Paraphrasing Google X CEO Astro Teller, sparking group innovation can be as simple asking a team to “Gimme five.” Those two words contain a remarkable depth of wisdom.

Experiment broadly! Fantastic example from Ogilvy on the power of fighting tunnel vision, which limit us to far narrower ideation and far fewer experiments than would be beneficial.

Legendary Stanford professor Bob McKim had a simple, standard response to any student seeking his feedback on a new project. Google X’s Astro Teller does something similar today.

I’m a closet statistics nerd. Good for me, because innovation is a numbers game. One of my favorite counterintuitive statistical truths is expressed by Bayes’ Theorem, which can effectively bend the odds.

Whenever a student asked legendary Stanford Professor Bob McKim for feedback on a new design concept, he consistently gave the same response: “Show me three.” Those three words contain a remarkable depth of wisdom.