In response to the pandemic and its repercussions, schools and colleges were compelled to make multiple adjustments, including switching to online classes, shortening study blocks, condensing the curriculum, and lowering grade boundaries. Recently, with the return to offline classes, changes in school curricula and student expectations have been a cause for concern. As the virus’ grasp slowly loosens, the education system’s grasp on students is tightening again. Is there reason to worry?
The lockdown prompted leniency, which students cherished. Suddenly, there was more room to accommodate hobbies and new interests. However, these conditions also heightened temptations, leading to an indulgence in online entertainment, laxity in students’ eating, sleeping, and studying habits, and disruptions to their once relatively healthy and sustainable daily routines. Simply put, being stuck at home was more damaging than good and students struggled to shed these habits once offline school instigated the need for specific lifestyle changes.
Consider the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum. As a post-pandemic reaction, courses have been revised and expanded, additional exams are being introduced, and the grade boundaries, the most distressing change for students, are reverting to what they originally were: inflexible and demanding. Similar modifications are being made across schools all over the world. Many, if not all, students are beginning to panic, apprehensive about being able to reverse their poor study habits instantaneously and return to a studious work schedule.
Change can occasionally be misleading, and the transition back to harsher grading systems might appear alarming, unfair, and possibly entirely uncalled for. However, before criticizing the recent educational system changes, it is essential to consider their implications. An education without rigor or high expectations will render future generations of the workforce under-equipped to handle complex tasks. For instance, professions in medicine and law highly depend on an extensive, thorough education. Without that foundation, we would be jeopardizing the health and safety of the people and undermining our justice systems.
Not only this, but lenient grading encourages laziness and disrupts a student’s development of a healthy, efficient, and effective work ethic. It sets lower standards, making it much easier for students to score well while doing only the bare minimum. With every other person performing exceptionally, the value of a perfect or near-perfect score is degraded—its credibility tarnished. Rather than serving as a distinction of merit among student bodies, this style of grading assumes a perfect score to be a mediocre accomplishment. Without a demanding rubric, students will find it even harder to stand out in a community where excellence is already booming. For example, with the reduced IB curricula for graduating students last year, a perfect score, which was initially obtained by only a mere handful, was suddenly achieved by numerous students across the globe, diminishing, to an extent, its highly prestigious significance in schools and colleges throughout.
The sheer volume of skills, experiences and learning that students can gain from a wholly developed curriculum should surpass any challenges accompanying it. While adjusting to a post-pandemic lifestyle will be taxing, the school curricula changes will ensure students graduate with a high-caliber education that prepares them for a future burgeoning with complexities as well as opportunities.
Growing up, poetry was definitely a very important art form to me. Around me, I saw many people who were equally as passionate as I was, if not more, about poetry. My head would constantly be swimming with ideas, pen always jotting down streams of consciousnesses on discarded sheets of paper. Thinking it to be the greatest piece of art I may ever create.
And then… picked apart that same piece of paper a few days later and making a face to signify exactly how unimpressed I was by it.
Poetry isn’t that easy. It’s easy to write a poem that feels good at a particular moment but when you read it shortly afterwards, something always seems to be amiss. That thing, in most cases would be nuance. The words are all simple and straightforward. There are a few phrases that are mildly interesting, but apart from that, everything seems unappealingly mediocre.
One day, however, I realised, that was kind of the point. That was step one. The raw ideation of a poetic idea. Something worth working upon. The fallacy was not the mediocrity, no, instead it was harshly judging a work in progress.
The next step could be to work on it yourself or maybe, to find inspiration somewhere else.
Whenever I asked my favourite English mentors for writing advice, it was always to read all sorts of literature I can get my hands on. It sounds fairly clichéd but to no one’s surprise, it absolutely works. When you read more, you expose yourself to new ideas, and sometimes, to different interpretations of the same idea. Different ways the same idea is conveyed through different words. The different ways are somehow breathtakingly beautiful in their own right.
