From the e-newsletter Management Intelligence

Where does your organization stand?

Quiet Life
A new idea is a distraction and a disturbance. The idea may fail. So just don't have any.
Me-Too
Let someone else develop the new idea. Let someone else carry the development costs. Let someone else develop the market. When the idea is seen to be successful then you come in with a 'me-too'.
Acquisition
A particular form of me-too. Let some other organisation develop new ideas and then you take over the other organisation, so acquiring the new ideas.
Osmosis
A new idea is tried out. It is successful. People talk about it. Gradually it becomes part of the standard thinking in that field, so you adopt the idea too.
Chance
You read the literature. You go to conferences. You talk to others. Ideas do happen from time to time. You have to be patient and to wait.
Research
You rely on your R&D department to generate new ideas. That is what they are there for, isn't it?
Advertising Agencies
These are creative people. Surely they can suggest new ideas. Sometimes they do.
Centre For Creativity
A formal Centre for Creativity takes over responsibility for the 'New Ideas' function. This Centre would organise training in creative thinking. This Centre would put together the Creative Hit-List which defines creative target areas, and so on.
Process Champion
This person is given the responsibility for ideas in an organisation. It is the specific responsibility of the Creative Champion to seek ideas, to energise the creative process, to compile the target list and to collect new ideas from any source.
Creative Outsourcing
If you need additional creative thinking you could have a creative contract with a 'creative shop' or even with Edward de Bono himself.

New ideas, Edward points out, involve effort, decisions, actions and investments. 'In the end the idea may not be successful. It is hardly surprising that people prefer to talk about innovation rather than do anything specific about it'. But that's exactly what you should be doing. 'As an individual or as an organisation ask the simple question: What am I (are we) doing about new ideas? And answer this question honestly!