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E. Universal productivity innovation technique

The universal productivity innovation technique is to fast-cycle the generation and integration of alternatives to a starting solution concept to an ever-more clearly defined problem or opportunity concept or framework. All innovation techniques are variations on this theme, but conventional techniques typically share two common weaknesses: 

1. They don't deliberately and overtly take the second step in the innovation process: the integration step and;
2. They don't deliberately cycle the process fast enough.

 
There is a very good reason for these weaknesses – unconscious incognizance: 

1. It’s not obvious how the alternatives can be combined or integrated, so our brains don’t even consider the possibility that they can be.
2. Fast-cycling feels like duplicated effort – when, in reality it’s iterative refinement.

 
The result is that it is only at the end of the project, under deadline pressure, that integration takes place.
Deliberately fast-cycling the generation and integration of alternatives to a starting solution, from the start, has a massive impact on innovation speed and quality.
Having a starting framework, with a starting set of options, a starting set of solutions and a starting set of building blocks, creates ideal conditions for stimulating the creative ingenuity of the human brain – especially when combined with an urgent and pressing need, like the global recession. In these conditions, the true and often latent potential of the human brain comes to the fore.
Necessity is the mother of invention – and urgency is its father.