Apart from that, you expose yourself to different writing styles. There are so many. Do you want to be structured? Do you want it to rhyme? Do you want it to form a shape across the page? Do you want it to be all over the place? Do you want it to be guarded or transparent? Complex or simple? Self-aware or completely unaware at all points? From the eyes of a random girl or through your own eyes?
What this does is help you find what styles resonate the most with you and feel true to you.
A very profound poem that shaped me as a budding and growing poet was“What Kind of Times are These”, by Adrienne Rich. Adrienne Rich was one of the most prolific American poets during the late 20th century, having won numerous accolades for her influential writing. A devout feminist and a deeply vocal writer, her writing leaves a deep impact on readers.
Moving forward, I will be reverse engineering this poem, so as to unpack how such a piece of writing was formed in the first place.
The universe of this poem
Although there’s no set rhyme scheme, this poem is divided into four stanzas of four lines each. There is no uniformity in the length of the paragraphs or the lines, however, Rich uses her structural division to add suspense to the poem.
Each of the first three stanzas, in and of themselves, develop unanimous crescendos of mystery and thrill. It is clear that the poem is political, Rich talks of nature. Of trees meeting, of woods, of roads, of shadows and of lights and this greatly contributes to the tone of the poem. Airy yet determined. Confused, yet sure. Like an oxymoron or a paradox.
In the first two lines:
“There’s a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows”
Rich uses alliteration in “grass grows” and “revolutionary road”, which provides this sensory pleasure garnered upon reading this poem, which along with its vivid imagery, paints a picture in the reader’s mind. Another important element of these two lines is the motif of a ‘tree’, because this will come up later in the poem.
“I’ve walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread, but don’t be fooled this isn’t a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here, our country moving closer to its own truth and dread, its own ways of making people disappear.”
At this point, it becomes clear that Rich is addressing you, the reader. She’s telling you that this ambiguously dreadful and hidden secret that she is trying to unfurl, this mystery, it is nowhere else but here, beyond the reader’s line of sight. It’s clear that this is specifically about America, however this could apply easily in today’s context. Today, where we still see and feel that something is missing, that something is not right and that something might go horribly long. Today, we still feel a storm is brewing but we have no idea from where. This is not somewhere else but here. Addressing the reader makes this poem a special and intimate experience, where now, as a reader, you feel singled out and what’s more, you feel even more immersed, even more involved. “I won’t tell you where the place is, the dark mesh of the woods meeting the unmarked strip of light— ghost-ridden crossroads, leafmold paradise: I know already who wants to buy it, sell it, make it disappear.”
The third and penultimate stanza adds even more to the tension, that eerie feeling of dread that you can’t put to words- this poem is especially compelling because it is so open to interpretation and it doesn’t tell you how to feel. It doesn’t tell you to be happy or sad or scared or angst-filled or full of empathy. Yet you feel those emotions, because you don’t have to be told anything.
The imagery furthers the beauty of this realm. This place is like a misty mountain behind an abandoned road, next to a century old well. This place is like a destination where the sky is perpetually grey, foggy and misty, but then again, this place is nowhere else but here…
Full Circle
“And I won’t tell you where it is, so why do I tell you anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these to have you listen at all, it’s necessary to talk about trees.”
What is even more resonant about this poem is the way it ends. Not with talks of war, bloodshed, violence or carnage, but with this sense of earnestness. When the tree motif came full circle the first time I read this poem, all the hair in my body stood up, and now, as I write this, they still are. When things come full circle, a motif, an idea, a melody or a theme, it never really loses its charm.
The ending is like a partially resolved chord to end a song with, like Radiohead’s Exit Music (for a film). Yet, it’s the perfect place to end. The tapestry has been woven.
