Paths that fuel new ideas

Particularly if the people concerned experience a certain level of appreciation. At this point, Weber emphasizes the importance of an employee-oriented corporate or organizational culture. "In an environment where a lot is done for employee satisfaction, there is often a willingness to innovate and think along. There's a direct correlation there."

In addition, he said, a lot of things have to do with emotions. This is just as true in companies and associations as it is in the context of society as a whole. "In the future, it will be important to involve and inspire young people. In recent years, this may not have worked out so well. But the young generation has a renewed desire to make a difference, and they need to be given innovative opportunities to let off steam."

A look at the USA, with its - in this respect - model state of California, shows how this can succeed. The famous Silicon Valley is home to companies such as Meta and Google, whose innovation-promoting culture serves as a model for many companies.

"Sport has a unifying effect. It leads to people exchanging ideas," confirms Weber. "And it promotes playfulness, competition, but also respect for one another. That's an important basis in the creative process." Sports, he says, is a social system in which people work together on something - a goal, a victory, a personal goal. That alone can be very conducive to innovation, he said. "If you want to achieve something together, that leads to communication."

Moreover, sports and business inspiration share a significant parallel. "In sports, you have to find creative solutions to get in front of the goal or in front of the basket in a targeted way via the build-up to the game," says Weber. "It's no different in idea management. If you want to develop an exciting product or win over new members, you have to be similarly creative and focused on the process."

But even with an optimal level of movement, one's own reflections sometimes lead nowhere. A way out of the creative impasse can be offered by like-minded people - as long as you have contact with them.

"There are already some good approaches to this from sports associations and organizations," says Weber. "The DFL, for example, has its own platform for technological innovations in sports. And the German Olympic Sports Confederation has set up the DOSB Knowledge Network to support knowledge and idea management. On this digital meeting place, people can help each other and push their own ideas."

The DOSB Knowledge Network is aimed at everyone in the non-profit sports system. Users can not only access knowledge from an extensive database, but also create and comment on contributions or set up their own groups.

If you look at sport itself, it is often the playful aspect that promotes creativity. However, this can also be profitably incorporated into ideation processes without physical activity. This has already been recognized by a famous manufacturer of clamping building blocks. "Serious Play" is the name of a set series from LEGO that is mainly used in the business world. "The target group is not children, but marketing departments or management consultancies," Weber explains.

The respective packages do not contain instructions or directions on how to use the bricks. Instead, participants develop promising business strategies, ways of dealing with problems and risks, or a deeper understanding of teams and their members in moderated workshops. The models put together are intended to provide a better visualization and anchor ideas in the mind - they become practically "graspable". There is no such thing as right or wrong in building. So it can happen that a task brings out different views, which are accepted by all participants.

One of the foundations of LEGO Serious Play, along with play and imagination, is constructionism. This concept can be traced back to Seymour Papert. The mathematician and psychologist showed that people learn something, especially when they create something. In addition to the actual thing, their own theories and new insights emerge in the process. These in turn enable the participants to construct much more complex things in the following.

Perhaps not (clamp construction) brick by brick, but step by step, VAUDE wants to develop further. "Steps" is the name of the outdoor brand's idea management concept. Everyone in the company can publish ideas via a social intranet, in writing or with pictures. The suggestions are shared in the designated community and possibly further developed directly by others. Idea scouts from different areas of the company accompany the process. They can provide direction or bring in stakeholders.

Certainly, the prospect of being able to make a positive difference is in itself a certain incentive to participate in steps. At VAUDE, however, thinking along does not only pay off on an emotional level. If a suggestion is put into practice, all those involved in the innovation process receive so-called innovation points. These can be collected and later exchanged for various prizes from a reward catalogue. A prominent example of a successful idea is the founding of an upcycling workshop at VAUDE. In the run-up, an employee from the manufactory had suggested producing shopper bags from leftover materials.