Editor’s note: Tina Pragoff is innovation project manager at Innovation Focus Inc., a Lancaster, Pa., consulting firm.

There’s a wonderful resource you’ve probably never even considered to help you solve your problems. One of the most valuable sources of creative energy that can help you develop ideas for new products and services is closer than you think. They may be small, but they have great big, wide-open minds - the perfect kind for innovative thinking.

What’s the answer? Kids!

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, kids aged 18 years and younger make up 25.7 percent of the U.S. population. They spend billions of dollars a year on purchases and influence countless other decisions regarding the buying of products and services. Without a doubt kids are powerful consumers, but they are so much more.

Kids can create. Kids have a unique perspective in the way they see life and a willingness to free their inhibitions in the pursuit of creative endeavors. They dream, they explore and they question the world around them. They consider possibilities that grown-ups may be unable to see. They take creative chances that adults may feel too inhibited to allow themselves to experience. Kids can help uncover previously unseen solutions and help tackle more difficult tasks when they are provided the opportunity, the encouragement and a clear process to guide their efforts.

But with so many kids to potentially draw on for insight, how do you find the right one to help you with your task? While there is no formula for determining the perfect candidate, below are several traits that creative kids share and suggestions on how adult facilitators can best maximize these abilities.

  • Willingness to ask “Why?”: Kids who are curious and like to explore new ways of looking at things can help shed light on valuable, new opportunities for you and your organization. They give you the benefit of fresh eyes and a renewed sense of wonderment about your situation. You should take note, however, that many more kids are creative than receive credit for it. Every kid has creative potential; some may just not know it yet. Most kids need a little encouragement and a few creative exercises to bring out their best.
  • Commitment to cooperation: Kids who are comfortable working in teams can easily build on each other’s ideas. It often takes many creative minds working in unison to craft an excellent solution. You should bring groups of like-aged kids together who are already friends, teammates or classmates so that they can take advantage of existing levels of comfort.
  • Desire to divulge: Kids who can share their thoughts, opinions, feelings and ideas with others, while also appreciating different points of view, can help make people in the group feel more at ease. You should be ready to protect kids’ fragile ideas. Beginning ideas are usually half-baked, and typically need a little more time to be developed. Make sure all ideas are given this much-needed opportunity to become winning solutions.
  • Ability to have focus and fun: Kids who can follow directions and focus on a task, while balancing the energy and enthusiasm of their youth, can bring both creativity and concentration to the problem-solving process. Adult facilitators can best serve kids by offering several breaks from the hard work of idea generation. In addition, you should remember that your behavior sets the tone for the rest of the group...so have fun yourself!

A little focus

Kids have amazing creative energy that can be harnessed for productive means. However, too often their energies are unappreciated because they are underutilized or misdirected. Kids often explore creativity in terms of self-discovery. They use their creativity to entertain themselves and learn about the world around them. However, their creativity has a potential far greater than this. With a little focus they can apply this wealth of unbridled creativity and energy toward a directed effort such as problem solving and idea generation around a specific task. In the end, they will not only have an opportunity to exercise their creative muscle, they will also achieve a sense of personal fulfillment from using their talents to connect to the world around them in a tangible way.

Kids need a process that can offer them a balance between the free flowing of their creative ideas and defined steps that can help lead them toward a solution. There are several important aspects to utilizing a structured creative process with kids to create solutions.

  • Tailoring a task: It’s important to clearly define a task in terms that kids can relate to. Kids can develop innovative solutions for even difficult tasks if the problem is framed appropriately for them. Use action words, or verbs, to define a clear goal. Select vocabulary that can be easily understood by the age group you are working with. The task is an important jumping-off point for creating ideas so be sure to explain a little background on the task before you get started to provide direction for the group.
  • Plotting a process: Processes that utilize kids as idea generators should include opportunities for them to stretch far outside the box through divergent thinking exercises, balanced with convergent thinking exercises that will direct their efforts back toward the task at hand. Fun can serve as an important driver for productivity. A good process for kids provides flexibility, structure and productive play.
  • Rules for the room: It’s imperative to have rules so that kids can better understand what is expected of them as members of the group. One suggestion is to have the group develop some rules of conduct so that they feel allegiance to them. Rules help to focus energy and effort towards any goal. Some examples may include: no idea is a bad idea, build on each other’s ideas, etc.
  • Creating the climate: When working with kids, a special climate needs to be set for the group. Encourage them to sit on the floor if they are more comfortable; have crayons and paper available so that they can draw their ideas if they are having trouble describing them; include energizing activities that give them a chance to tap into their huge reserves of energy - this will help them better focus when necessary.

Hundreds of ideas

Kids are extremely insightful. A few years ago, Innovation Focus was working with a manufacturer of children’s arts and crafts supplies. During one activity, several package design prototypes were passed around the group for the children to view. While many of the comments revolved around the color and shapes on the containers, one child spied something even more interesting. “How come there are only girls on the cover of the box? Don’t you want to sell it to boys too?” she inquired. Her investigation soon opened the door to other questions from the kids such as, “Why are all the kids in the pictures white?” Working together, the kids not only created hundreds of new ideas for products for this company, they also asked some intriguing questions that forced the company to reevaluate its packaging to speak to a greater market.

Kids certainly aren’t limited to working on product and service ideas directed only at their particular age groups. At our firm, we often call on kids to act as “wild-card” idea generators at brainstorming sessions. We have used kids for helping develop product and service ideas for everything from financial investment companies to pharmaceutical manufacturers. While they may not be direct purchasers of many products in the market today, they can often introduce a necessary element of creativity and naïveté into any group by simply asking, “Why not?”

So the next time you know you’ll be tackling a difficult task, why not call on a creative kid?