To conclude
Through this experience of reverse engineering a poem, I hope to bring forth a set of points you might want to consider for your next poetic venture. Of course, it’s not necessary because every writer is different, but this points could still be important to keep in mind:
Do you have a structure and does it have a meaning?: do your stanzas, line breaks, rhyme schemes and forms have something deeper to them. Maybe having another layer could help provide depth to your next poem
Do you use any sensory or literary nuances?: playing with the phonetics of a word, wordplay, alliteration, anaphora, asyndeton, similes or metaphors can be fun- but it would also be important to make sure it fits in well with the rest of your words
What is the atmosphere like and how do you set it?: This poem has a suspenseful tone, but what is your poem’s tone, mood and atmosphere? How will you bring it forth? With imagery, structure, poetic devices, form or something else
And finally, do you want your writing to be open to interpretation?: Although this poem is politically charged and has its own historical context, it is still quite open to interpretation and has both a personal and global significance because of its metaphors and imagery being of nature and secrets. Do you want to write about something specific or do you want your poems to have multiple meanings.
Conclusively, I would suggest finding other poems that are special to you and reverse engineering them and who knows, maybe you find something life changing and special there!
Understanding a language’s fundamental structure is necessary for writing coherently. This involves understanding grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure in English. Additionally required are vocabulary, accurate spelling, and proper formatting. A writer may write for their own amusement or use, or for a small or large audience. A known (targeted) audience may exist, or it may not. Writing for one’s own reasons might include taking notes for academic purposes. Public blogging is an example of writing for an unidentified readership. An illustration of writing with a specific audience in mind is a letter to a friend. When writing, it’s crucial to keep your audience in mind, much like when speaking.
Writing can be done in a variety of ways, from informal to official. Writing is a method of human communication that uses a collection of visual signs that are, by convention, connected to certain linguistic structure levels. This definition emphasises how writing can “map onto” or represent any level of spoken language structure, including sentences, words, syllables, and phonemes. Writing is, in theory, the representation of language rather than a direct representation of thought. Good writing skills are the foundation of any successful blog. Crafting content that will keep people reading, however, can be difficult on its own. In this blog post, you’ll find 2 easy tips to help you engage your readers and get them to stick with your post.
1. EPL (Ethos, Pathos, Logos)
I’m sure most of you will agree that most of the articles and written pieces that we come across are boring and it’s a misfortune to sit through them. Hence, you might not want your audience to think of your writing the same way, and so you need to use the EPL strategy. Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, are the three most crucial elements that will make your piece interesting and make it have a huge impact on the audience. The persuasive strategy known as ethos highlights credibility to entice an audience. The better “character” of a speaker, presenter, writer, or brand is evoked via ethos advertising approaches. The purpose of ethos examples is to persuade the audience that the marketer is dependable and moral. When someone you respect approves your choice isn’t that simpler to do? Ethos, which is credibility, should be a must in all your pieces because if the audience doesn’t think your piece is reliable enough, you’re doing something wrong.
Secondly, Pathos literally means “pain, experience, or sensation” in Greek. Pathos is a synonym for pitiful, compassion, and empathy, all of which refer to feelings or emotional ties. Pathos, as employed by Aristotle to describe the emotional effect an argument has on a listener, is still primarily how pathos is used in rhetoric today. Pathos, which is emotions and passion, if you can get the audience to trigger their emotions and get hold of their feelings, they’ll love your content and keep reading onwards. Let’s try and use pathos in a written piece, for example, “If we don’t stop polluting the ocean once and for all, all the animals, the life inside water, and eventually our future generation will die because of our irresponsible actions”.
Lastly, Logos is frequently referred to as “the appeal to reason” when it comes to rhetorical appeal and persuasion. When a speaker or author uses logos, they are often quoting facts or offering evidence and figures to back up their claims. In a sense, logos skips over all the flourishes of ethos and pathos and gets right to the point by attempting to make a persuasive case. Logos, which is logistics and statistics, if you can use facts, numbers, and stats it will automatically make the audience vouch for your writing and make them agree more towards your piece. Together these three elements make a vigorous combination and can make your writing from average to outstanding. Using this technique will take your writing from average to out of the box getting your writing the appreciation and attention it deserves.
