戴尔女性企业家聚会 Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network

青蛙设计的运营总监Kate Swann和策略官Ravi Chhatpar应邀主持了戴尔女性企业家聚会的创新研讨会，此次聚会吸引到了世界顶级的女性企业家、首席执行官和创新领导人前来参与，旨在提供分享心得经验的平台，和树立人脉资源网络的机遇。

在昨天的研讨会上，Kate 和 Ravi指出几乎所有执行官的思考点都局限在问题上，大大浪费了聪明才智。而这也确实是现代企业家经常遇到的问题，当我们在思考如何达成目标时总习惯于运用“解决问题”这个套路，但这是十分危险的，因为它会将我们的视线定格在问题上而忽略其他东西，问题的存在实在太能分散注意力了。解决问题目前仍是现代机构运行的中心，决策理论的核心和领导能力培训的关键点。所以，发现并指出错误长久以来一直都把持着管理学的理论基础的位子，而我们还以此而得意，殊不知我们已因此丧失了关注问题以外事务的能力。那些为我们所累的各种概念和研究机构虽然如此低效，却终究因为缺乏能充分吸引注意力的大问题而被忽视。

因此，解决问题在理想情况下应该能带来渐进式的创新，而突破式的创新是在问题以外寻找机遇。在frogthink的研讨会上，我们引入了“激励元”（provocation）作为灵感来源来调动大家的发散性思考（lateral thinking），即从多角度多侧面去思考一件事而不是按照通常的线路一步步推导。我们用不同于以往的表达方式来挑战你的思考惯性，从而帮助你实现思维上的水平大跳跃，使思考角度更加多元，见解更有创意，最终提出令人耳目一新的理念。

50多位女强人被分成7组，分别面临着医疗、媒体、娱乐、人才和技术等方面的创新挑战，

她们依据以下三步来完成了创新概念的生成：

第一步：写出激励元

第二步：分析激励元

第三步：制定解决方案

当各种想法在激励元的作用下源源不断而生时，团队需要根据下列因素来确保概念切实可行：

吸引度：它如何能满足各种需求并解决针对的问题？              

生命力：它如何能产生持续有效的商业影响，并具备差异度？

可行性：它如何能在商业和技术的现状的局限下得以实现？

能看到50多位来自美国和世界其他国家的女强人齐聚一堂真是一件幸事。她们带着自己不同的背景和成功心得来到中国，交流合作，共同完成创新挑战，呈现出她们团队智慧的结晶。在中国，这个令人惊叹的国度，一场意义深远的社会和经济转型正在进行，成为一名成功的女性领导者不再是遥不可及的梦想，比如：盛大网络公司的CEO李瑜、摩根士丹利中国区的CEO孙玮和俏江南的CEO张兰。在草根群体中，许多进城务工的农村女性成为了家庭的经济支柱，这也是这个国家女性角色经历的转变之一。我们非常期待中国今后也能举办类似戴尔女性企业家聚会的活动。

frog’s Chief Operating Officer Kate Swann and Strategy Director Ravi Chhatpar were invited to host an innovation workshop at the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network. The event brings together female founders, CEOs, and innovative leaders who run businesses in the world’s top markets. Contributors are asked to share personal expertise and experience, and establish an important and much needed network during the event and beyond.
 
In today’s workshop, Kate and Ravi pointed out that almost all executives are thoroughly conditioned to look only at problems. This is a huge waste of their thinking capacity. This is true even for modern entrepreneurs. We are in the habit of using the term “problem solving” for all purposeful thinking. This is dangerous because it leads to thinking only about problems. Problems attract thinking attention. The obsession with problem solving is core to modern organization’s decision-making theories and leadership training. So, finding and pointing out error has been the basis of management theory ever since. We don’t even start looking at things unless they are problems, which reinforces complacency. The thinking goes, “If something isn’t ‘a problem’ then there is no point thinking about it.” Unfortunately, this mindset results in the fact that we are burdened with concepts and institutions which are marvelously inefficient, but not yet problematic enough to attract “thinking attention.” 
 
Therefore, the best outcome is that fixing problems creates evolutionary innovation. Disruptive innovation, on the other hand, seeks opportunity when there isn’t a problem. In this workshop, Kate and Ravi introduced “provocation” as a source of inspiration that can be used to break through lateral thinking (the act of moving sideways across familiar but disparate patterns, instead of engaging them and moving beyond them). We look for new ideas using methods that force us to make lateral leaps to a new perspective or a new creative idea, by using an unusual statement that challenges what people take for granted.
 
For the workshop, more than 50 Powerful Women were divided into seven groups to solve different innovation challenges such as healthcare, media, and entertainment. They also looked at people and talent as well as technology.
 
There are three steps for generating innovation concepts:
Step 1: Generate a list of provocations
Step 2: Analyze your provocations
Step 3: Come up with an innovative solution.
 
After the teams come up with different ideas using provocation, the participants moved their ideas toward a feasible concept by considering the following factors:
 
Desirability: How does it meet needs and fix pain points?
Viability: How does it create business impact in a sustainable, differentiated way?
Feasibility: How can it be realized given business and technology constraints?
 
It was fantastic to see 50 powerful women from many parts of the world with different backgrounds and successful stories come to China to share their proactive ideas, and come into consensus for an innovation concept. In this amazing country we are undergoing significant social and economic transformation, and there are many successful women at leadership positions — women such as Yu li, the CEO of Shanda Games, Sun Wei, the CEO of Morgan Stanley China, and Lan Zhang, the CEO of South Beauty. Even on the grass roots level, there are Chinese women workers who have become the major financial pillars for their families in rural and urban areas. The transformation of the role of women in this country is underway. I really look forward to seeing a “Most Powerful Women in China” conference!