Testimonials

Body of Knowledge and Processes

Since the first time one of our founders turned on a audio recorder to tape a team meeting, we have been studying, understanding and refining our Body of Knowledge about how people think, work and collaborate together. It’s safe to say that our Body of Knowledge gives us as deep an understanding of the building blocks of successful collaboration and innovation as any in the industry. And as we see today’s most sophisticated tools for understanding human behaviors substantiate the same outcomes that our founders’ reached with only their simple recorder, we can only marvel at and appreciate their true genius.

Today our Body of Knowledge has evolved to include new frameworks that apply the principles of innovation and collaboration to a range of challenges and opportunities that would’ve seemed surprising back in the 1960s. And while you will find many new techniques that have been incorporated into our Body of Knowledge over the years, the underlying concepts of climate and process would be immediately recognizable to our founders as their own groundbreaking work.

• Climate

  Our ability to be creative is a direct reflection on how we treat each other and ourselves. This has a profound effect on the quality and quantity of new ideas we can come up with. Improving climate allows us to be more supportive of each other and to establish an open, collaborative environment for working together.

  • Elements of Interaction

    We study and build upon the four modes of interacting in a meeting. We will use these to improve and open the Climate of your team in order to optimize creative collaboration.

  • On Questions

    Questions are like yawns, as soon as one person asks a question we start to doubt our own understand of the issues and opportunities we are faced with. We can listen to questions and find the true reason for why they are being asked. Fortunately there are only 3 reasons that questions are asked in a meeting. We learn what these are and how to leverage them in creative problem solving.

  • Information Sharing

    At times, we may only be looking for a one-way communication, especially when introducing an opportunity or issue. Learn the directional mode in meetings, its importance and how to keep process (and time) on track.

  • Discount/Revenge

    We may feel that we were slighted, ignored or discounted in a meeting or interaction with others. When this happens, we tend to store that in our memory banks and at some point in the future, we unknowingly (and sometimes knowingly) seek revenge. Then, the cycle begins again. Learn how to break this cycle.

  • Impact of Communications

    Albert Mehrabian a noted American psychologist studied that when communication is mixed between words, tones and non-verbals, we pay most attention to the tones and non-verbals and the words often get lost. This is an important factor in the Synectics study and practice of improving meeting climate.

  • Intent and Effect

    Often when we are communicating with someone else, the intent of the message gets lost because it is interpreted differently by the person we are communicating with. This intent and effect gap needs to be closed in order to create a collaborative environment.

  • Crediting, Acknowledging and Paraphrasing

    Paraphrasing, Crediting and Acknowledging: In order to close the gap between the intent and effect of communication we follow a few steps: Paraphrase what you heard for mutual understanding, give credit to someone for triggering your thought and acknowledge their thinking to encourage future contributions.

• Thinking

  
  

  In order to build off of establishing an open climate and generate new ideas for problems and opportunities that may have been with us for a long time, we need to start thinking differently about the problem itself and how we are getting ideas. Learn how to use different sources of inspiration and other techniques to generate breakthrough ideas. You will also be introduced to specific types of language to use when presenting ideas so that others can get inspired by your work.

  • Cycling Worlds

    We are great at following directions and getting our routines under control so that we can be successful. This world is known as our operational world. It consists of that of which we know, can predict and understand. This world is parallel to our Innovation world. In our Innovation world, we allow ourselves to take risks, experiment and try out new ways of getting results, breaking the paradigms that we are used to. We cannot be in both of these worlds at the same time, but we need to leverage both in order to create newness. Learn how to cycle back and forth and when to do that with the Synectics tools, skills and body of knowledge.

  • Developmental Thinking

    Often, when faced with an idea or option we leap to a Go or No-Go decision, which is housed in our Operational Self. Due to the time pressures of the business world, we need to behave in this manner and at times this is very efficient and effective. There are however, instances where it would behoove us, especially when looking for breakthrough, to take time to explore and develop the ideas and see how they evolve before we make the Go or No-Go decision.

• Action
  Since 1960 we have developed and refined our 5-Phase/9-Step creative problem solving process to help our clients elicit breakthroughs for their businesses and develop these breakthroughs so that they can be implemented. The structure of this process is a divergent/convergent thinking model: Getting as far away from the task as possible with the thinking and then turning the corner with a courageous selection of ideas and refining these selections so that they work for your business.
  • Meeting Models

    We are in meetings in our work and professional lives all day long. Whether it is one-on-one or yourself and a larger group, there are only a few types of reasons we get together: to exchange information; to make decisions; generate ideas; and, to solve problems. Learn how to design and facilitate these meetings for the most efficient and effective outcomes for you and your team.

  • Creativity and Innovation Formula

    Creativity & Innovation Formula: Climate X Thinking X Action is the cornerstone of the Synectics Body of Knowledge, this formula for generating breakthrough results with teams follows these ground rules: We need to treat ourselves and each other in a positive manner and communicate for understanding; we need to think differently about the opportunities and the ideas; and we need a process to follow so that we can get to the results that we are searching for.