2. Technology is your best friend
New communication technologies frequently lead to new frameworks that change how literature appears on pages, screens, websites, and file windows. An excellent example is the invention of the printed book, which many elites viewed as harmful due to its ease of duplication and spread when it first debuted. To be sure, every new form of communication is accompanied by dire predictions, but understanding the history of cultural interactions with technology suggests that, despite these predictions, literature consistently shows an inventive capacity to adapt and change in response to new environmental circumstances. There are several technological aids and instructional techniques available for writing that may make the process simpler and more enjoyable for people like us.
While not every high-tech method of writing will be effective for every class or every student, there is undoubtedly something out there for everyone. Here are just a few technologically oriented methods for writing. With access to the internet there’s not much we can’t do, so using it wisely can result in fruitful outcomes. As a mature poet I use two tools quite often while writing my poetry which not only make my work stand out, but also makes the process of writing much faster and enjoyable. The first tool I use is rhymezone.com. This tool can find me n number of rhyming words from the word I want eliminating my time wastage with finding rhymes for my poems as easy as one click. Another tool I use is synonym-finder. This tool makes my writing much more colourful and vibrant. Instead of using your limited vocabulary, you can explore the sea of thousands of word substitutes that will completely take your writing to another level. Now the tools I suggested are only a few, with the resources we have, there’s literally endless websites, apps, and what not.
We frequently hear that so and so is an entrepreneur who has launched his or her own company. It is also true that when we hear the term entrepreneur, we tend to associate it with someone who has started or is starting their own ventures, or in other words, making it on their own. This is correct, as the formal definition of entrepreneurship is the process of establishing a business or organization for profit or for social purposes. To distinguish and separate commercial entrepreneurship from social and charitable entrepreneurship, we used the phrase for profit or for social needs.
Every now and then, young people come up with innovative and brilliant ideas. Nonetheless, they are frequently ‘uncertain’ about how to pursue their great ideas or turn their concepts into business endeavors. This is common because teenagers are at an age where it is difficult to find something that interests them. They may not understand the direction of their lives or how much control they have over them and they’re still trying to figure out how their ideas fit into the bigger picture of the world.
Advice for Aspiring Teen Entrepreneurs!
The BRE has compiled some advice from teen entrepreneurs that you can keep in mind when you kickstart your own startup journey.
1. Understand your industry:
Although some aspects of entrepreneurship are beyond your control, taking the time to thoroughly study and understand your chosen industry is not. Because there will almost always be rivals and similar businesses out there, doing your homework and having a better understanding of the business than anyone else is the best way to get an edge over competitors. The more you know about your industry, the better you’ll serve your customers, the other options and solutions available, competitor pricing, industry-specific marketing strategies, and how to ensure your business stands out from the crowd.
2. Go Slow – Take one step at a time :
When it comes to building and growing a startup, one piece of advice that far too few entrepreneurs hear is to take things one step at a time. This is critical because, as an entrepreneur, you will be forced to deal with many different issues and obstacles at the same time.0
Those who do not prioritize and learn to take things one step at a time may find themselves drowning in exhaustion, rather than realizing that they can only deal with each task or obstacle as it arises and then move on to the next.
3. Be open to change:
When it comes to building a startup, or any product or service, the only constant changes, and the only way to succeed in the face of future changes is to respond to and adapt to them. Competitors will release new products, the problem itself may change, the target market may shift, and so on.
You must keep an eye on your industry, customers, and competitors, and always plan ahead of time to adapt to impending changes that may affect your business.
4. Don’t get discouraged from failure:
One advantage of starting a business as a teen is that the stakes are low, and there is plenty of time for a course correction or a complete redo. As a high school student, you probably do not bear the financial burden of running a household and providing for your family. If your parents have covered the fundamentals, you can feel much more at ease knowing that the outcome of your startup will not have significant financial consequences for you or your family.
