Many procedures can be used for this purpose. Like-Improve Analysis does more than simply evaluate an idea. It provides a way to identify what works, address concerns, and develop a more workable approach.
How Like-Improve Analysis Works
When working with a team, draw a line down the center of a large flip chart. When working alone, use a sheet of paper. At the top of the left side, write "What I LIKE About This Idea." At the top of the right side, write "What I Want IMPROVED About This Idea."
Non-evaluatively list everything you or your team likes about the idea on the left. These are the things you want to preserve. On the right, list what you want improved to move the idea toward acceptability.
Next, check the five most important items requiring improvement. From those five, select the top three, then identify the single most significant item.
List at least five ways to improve that item. Continue working through the other improvement items until the original idea is acceptable or discarded.
If the idea is acceptable, combine the strongest approaches into one workable approach and create an action plan that identifies who does what, where, when, how, and why.
Like-Improve Analysis is somewhat more logical than some other creativity techniques, yet it can still produce unexpected approaches. It gives a team, or an individual working alone, a way to evaluate and improve ideas without turning the discussion into an emotion-based battle.
Use It on Almost Anything
Like-Improve Analysis can be used on almost anything, including a proposal, a stock, a financial endeavor, a political party, a short story, a movie, a TV show, a lecture, a course, a game, a politician, a war, a business, a friend, a tax, a law, or just about anything else.
A True Story
A local small business owner once used Like-Improve Analysis with a goal of doubling his monthly gross income from $7,500 to $15,000. About seven months later, he achieved that goal.
Instead of flourishing, however, he soon went bankrupt. He had failed to account for the huge replacement cost of several expensive pieces of equipment, which wiped him out.
That large expense should have appeared as an item requiring improvement. The lesson is important: Like-Improve Analysis can be a simple, quick way to evaluate an idea, but some situations require a serious and careful approach.
Focused Idea Improvement
A related approach is Focused Idea Improvement. To improve an idea:
- List the characteristics and properties of the idea.
- List what is useful and what you like about the idea.
- List deficiencies that need improvement.
- List ways to overcome those deficiencies and improve the idea.
- Recycle the process until the idea shines.
Turn each snag into an opportunity and an advantage. •
Edward Glassman, PhD, was President of Creativity College® and Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he led the Program for Team Effectiveness and Creativity.