How do we solve problems? How do we think of innovation, get newideas, and think beyond the suggestion box?

Karen Furtado, a partner with the research and consulting firmStrategy Meets Action (SMA) has been asking those questions herselfand believes that the creative process for forming, developing, andcommunicating new ideas—the process known as ideation—can be usedat all levels of problem-solving and new product design for theinsurance industry.

"What I like about it is it humanizes the whole process," saysFurtado. "We usually talk about software and innovation, but thisis a platform that brings people together."

Furtado has written: Ideation and Crowdsourcing Power: ExpandingIdea Generation in Insurance, an SMA Insights Report.

"Last December, a friend of mine who works in healthcare used atechnology to reinvent their mission, ambition, and values," saysFurtado. "They chose to use a crowd-sourcing tool. I began readingabout it and conceptually began to think about the power of theInternet and the power of the social network. It is just plainscary how fast you can get results. I met up with thecompany—IDEO—and came to find out that there are a number of verylarge successful insurers using these technologies."

The strategy is to get the non-managers to participate in thesecrowdsourcing activities because they can receive company-widerecognition. The president of the company will know who the callcenter person is because if that person comes up with an idea thatwould have a huge impact on the company.

"If you go to a meeting with just 10 people and ask each personto bring an idea, each of those ideas could be good by itself, butyou probably come out of the meeting with a completely differentidea because collaborating on ideas is better and it makes thegroup idea much stronger than an individual idea," says Furtado."Collaboration is the power behind this to raise the level of anidea."

In crowd-sourcing, Furtado explains everyone gets to vote to seewhich idea will have the higher impact. "It's not decided by afew," she says. "At the end of the day I'm thrilled it's back tobeing about people."

The companies that Furtado has observed using this crowdsourcing thought process typically have an upper management that issupportive and looks for participation. She explains a company canhave a customer service person put an idea out and the next personto jump on is a general manager.

"It's completely flat in terms of responsibility," she says."The manager is not going to have more weight than the person whojust spoke with a customer. Companies have a vested interest in theoutcome and they tend to want to collaborate to get the best ideas.They are participatory on the platforms. Typically you throw out anissue you are trying to deal with, you create an idea, and peoplerally around that concept or that issue and try to create aresolution."

Change has become an integral part of life inmost industries as technology has created new tasks for workers andeliminated others.

"I think change should be done with respect to the past, buteven with a technology like this I can't think of many in insurancewho are going beyond their four walls to do crowdsourcing," saysFurtado. "Who has the best insight into what's going on with yourcustomers? The call center. So how do you get their insight andtheir information to find out that you need to be makingchanges?"

Furtado explains this is a different way to deal with problemsolving or idea generation.

"Remember the idea box? It was all done in seclusion," she says."It was not collaborative at all. I think it is interesting that wehave a lot of technology that drives us to be individualistic, butif you look at gaming, those apps that cause us to work as a groupseem to take on a life of their own."

She points to the Words with Friends game where people arere-connecting with others

"It is amazing how many people I see doing this all the time,"says Furtado. "It's interesting that as humans we look forconnectivity to other people and that's like the next maturity oftechnology—those technologies that bring people together and nothave them do individual tasks. With the war games, people are upfor hours playing with or against each other. Those have much moretraction. I just think we've reached the next level of maturity intechnology and it's the more humanizing factors that are releasingthe power of human intellect."