5. Ask for help:
While it is possible to be a solo founder, startups are a collaborative effort, and you should take advantage of the assistance, contacts, and partnerships available through your network and the people who support your idea. No founder should jeopardize their company’s success by limiting it to the skills, talents, and resources that they personally possess. In fact, the entire accelerator, incubator, crowdfunding, and venture capital communities were founded on founders and startups seeking advice, resources, or funding.
However, seeking investment isn’t the only time to seek assistance. If you have friends, relatives, or peers who could help you with one aspect of your business, you’ll be much better off if you entrust those tasks to people who are exceptionally skilled at them. Along these lines, collaborating with others can help you create more opportunities.
6. Building a Strong Network:
It’s critical to recognize the value and experience your peers and teachers can offer you and your startup. Take advantage of networking opportunities throughout your degree, including networking events, industry talks, internships, and even coffee morning catch-ups. It doesn’t always have to be in a professional setting; simply getting to know your colleagues on a casual level can lead to a professional working relationship.
It’s a winning combination to surround yourself with a team that is as professional, hardworking, committed, and driven as you are. If you want to learn more about Networking as a Teenager, do check our recent blog on it!
6. A Success Story – Two Teen Entrepreneurs from India!
Being a successful entrepreneur is not a career choice but a path one must take, and starting early is very important! We can learn from the two teens that caused disruption in the Indian Startup Scene with their creation – Zepto! Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, both 19 years old, dropped out of the prestigious Stanford University in California to build the instant delivery service based out of Mumbai – valued at almost a billion dollars!
The startup was built upon the instant delivery model where customers can get groceries – from fresh fruits and vegetables to your favorite munchies – delivered to you in under 10 minutes! Industry giants like BlinkIt (earlier Grofers) and Swiggy Instamart dominated the space until Zepto emerged.
The teenage duo had founded Zepto in the September of 2020 and started operations in April of next year. Aadit and Kaivalya had started another company – KiranaKart – a service that delivers groceries in 45 minutes or less by connecting traders to their customers. However, the Y-Combinator-backed startup shut down operations a month before Zepto started in April 2021 due to scalability issues.
The idea for Zepto was born in the early covid days when groceries were being delivered after days of being ordered due to the immense demand. They found a gap in the market that could be filled by introducing speedy delivery of groceries. Zepto grabbed the limelight as soon as it came into the market and rocked industry giants – Swiggy Instamart and BlinkIt. They improved inventory control and made the shopping process entirely contactless. Zepto also made the headlines when it raised $10-$20 million in its first round of funding!
The instant delivery/ quick commerce space has set the benchmark for grocery delivery by minimizing delivery times! Their primary goal is to get the goods to the consumer in under 15 minutes by setting up ‘dark stores’ across the country. Dark stores are the backbone of quick commerce and they make the three major tasks of grocery shopping much faster – pick, pack and transport. However, dark stores cannot sustain high volumes but they make up for it through their rapid delivery times.
The earlier giant in the space of instant deliveries – BlinkIt realized that they could not keep up with the 10-minute delivery promise that Zepto lives by as the former’s median delivery times rose significantly – forcing them to shut down operations at many locations.
The 16-year-old CEO of Scope and BRE Alum!
Appalla is a student from Hyderabad, India. He completed his high school education at Birla School Pilani before enrolling in Manipal University, Jaipur, to pursue an undergraduate degree in Data Science. He took part in the Ivy Early Entrepreneur Program in the winter of 2021, where he had the rare opportunity to work on his fledgling startup alongside real-life successful entrepreneurs such as Forbes 30 Under 30 awardees Arun Saigal and Kristin Kagetsu, and BusinessWorld 40 Under 40 awardee Aman Gupta. Over the course of seven days, Appalla learned the ins and outs of essential entrepreneurial concepts such as market research, competition analysis, design thinking, and fundraising, ultimately resulting in a start-up plan which included a smartphone app prototype!