  • Discovering Hidden Needs

    Successful concepts work because people want them and find value in them; they serve a need which enables people to achieve some outcome in their life. This is an obvious, but often overlooked fact.

    Discovering hidden needs is however, not a simple process. Basic human needs such as shelter, being loved, having status etc. do not change. What changes is the context in which people operate. Changes in any system, a changed law, a new fashion, a product innovation for example, knock the system out of balance and create new needs. So it is the complex expression of the needs, within the context that people are operating that are the antecedents to new concept opportunities. We use the term insight to describe the discovery of this type of needs.

    Discovering the insight is perhaps one of the biggest challenges faced by business, because it requires different tools and thinking to those commonly applied. Conventional market research for example is too often based on analytical thinking frameworks, or relies too heavily on looking at what is currently out there. Yet it is often what is most commonly used as the start point for developing new product and service concepts.

    This is not to suggest that conventional research cannot play a role, our experience is that all types of information can make a contribution. Rather it is the way the stimulus is used that makes the biggest difference.

  • Roles and Responsibilities

    George Prince, one of the founders of the Synectics Body of Knowledge, authored an article for Harvard Business Review in the late 1960’s that centered on running efficient and effective meetings. His main discovering while doing his research was that meeting participants with specific roles provided the best outcomes. These roles are the meeting Facilitator, who runs the meeting processes; the meeting Client, who has ultimate responsibility for the outcomes and decisions to be made in the meeting; and lastly meeting Resources, those people who have been invited to the meeting to lend their thinking without being overly anchored in the task.

  • Itemized Response

    Great thinkers have used a developmental thinking process throughout history. New and experimental ideas are not always fully developed and at times tend to be metaphorical and image based, not factual, analytical and possibly not even feasible. This Synectics process focuses and builds on the qualities of an idea that are appealing first, and then builds on the gaps or concerns to help evolve the idea into an a possible solution that can begin to be implemented.

• Frameworks and Tools
  We have developed a number of frameworks and tools that make it possible for clients to enable customers to uncover hidden truths, improve efficiency and effectiveness, discover and create longer term needs and wants, and develop strategies that help teams achieve their visions.
  
  We do this by searching for answers with unique and non-traditional methods, utilizing collaborative insight and research tools, and going one step further by helping clients turn intriguing ideas into feasible concepts.
  
  • Design DNA

    If you are looking to launch a new brand or reposition an existing brand, do it with focus and strength with Synecticsworld’s insight-led design process.

    Design DNA is a model to frame the design experience and an innovation process to focus a design project.

    From our client’s point of view, there is often a barrier in insight-led design projects, when design concepts are taken into the materialization processes.

    The key is to maintain the level of involvement of the team and keep the underlying insights that led to the concept idea. Ideally, there would be a more natural flow from the insight-led design process through to materialization and development, via a process that not only encapsulates and protects your insight, but also translates it into a design or copy writing brief.

    Such a brief will save time and energy as it allows for focused interpretation and materialization.

    Insights show us hidden customer needs! Now imagine having a way to create design that awakens those needs and ensures the right message is communicated.

    Our Synecticsworld Design DNA process can ‘embed’ design details in such a way that the viewers - the targeted consumers- are triggered the way we want them to be. To achieve this, we use our thorough structure and semantic encoding techniques, called Design DNA, which allow us to chart how the targeted consumers view the world around them and use the correct (visual) language to transmit the message.

    Design DNA ensures that any external event will be experienced on one to three levels: Instinct, Intelligence and Interaction -depending on the amount of synthesizing/abstraction it requires to be processed in a human brain.

    The Design DNA process will help chart the semantic map to help express the values correctly in the end design, always holding true to the core project insights.

  • IPower5 Insight

    Insights are Hidden Truths. We define it as discovering a penetrating discovery about consumer motivation, applied to unlock growth. Synecticsworld has developed a powerful and proprietary methodology to help our clients discover hidden, unexpressed customer and consumer needs, creating breakthrough marketing innovation, with the processes and systems to get it to market. Insight provides us the opportunity to work with current consumer motivators to deliver immediate impact in the marketplace, with the current yet unarticulated need(s), in today’s context, for consumers or customers. We apply insight to developing new products, refreshing brands, developing new marketing promotion and communication programs and brand positioning.

  • Business Process Innovation

    How do I meet my customers’ needs most efficiently and effectively? This question lies at the heart of Synecticsworld’s Business Process Innovation (BPI) approach. We help our clients to identify the twin North Stars they should use in any efficiency program – what is your company’s true purpose and what do your customers truly pay you for? Guided by the answers to these two questions, our clients are prepared to look with fresh eyes at the processes that drive their business, and listen for opportunities that will enable true optimization across the organization. And they achieve surprising results, beyond just the financial benefits originally targeted.

