Teams are comprised of multiple members, each of whom has innumerable thoughts, conceptions and ideas. Professional teams working in organizations often use the word “brainstorming” to describe their mutual thinking and collaboration sessions. When brainstorming, team members discuss and dissect ideas, formulate their thoughts, listen and argue, disagree and inspire, and try to move forward.
Yet what occurs after the initial brainstorming sessions? What happens when teams need to focus on mission accomplishment? This is where ideation kicks in. Ideation is a collaborative process that attempts to take idea fragments and formulate them into full-bodied concepts, which will then be used to kickstart actual work assignments.
Taking Ideas to the Next Level
Ideation is based on communication and collaboration. An extremely results-oriented process, ideation requires team members to work together in a methodical, step-by-step manner, from the concept stage to final mission completion. Every step brings the team closer to realizing the idea they had envisioned.
Let’s take a product development team as an example. Their ideation process begins with creating a concept for a new product. After the concept is developed, the team meets regularly to create the product’s design, features, testing, in-house marketing – all the necessary steps leading to product launch. The final product is a fully realized idea.
The Basis for Successful Ideation
What defines a successful ideation process? First and foremost, results. An idea must be defined and transformed into an actual product, service or component. The one ingredient that is absolutely necessary for obtaining results is human collaboration. The team needs to meet, talk, focus and work together.
Having established that human collaboration stands at the very foundation of how business organizations run their operations, one must realize that its efficiency is nothing short of a game-changer. In today’s dynamic business world, team members must juggle multiple tasks and their attention span is getting increasingly shorter. And if that’s not enough, team members are often scattered across different locations and different time zones. For this reason, one prerequisite for successful ideation is collaboration technology, which is a true enabler of fruitful organizaitional communication.
Ideation-Enhancing Technology
There is an abundance of technology that team members can use to improve their ideation processes. As team members search for better and more effective ways to meet, talk and collaborate, it is only natural that they rely on advanced video conferencing tools and smart meeting room solutions.
How do video conferencing sessions and online meetings enhance ideation processes?
- Better understanding: advanced video conferencing tools and smart meeting rooms help team members better understand their peers’ wishes, needs and expectations. Face-to-face communication works wonders.
- Improved mission orientation: the key to getting things done as a team is to know what has to be done, when, and by whom. Close communication allows team members to discuss every mission down to the smallest detail.
- Simpler meeting setup: want to set up a quick, informal meeting? Need to talk privately with 2-3 remote team members? Nothing works better than an impromptu video conference in an office or huddle room. Set up and connect in a matter of seconds.
- Effective problem solving: product and service development is never issue-free. Problems will always arise – it’s how you deal with them that matters. Video conferencing and other collaboration tools allow teams to discuss issues as soon as they occur, and to respond with mutual precision.
- Better human interaction: in business, everything boils down to human interaction. This is especially important in brainstorming and ideation sessions. Whether you’re part of a virtual team or a global project, today’s video conferencing tools are your best option for achieving groundbreaking ideation with your colleagues.
Here’s to great ideas!