At the age of 16, Ivy Early Entrepreneur Appalla Saikaran was well aware of the challenges of networking with mentors, investors, and other entrepreneurs. He was aware of how nerve-racking
it could be to ask questions and find like-minded individuals willing to collaborate and invest in fledgling businesses. To meet this challenge, Appalla decided to create his own application, SCOPE.
SCOPE is a personalized network that connects entrepreneurs with other entrepreneurs, content, and opportunities. It seeks to create a collaborative community in which users can share their experiences, learn from one another, and ultimately succeed. Appalla was inspired to create this platform after realizing that there are people who are willing to mentor young entrepreneurs like himself. “However,” Appalla believes, “youngsters like myself should be willing to seek assistance.” It is never wrong to ask for help; however, it is wrong to know you need help but refuse to seek it. That was the primary motivation behind my decision to establish SCOPE.”
Benefits of Starting your Entrepreneurial Journey Early!
It is a marathon, not a sprint! Being a successful entrepreneur requires years of learning and struggle and starting early can only widen your knowledge spectrum. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to experiment and make mistakes in their early years to prepare them for more significant challenges that they might encounter in the future!
Walk on uncharted paths! When you start out as a young entrepreneur, you have more freedom to explore and learn about new things as time is not a constraint for you. Young adults and teens have lesser responsibilities and have nothing to look back at when exploring different sectors!
Long-Term Growth Factor. Businesses started by young entrepreneurs have an abundance of time to grow and scale. Achieving success at a young age drives you to pour more of your energy into the same which contributes to increasing the chances of your business becoming big.
Mentorship! Seasoned entrepreneurs are keener to help out curious young entrepreneurs who want to make an impact. The energy and optimism of young minds really shine through and inspire experienced entrepreneurs to give them good advice and direct them to the right opportunities!
Final Notes
Youth entrepreneurship programs understand the values provided by such a program like – the ability to understand opportunities, take initiative, be a confident individual, and the value of bringing change to your community. Every child can learn how to find their own path to success and prosperity with the help of good mentors and programs.
People must recognize the valuable link that exists between education, the community, and the workplace. Mentors are essential in showing young people how it all works together to achieve a single shared goal. Youth entrepreneurship programs can show young people this connection and the positive impact it can have not only today but also in the future.
Although it’s never too late or too early to start your entrepreneurial journey, experts believe that people that start early have much better chances of being successful in the long run. If you want to master the skills of entrepreneurship and get the opportunity to connect with mentors who are the leading entrepreneurs in their field, then apply for Big Red Education’s Ivy Early Entrepreneur Program today!
Ever thought what goes behind starting a business? Does just having a product or service help you start your own business? Well, the answer is no! If it were that easy, wouldn’t every person in this world already have their own start-ups? One may say from the forefront, that starting a business is easy, you just have to have a product that you want to sell. But the number of things that go beyond just the product to start a business, is rigorous and the main hassle.
Out of the million procedures to bring a business to life, one of the foremost things is the ideation of it. Ideation is simply the process of generating ideas including gathering information on ideas and collecting thoughts about those ideas. Ideation is used to make improvements to existing products or services, in addition to generating new ideas and concepts for future developments. It is the creative process of generating ideas through various techniques including brainstorming, prototyping, brainwriting or maybe just sketching.
Why is ideation of a business important?
Often questioned, how does ideation help in the development of a business idea? Well, the answer is: it acts as a fundamental base for every business. For any entrepreneur to start their own business, they need to brainstorm on either one of the existing ideas that intrigued them or think of several ideas, to build onto something unique.
It is just like when you, as high school students, are to decide which subject stream and courses to choose, you brainstorm and think what’s best for your career and future. You don’t randomly hop onto one of those courses, but instead do a wide research and brainstorm in order to choose the best out of the lot.
