I watched and read with interest reports of yesterday’s Obama Job Summit.

I’ve got a simple point to make here; one day brainstorming sessions are close to useless.

Brainstorming gets a bad name because what is really a “discussion” (aka bullshitting) is often labeled as brainstorming. The meeting yesterday was not about serious idea generation.  It was a meeting to discuss things, which is not wrong, but it’s not going to generate breakthrough ideas.

Real breakthroughs happen when people do idea generation over a longer period of time.  Getting to the “fresh snow” of truly new ideas, innovative ideas, means a lot of imaginative thinking. This means plowing through all the already-skied-down-to-ice “old snow” ideas. One day is Never enough time to get to that level of thought.

Is this an on-going effort, or simply a PR tool?  It would appear more the latter than the former, unfortunately. The reports make no mention of any follow up to the session. I don’t count the “listening tour” he’s beginning in Allentown, PA today.  Listening is not Idea Generation.

The USA will never get to innovation with job creation by holding one day events and PR listening tours.

While I don’t agree with Republicans in the USA that the Obama administration is “killing” job creation.  I do agree with them that the answer to job creation is unlikely to be thought up by policy wonks, politicians who don’t work (and never have worked) in the private sector, and big business people.

The vast majority of jobs are created by small businesses. Ask Bill Clinton, he’ll tell you. The job boom he was fortunate to oversee was all about small business job creation. And that happened because, mostly, Bill just got the heck out of the way. Obama can’t afford to take a hands off approach — he can’t wait that long. In my view the problem is “In what ways can the government aid and abet small business jobs development?”

Press releases were careful to say that the meeting included small business people — but most of the quotes from the day were from big business people, like Eric Schmidt of Google, who said “small business owners on average are running their business well and making their payroll every week, but they just don’t have capital and they can’t get financing.” Yes, that’s true Eric, but it’s hardly a new insight. It’s also depressing to note that the guest list was shy of manufacturers and the US Chamber of Commerce.

Newt Gingrich’s alternative conference in Cincinnati had, in my view, a bit more of a roll-up-your-sleeves attitude. While I don’t agree with most of his alternative suggestions (old snow Republican ideas) I have to agree that without small business participation in job creation efforts not much is going to happen. Not surprised Gingrich picked my old home town of Cincinnati, a heartland city with a strong conservative base. Ironically, it’s not a town that is particularly friendly to small business creation, but that’s a topic for another post. And, Gingrich is making the same mistake the President is making in hosting a one day PR event. If Republicans are serious about the issue they’ll set up a long term effort, and, generate fresh snow ideas beyond their usual answers of tax cuts and deregulation. Deregulation is part of what got us into this mess…but don’t get me started. Republicans should embrace small business like they never have before; they’ve always paid lip service, but their bread is buttered by big business. If they want to win some elections they’ll really get up close and personal with small business people.

The reports of the Obama Jobs Summit day include “Six Ideas,” Reading through them, it’s clear that these were already ideas before the day began. Decent ideas, but they existed before the day started.

If you want Innovation in job creation Mr. President, put together a diverse team that includes a lot of small business people, manufacturers, outsiders, some brilliant out of work people, Republicans — and a few of your policy wonk all stars.  Then support an inclusive, long term effort, to generate the ideas that create jobs.