Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters
Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn
Portfolio/Penguin (

“If you’ve always done it that way, it’s probably wrong.”  Charles Kettering

There are several metrics that matter but the one to which this book’s subtitle refers is probably more important than any other. According to Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn, “The most useful measure of creativity we’ve found is as follows: the number of novel ideas a person or group can generate around a given problem in a given amount of time. We call this metric ideaflow.” How exactly to measure ideaflow?  “As a metric, ideaflow is a single gauge of the relative health of your creative engine or that of a team. The only value in measuring it lies in comparing your current score to previous and future ones. It looks like this:  ideas/time = ideaflow.”

Thorough explanations of the idea generation process and of each of its individual components are best revealed in context, within the narrative. Suffice to say now that almost any individual or team in almost any organization can — over time — with continuous effort can solve almost any problem if  (HUGE if) they apply effectively what provide  Utley and Klebahn to achieve strategic objectives such as these, each listed with a HOW TO prefix:

o Measure tomorrow’s success in today’s ideas
o Amplify Ideaflow
o Flood your problem with ideas
o Build an innovative pipeline
o Put your ideas to the test
o Make the world your lab

o Mine for perspectives
o Shake up your perspective
o Stoke curiosity
o Encourage creative collisions
o Untangle creative knots
o Become a creative leader and help others to become one

Put the ideaflow process to a reliable, easy-to-conduct test. You’ll find one provided as well as explained on Pages 243-245. It is imperative to be patient but persistent while mastering the fundamentals. Allow yourself sufficient time and invest the necessary effort to develop the skills, techniques, and habits needed to generate, test, and implement breakthrough ideas. “The book is divided into two parts: Innovate, where we explain the entire pipeline from ideation through experimentation, and Elevate, where we offer our most powerful techniques for improving creative outcomes.”

Years ago in his business classic, Leading Change, James O’Toole suggested that the greatest resistance to change is usually cultural in nature, the result of what he so aptly characterized as “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom.”

Some of the most valuable material is provided in Part One. For example, Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn provide “A Simple Method for Solving Complex Problems.”

1. Assemble the right mix.
2. Gather initial suggestions
3. Get everyone in the right mindset with warm-ups
4. Split into teams and assign facilitators
5. Set the pace

Each is thoroughly explained on Pages 59-66. It is imperative to make certain that you are focusing on the RIGHT problem rather than responding to symptoms. Peter Drucker offers a valuable reminder: “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”

Keep in mind: Solving one problem can sometimes create another or at least reveal another.  Whatever their size and nature may be, all organizations need to have a workplace culture within which breakthrough ideas are most likely to be generated,  validated, refined, and implemented.

Here are two concluding suggestions: Highlight key passages, and, keep a lined notebook near at hand while reading Ideaflow in which you record your comments, questions, and page references. These two simple tactics will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent review of key material later.