Similarly, starting a business involves several ideas and brainstorming that leads to a sparkling idea which you feel is a need in the market that will be profitable, and so you use that idea to position your work. Without ideating as to what, how and why you want to start a business, you can never make or achieve goals.
Ideation doesn’t only help start up a business, instead it helps in the constant improvement of the business. If you don’t have a thorough process of ideation, then there are high chances that you are unlikely to see improvement in the business leading to loss of deliverables and customers.
It’s just like saying you started a new trend of thrift business but after that one unique idea of having a thrift store, there is nothing beyond it. Will you be able to sustain yourself and your business in the market? No right? Because there are competitors in the market consequently thriving on new ideas, and for you to keep up in the market you need to keep brainstorming and bringing new ideas to the table.
What do you do with the unique product that you brought into the market? You sell it to your customer. Your customers are the ones who actually buy and use your product or services, so being able to deliver what they actually want is the key to success. Getting ideas from existing customers will not only help you retain the customers that you already have, but it will allow you to transform your products and services into more attractive options for other consumers.
How does one ideate?
A myth that is floated in our generation is that creativity flows amongst only some of us. However, all of us are creative, be it a toddler or an 85 year old man. Creativity is just the thought of creating something which doesn’t pre-exists, or is an innovation to something pre-existing. It is true that creativity can be subjective for every individual, as something that is said to be creative for one might not be for the other one.
As Kriti Thakur said during the Ivy Early Entrepreneur workshop, everyone is born creative in their own manners. You may just not know your creative side yet. So if anyone asks you if you are creative and you don’t know the answer yet, you should say you are still exploring your creativity rather than denying yourself to not be creative. Some ways in which one can ideate and bring new ideas are:
1. Creativity is the key
I believe creativity is an important ingredient required for ideation, along with other skills like vision and ingenuity. Does this mean that you have to be creative to generate good business ideas? I certainly do believe it plays an important role and can’t be done without. The challenge for many people, however, is that they either have little confidence in their inherent creative abilities or don’t have the courage to express and tap into it. The idea generation process is much like the creative process in that we are putting forth something personal to be judged by others. You must have the courage and confidence to submit ideas that others might think are frivolous or ridiculous. It’s appropriate to remember what George Bernard Shaw wrote: “all great truths begin as blasphemies.”
If you are confident, you will be exposed to new ideas and perspectives which will help enhance your creativity skills. They will consciously and objectively influence and feed your creative abilities, and perhaps are one of the most productive ways one can continue to develop their ability to generate great ideas.
2. Constraints drive creativity
What drives you to find your sphere of creativity? It is the constraint. Constraint drives creativity. For example, Imagine a scenario where you are to compete in an inter-house art competition where you have 15 minutes to make something out of recycled materials, and another where the same task needs to be done in 90 minutes. Where would you be better off in terms of creativity? At 15 minutes precisely, because that’s when you have time constraints and want to showcase your best piece. When you are given 90 minutes for the same task, you are usually laid back, losing out on your creativity.
A brain works better and more creatively when there are any sort of constraints held on it. It functions more efficiently and you are able to be more creative and come up with newer ideas. In contrast to an environment where you are free to showcase your creativity with no restrictions, you end up not thinking about it much (in technical terms, stop brainstorming) thereby, ignoring the importance of ideation.
However, the famous quote “too much of anything is equally bad,” also holds true. If one is highly restricted from taking over any task, or coming up with new innovative ideas they end up becoming demotivated and sacrificing on their ideation power. Thereby, missing out on the creativity they possess.
3. Test your creativity in order to generate new ideas
What if you are very creative but don’t exhibit your creativity in front of others? This leads to hindering your confidence and most importantly your creativity. The ideal process for enhancing creativity ideation is by identifying one or more businesses, testing them, and then continuing to develop the idea that has the best possibility for success. Market research and surveys can only help test that creativity to a certain extent. Whereas, the true test of the business’s viability is solely dependent on the customers. While an idea can spark very quickly in your mind too, it is important to see how easy or complex it is. Mostly, all ideas you think that can be easily put out may already exist in the market.
