Step 1 - Idea Generation: Problem Statement and ApproachProblem statement:

John, an accounting and business graduate who is 21 years old, a people person, affable, lively and outgoing, a team player who likes to create

collaborative teams needs a way to

find direction and guidance to finding a fulfilling career

because he wants to be successful in business and recognised by his peers, but is unclear on what steps to take to

get him onto the right path.

Tool used to capture ideas: Initially whiteboard and post its, then transferred to MindJet’s MindManager (a mind mapping tool – Freemind is a similar free mind mapping tool)

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The High Level Mind Map to generate ideas

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Outline view of the map, where I used the course provided guides for generating ideas:

Full Map overview

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Don’t worry if you cant read it – its extracted and detailed in the following slides

Green are the ideas generated (total: #68)

What are the most obvious solutions for this problem? #1 (even things that you know already exist)

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Use Career guidance (at college, university)

Seek Parents advice Seek Teachers advice Network with Parents friends for

advice (in common areas) Facilitate networking with parents

of students for help and guidance through the career guidance at the university

Use search engines to research Use careers noticeboards (online) Use careers fairs (connecting

employers, students)

Prepare a CV with a personal statement to share and network

Provide information on conferences (even if they are for people more advance in their careers - or especially if they have these people there)

Have a conference with workstreams and open forums to help graduating students explore and facilitate employers with internships present

Write and research articles online to demonstrate their knowledge (and get feedback)

What are the most obvious solutions for this problem? #1 (even things that you know already exist)

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Write letters to eminent people in their careers for specific advice

Find Internships Facilitate Volunteering for a charity Facilitate Volunteering overseas Facilitate Volunteering for a local

business chamber Use careers fairs (connecting

employers, students) Prepare a CV with a personal

statement to share and network Provide information on conferences

(even if they are for people more advance in their careers - or especially if they have these people there)

Have a conference with workstreams and open forums to help graduating students explore and facilitate employers with internships present

Write and research articles online to demonstrate their knowledge (and get feedback)

Write letters to eminent people in their careers for specific advice

Find Internships Facilitate Volunteering for a charity Facilitate Volunteering overseas Facilitate Volunteering for a local

business chamber

What can you add, remove or modify from those initial solutions?

How would a 5-year-old child solve the problem?

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Setup an online jobs fair to link speakers from many disciplines

CV review and matching service

Seek adviceDraw a picture of the

problemAsk a parent, teacher,

adult (or anyone)Write a story about itPlay a gameMake up a play to

explore it

What other frames could help you generate other types of solutions? What if John went to another city (maybe another country) where he was unknown, what could he do then? (no network)

Join a local business chamber Build a network through Irish overseas associations (e.g.

sports) Volunteer in a charity or similar non-profit Join a professional association Advertise his skills/service in local community centres

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How would you solve the problem if you had an unlimited budget?

Find out about work experience or internships Advertise on billboard Goto work for a day for anyone looking for work experience and advice - pay

companies to participate Create a company Get Bill Gates, any other person who has been successful Advertise for help and guidance from experienced people Pay the worlds smartest people to come to a conference in Dublin to kick start

a program, based on their input to help address this problem

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How would you solve the problem without spending any money?

How would you solve this problem if you had control over the laws of nature (think invisibility, teleportation, etc.)?

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Stand on the side of the road with a noticeboard

Go into businesses, on spec, and ask for appointments with key managers

Identify and shadow key people (be invisible)

Talk to the most successful people in the fields of interest

Talk to business passengers traveling, while they are in the business lounge

Any other idea? (all ideas count)

What is the WORST IDEA you can come up with for this problem? Can you make a bad idea work?

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Set up a jobs experience club

Set up a mentoring program - link the university/employers

Impose some ones idea on him (e.g. parent, teacher etc)

Talk to prison inmatesTalk to preschoolers

about direction and guidance

What would be a COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS solution for this problem?

Pay a company to employ him and rotate him through every job until he finds one he really loves

Advertise on the side of a bus for help

Advertise for help in cinemas before the main film

Make a short film about Johns life and play it at a cinema, before the main feature

Create a TEDxJobsIreland to get great people to talk about worthwhile ideas on the theme of helping students find meaningful careers

Make a short film about John and play it on TV - possibly make a series about it (reality tv)

Force everyone who earns over the national average salary to give at least one day of their time to talking to people getting ready to enter the workforce (e.g. students)

Start a national movement (charity or government sponsored) to encourage successful people in business/careers to donate some time to talk to people getting ready for the workforce to help them decide on the best path

Have the government impose that companies employing over, say 20 people, have to offer a three month internships to students nearing completion to gain work experience (say for each 20 people, 2people x 3month internships per year)

As part of a national CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility, start a movement (charity of government sponsored) to encourage businesses over a certain size to facilitate internships of 1 week for schoolgoers and upto 3 months or more for third level students to get work experience in a career

Have a random person decide the direction to take on finding the right opportunity

Just take a basic job (that he doesn't enjoy) and don't try to find the fulfilling job11

Step 2 - Idea Selection: Criteria

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Ideas generated: #68; next step:

i. the most practical idea (one that could be easily implemented)

Facilitate networking with parents of students for help and guidance through the career guidance at the university

Provide support and framework for career guidance centres, and counsellors to facilitate and encourage parents of students to register with the centre their business experience.  Using this database of information, help connect students to parents in a structured (and safe) format to learn about different jobs and routes to success.  Students would register themselves also with the database to help the counsellors find the right parent with the right experience to meet the student at the centre (for safety).

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ii. the most disruptive idea (one that would make a huge impact, regardless of how feasible or affordable it is) As part of a national CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility, start a movement (charity of government sponsored)

to encourage businesses over a certain size to facilitate internships of 1 week for schoolgoers and upto 3 months or more for third level students to get work experience in a career

Start a national movement (charity or similar format) to draw on CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility - which gets a lot of press attention at times here in Ireland).  The purpose is to get international, local, big and medium sized companies across most sectors to volunteer to provide structured internships to people who are getting ready to enter the workforce.  Here, only some offer internships to this as part of courses, and the structure and organisation of these is different in each case, but this would put it on a national footing, with proper standards and encourage most companies to join this and participate and provide many placements to address the problem where people don't know where to start their careers as well as giving them valuable experience, even if limited, for their CV, with potential for a receiving company to provide the person a reference which would also help them get started.Getting universities to co-operate nationally maybe a challenge, so high level sponsorship and support from government and key people in business would be essential to help drive this as it would force some universities and course leaders to consider how their student will be able to be employable.  And this is something that could have a major transformational effect on the ability of students (and others if extended beyond universities) to transition into the workplace and make informed decisions in that transition.14

iii. your favorite idea (one idea that you are excited about for whatever reason... you don’t have to justify why)

Create a TEDxJobsIreland to get great people to talk about worthwhile ideas on the theme of helping students find meaningful careers

Create an annual TEDx on the transition into the workplace and how to help people be successful in this transition.  This would bring personal benefits to the people affected, and also national benefits by maintaining higher employment.  To companies, this would bring them better suited employees at the beginning of their careers as they start their career from a more informed position and get into jobs that suit them better and help them stay more motivated and productive, both in the company and in society.

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