501derful.org
“Leading-edge innovators have learned that, rather than generating lots of ideas, they can derive more benefit from a targeted event driven process that will enable them to capture the best ideas related to an specific issue”
“Targeted and bounded programs produce better results than open-ended idea collection systems”
“A seeming paradox of innovation is that most useful ideas originate from a structured process rather than random occurrences of creativity”
Gartner Group 2002
I wonder if this is bacause targeted processes usually have more process steps to take the project to completion? It seems to me many spontaneous “great ideas” seldom have any readily available machinery to drive them forward.
I would say that is the major reason.
Another is: you get specific answers when you ask specific questions.
Another is the group dialogue that leads to synergistic thinking in a focused innovation process. Granted, this can happen with spontaneous ideas, but (my guess) more likely when you have group working on a more defined objective.