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The creative process is generally not taught in school or in company training programs, points out idea consultant Gerald Sindell in this short, pithy, example-filled user manual on the "genius machine."  While he believes creativity is innate within all of us, he also says people and teams who are successful at innovation do follow the same general principles.  It was during twenty years of producing first films and then books and working with business leaders on generating and implementing innovative ideas that Sindell came up with a system for developing intellectual property, and then distilled it into the following eleven simple steps.

1) Making Distinctions.  State what you are trying to do, define your time constraints, and describe in detail what success will look like. Then, examine your problem or need in detail and begin making distinctions by expressing what you actually see and think.  Distinctions will first lead to more complexity, which you can then distill into simple, more elegant solutions.

2) Understand Your Identity.  Know who you are and what you stand for as an individual and as a team.  Is what you are making coherent with your underlying values, beliefs, passions, and sense of mission or purpose?  If you are not sure of your identity, one big question to ask is, "'if you were not successful in getting your way of seeing things out into the world, what is it the world would have lost?"

3) Think Through Implications.  If what you are creating is allowed to enter the world, what are all of the consequences you can imagine?  Outline all of the possible scenarios in which the idea, product or technology could be used, intended and unintended. You are likely to discover some potential uses that bring up moral and ethical questions, as well as broader applications of what may have been designed to address a seemingly narrow problem or need. 

4) Test Your Ideas. The only way to be certain something works is to discover the test that would prove the opposite, Sindell says. At this early stage, however, you don't want to subject your fledging ideas to harsh critics or naysayers. Instead, float your ideas past sympathetic people who have knowledge and experience in the field and who can advocate for the idea by asking you to clarify your distinctions, identity and implications. Test ideas at this stage for replicability and for truth and possible fatal flaws, and to find weaknesses. For organizational or process innovations, make sure others can teach it, and test against your original intent, need, and vision before modeling and entering an iterative process of improvement.

5) Research Precedent. Here, Sindell speaks of the "Great Conversation" that humans have been having throughout the centuries, the collective wisdom that has accumulated through invention, discussion, and trial and error. Someone, somewhere, has probably already thought about what you're trying to do, and maybe in a better way, he says. Search, read and discover what others have said or done about the problem you are working on. Then be specific about what you see in the same ideas, and notice whether or not there are distinctions between what you see and what others have seen. Once you have absorbed the existing knowledge, what you think and do will tend to be original, because only you can synthesize them in the unique way that you do.

6) Discover User Needs. Find out who needs your creation, and what they need it to do. Once you've got a new system or idea up and running, begin to ask who else might benefit. Who else needs this knowledge? If what you have discovered is valuable, chances are it will be of value to a far larger audience than the one you originally created it for, Sindell says. Once you expand your potential user groups or audience, it is time to target these groups and begin to refine your work to their specific needs.

7) Build a Foundation. While working through your iterations, step back from time to time and ask, what are the underlying principles operating here? And if you're using new rules, can they be pulled together into a coherent group or body of law? Some of this work goes back to identity: when developing something new, it is important to become aware of your own underlying beliefs and how they relate to each other. Here, working with a friend or coach who can ask probing open-ended questions can be especially useful. The test of finding the true operating principles of an idea or process is replicability.

8) Know When Your Work is Done. How do you define completion? A genius thinker completes the work by answering two questions, Sindell claims: Can it stand on its own? And, have I provided enough additional information so that what we have innovated can be replicated and/or continuously improved? Put yourself in your end user's shoes and imagine what it will be like to experience and employ what you have created. Then go out and find some of these end users and let them try it.

9) Connect with Your Users or Audience. Everything new, no matter how valuable or desirable it may be, requires some effort to learn to use it. We ask people to make the effort to understand our new ideas or learn to use our new process or product with the implied promise that the reward will have been worth it. Have you done everything possible to ease the learning curve? Is each step of the way as intuitive, easy, and timely as possible? Are resources available at every step?

10) Measure Impact. At this late stage of the creative process, it is important to re-examine your goals and make sure they are still aligned with who you are and what you intended to accomplish. Now, and only now, is the time to decide whether to kill it or proceed with introducing it. If you want to proceed, it is time to separate yourself from your creation and let it begin to live and thrive on its own.

11) Advocate for Your Innovation. Even the greatest innovations can easily fail if their introduction and marketing is left to those who were not part of the creative process, Sindell claims. Thus, the responsibility to develop the core communication about what has been created belongs with the creators. The term for the spread of ideas is the diffusion of innovation, Sindell explains. Even in the age of fast and easy communication through the Internet, the barriers to adoption of new ideas are high: the difficulty of getting the word out to busy and overloaded people, their reluctance to change, and the lack of time people have to learn or adopt something new. Beyond endorsements, testimonials, metaphors, and trial experiences, you will need to discover the urgent needs of your intended users that will help them make the leap. Look back to your distinctions and implications to find the interesting bits of information and other advocacy hooks that will draw people in and convince them to use your great new innovation. Buy it.