The creation of the business starts with an idea. The process of evolving your idea and concepts may include levels of testing through prototyping, designing and iterations. During this process, one may stick onto their original idea or may even mold and morph into a whole new idea, which never struck our minds as entrepreneurs. Broadly, three categories of business ideas exist on the basis of which one uses their creativity. Considering these three business categories one can help spark their next great brainchild or validate existing ones:
New: When a firm comes up with a totally new invention or business idea. The word “new” is denotative of something that absolutely doesn’t exist (currently or the past). For example Segway, Artificial Intelligence and other product inventions. It’s easy to confuse a new idea with what is really an improvement or disruption of an existing or traditional way of doing something. Truly new and unique ideas are hard to come by, so don’t get paralyzed by thinking this is the only source of viable new ideas.
Improvement: this is the proverbial better mouse trap. Most small businesses fall in this category where you take existing ideas and improvise on them by delivering it in a better way, either directly or indirectly. For example: LED lights, virtual handbooks etc.
Disruption: A new and revolutionary way of doing something. Our modern interconnected world – supported and made possible by the internet – now allows us to completely reinvent, transform and disrupt entire industries. The internet and other technologies are not the only way to execute on a disruptive business idea, but it certainly has. For example: Uber, AirBnB, all e-commerce platforms etc.
Did you notice, even though there are 3 categories of how businesses function in terms of their product, one common thing is ideation. All of these require you to be alert, and crack the code to creativity. Be it a whole new idea or even improvising on something, it requires a lot of research, mind-mapping and extensive ideation process.
What are the best ideation strategies?
Now that we know what ideation means, why we need to ideate and much more, it is important to understand the best yet common strategies businesses use to ideate to thrive for newer ideas. As customers play an integral role in a business, it is necessary to know ways to collect customer ideas. These include:
1. Conducting research
It is essential for a business to con
duct research amongst their customers in order to get the baseline data verified to move ahead. Without understanding the needs and wants of a customer, a business can’t stand alone. There are many ways to conduct research, some of these include; survey, focus groups, experiment groups, polls, interviews etc.
Although interviews can be taken more seriously, and be more specific to each client, it is not very feasible to take many interviews due to several constraints. On the contrary, surveys can be sent to a large target audience, however, can lose its importance at times, as everyone doesn’t take the survey seriously.
Like interviews and surveys every research method has its own advantages and disadvantages, however, it is us as a business who need to decide what best suits us.
2. Asking customers directly
The second strategy is to directly contact customers. Although it is very beneficial and can help receive personalized feedback from every customer, it isn’t the most feasible alternative. Since, people are not willing to answer feedback calls due to many reasons. For being able to receive contemporary feedback, the brand should be able to provide incentives for people providing feedback.
3. Post-action feedback forms
Post-action feedback form is nothing but a form sent out by the business, after the customer has used their product. This is taken in order to get experienced product feedback, which will be more specific and valuable as this will give their real thought about the product. And whether as customers would they give it another chance, or buy it again.
Conclusion
To conclude, ideation plays a vital role throughout the business, starting from its foundation, to improvisation. Without ideation a business cannot sustain itself in the market. By testing and implementing ideation techniques in your organization, you can more effectively tackle the biggest business challenge: Solving the right problem. If you can accomplish that, your company could be the one out of the 10 that sees success. Lastly, ideation doesn’t happen overnight or stand alone. It requires a team, different perspectives, and constraints.
More importantly, it is necessary to understand that no idea is a ‘bad idea’, in fact these ideas that we refer to as ‘bad’ are the ones that lead us to the ‘best idea’ and bring the most success. So if you ever come up with a business idea, be it good or bad, don’t leave it until all stones are unturned, because you never know what will happen next!!
