called this “non-generative” note-taking. By contrast, taking notes by hand involves cognitive engagement in summarising, organising, and conceptualising — in short, manipulating and transforming information that leads to deeper understanding. This goes for sketching and drawing too: Leonardo da Vinci wrote: “…the more minutely you describe, the more you will confuse the mind of the reader and the more you will remove him from knowledge of the thing described. Therefore it is necessary to make a drawing ... as well as to describe ...". So creating neurocircuitry for memory and meaning through the hand-brain complex is the key to understanding the value of hand-written notes and sketches. Source: https://theconversation.com/note-taking-by-hand-a-powerful-tool-to-support-memory-144049?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

Write it down!

It's a truism among ideators yet not always followed. That is, the moment an idea strikes you - the proverbial light bulb or "Aha!" moment, write it down, or sketch it out — no hesitation. Whether on a piece of paper, smartphone, or a Post-it Note, it doesn’t matter. Getting into the habit of noting down each idea also increases the chances of realising it, that is, ideators find that writing down ideas (rather than just thinking about them) improves motivation to take the idea further. Indeed to be motivated we need to make something happen which, in the context of ideation, means capturing the idea jotting the first few words or doing a rough sketch. From there on, it's also important to find uninterrupted time to expand and develop the idea. In other words, idea development needs focusing.

Ideation as a natural process

Frank Lloyd Wright wasn't just an outstanding architect. He was also a colourful character, a self-publicist who was not afraid to speak his mind: “Early in my career...I had to choose between an honest arrogance and a hypercritical humility... I deliberately choose an honest arrogance, and I've never been sorry.” Not surprising, then, Wright's musings are often quoted. For example, his view on ideation suggests a natural formgiving process that improves through practice: “Every idea that is a true idea has a form, and is capable of many forms. The variety of forms of which it is capable determines the value of the idea. So by way of ideas, and your mastery of them in relation to what you are doing, will come your value as an architect to your society and future. That's where you go to school. You can't get it in a university, you can't get it here, you can't get it anywhere except as you love it, love the feeling of it, desire and pursue it. And it doesn't come when you are very young, I think. I believe it comes faster with each experience, and the next is very simple, or more simple, until it becomes quite natural to you to become master of the idea you would express". (Frank Lloyd Wright, Idea and Essence, September 7, 1958).

Mind's eye

It is said that Frank Lloyd Wright was a mind's eye architect *. '[I] conceive the building in the imagination, not on paper but in the mind, thoroughly - before touching paper. Let it live there - gradually taking more definite form before committing it to the draughting board'. So Wright allowed the idea to germinate in his mind until it erupted as an "insight". The big solution, he believed, must emerge first, then design development and detailing could follow. And this without first jotting down his ideas or preliminary sketches in the pages of notebooks (at least, no sketchbooks have survived). Wright, it seems, built up a "narrative" in his mind's eye, a kind of imaginary designerly walk before committing "the story" to paper. Evidence of his design process, which he described as "fleeting", is that once he put pencil to paper, Wright talked as he worked, what appears like "thinking aloud". And on the drafting table, with T-square and a drafting triangel, and surrounded by his Taliesin apprentices, he talked in an undertone that was both directed to his pupils and a preoccupied expression of his thoughts. * Howard, H. 2016. Architecture's Odd Couple. NY and London: Bloomsbury Press.