    BPI is built on core Synectics and innovation principles which turn the traditional methods for finding efficiencies upside down - both in terms of approach and effectiveness. Envisioning, collaboration and creative problem solving are hallmarks of BPI. We equip your team with these skills so they will have the confidence to take on the truly important opportunities that will make the difference. And because we facilitate your team to create these solutions together, their ideas gain the momentum and escape velocity required to launch your organization forward in a truly meaningful way.

  • Foresight

    Foresight is discovering and creating the longer term future needs and wants of the marketplace Foresight is both discovering (what will be there) and creating (implying that we have the ability to inspire it, but not control it). While Insight provides us the opportunity to work with current consumer motivators to deliver immediate impact in the marketplace, Foresight requires an exploration of future scenarios in the marketplace that will or may have a profound impact on consumer or customer behaviors and, therefore, will change the needs they have for products, raw materials, services, etc., their packaging, delivery /distribution methods, etc.

    Foresight goes beyond insights to discover where profound future opportunities may lie and is much a creative process as an analytical process. To achieve foresight, we custom design explorations of regional and global long term trends, incorporate powerful individual, expert and provocateur stimulus, and force-fit disparate emerging cultural, ethno, political, technological and social movements. Foresight is a way of informing long term Strategy, Research & Development investment and prioritization, support of pure academic research, and acquisition/ investment strategies.

  • Excursions

    Excursions are a technique, originated by Synecticsworld and used by all the great thinkers. It is an extension of our natural thinking processes and a way to relax our strong internal censoring device.

    It is a technique used to help search beyond the normal parameters of our thinking and a way to get novel ideas when you need them.

  • Strategy

    Synecticsworld’s strategy approach is based upon a simple idea – a strategy is only perfect if it helps your team to achieve its vision. We find that the most important factor in achieving greatness as an organization, is having a clear, shared image of where you want to be in the future. Your vision needs to inform your strategy – a relationship that you can’t afford to get backwards. We help our clients to uncover their vision and to understand what their customers believe they are uniquely good at – their “knack” – which forms the basis for a truly differentiating strategy.

    We believe that creating strategy can be straightforward. And we introduce your team to a few straightforward models to help better understand where you are in your market, the advantages you have over others, and where you need to shore up your own capabilities to win. At each stage we revisit and refine your strategy statement until your team can see, hear and feel that its right – a sure sign that you’ve found the strategy to achieve your vision. And in the process, your team will create not only an implementation plan at every step, but also renew its commitment to the vision and the company – a truly differentiating outcome.

  • Invention Labs and Workshops

    Having a creative idea is one thing, actually bringing it in to the world is more difficult (for example, many people would find the ideas of “teleportation” attractive, but nobody has made it work practically yet). This is why “brainstorming sessions” often produce a lot of excitement on the day and very little follow up. Developing the idea and overcoming the roadblocks is often what stretches the skills, talents and capabilities or organizations far more then generating it.

    The Synectics Invention Labs follow a design based on years of observation and research into how high performing teams and individuals generate fresh thinking, Synecticsworld has developed a range of techniques that tap the power of the subconscious, playful mind as a vital resource in the creative process. In short, we facilitate the short-circuiting of the logical brain as a way of generating fresh new perspectives, increasing our range of options, encouraging speculation about future possibilities and limiting the effect of real world restrictions. We like to think of this process as turbo-charged brainstorming.

    We then work carefully with our clients to turn the most intriguing ideas into feasible concepts, putting foundations under the creative thoughts in a way that allows groups to collaboratively overcome concerns, continue to work in a safe, creative climate and reach an action plan that everyone is committed to.

    This problem-solving model has been deliberately designed to allow groups to collaboratively, maximize their creativity and have a structured process that leads from exploring the insight, through to the development of innovative concepts that will deliver against it.

    The workshops can be designed to cover all aspects of a new concept including basic attributes, branding and positioning and all aspects of the marketing mix.

  • Flyingtable®

    Flyingtable® is our instant-on, anytime collaboration software that will help your team to creatively solve problems, capitalize on new opportunities, exchange information and make decisions no matter when and where you need to act. Because flyingtable® is built upon Synecticsworld’s proven methods, it brings the structure required to help teams work together and innovate in today's high-speed, flattened world. And because its methods are instantly familiar to our clients, it seamlessly supports them to continue working together as a productive team anytime /anyplace, synchronously or asynchronously.

  • Enable

    A systemic innovation model developed by Synecticsworld research and successfully used by a broad range of companies worldwide, ENABLE stands for Envision, Notify, Assess, Build, Learn and Enact. The outcome of an ENABLE campaign is a systemically creative and innovative organization with high energy and equally high accountability.

  • Itemized Response

    Great thinkers have used a developmental thinking process throughout history. New and experimental ideas are not always fully developed and at times tend to be metaphorical and image based, not factual, analytical and possibly not even feasible. This Synectics process focuses and builds on the qualities of an idea that are appealing first, and then builds on the gaps or concerns to help evolve the idea into an a possible solution that can begin to be implemented.