Creative Thinking Tips, Tools & Techniques

Creative Thinking
Tips, Tools, & Techniques

Dear Overworked, Underappreciated Closet Genius with a Huge Desire to Create and Accomplish Extraordinary Things:

We know you have precious little time to read this, so we'll just cut to the chase. What follows are ten strategies to help you tap the motherlode of your own brilliance. Read 'em and leap. Then land again and do something different.

1.	Open the Floodgates Of all the constraints to creativity, perfectionism is the most devious. Posing as a high-minded ideal, it shuts down whatever innate, "idea fluency" abilities we may have. Perfectionism is especially troubling for people who work in organizations that subscribe to quality improvement programs whose main focus is "reducing variability" (i.e. mistakes). Why? Because aspiring innovators need to make mistakes. Mistakes are to innovation what experimentation is to science. Without the freedom to come up with some really awful ideas, it is unlikely you will ever come up with any really good ones. As John Barrymore once put it "You can only be as good as you dare to be bad." Or, as Linus Pauling, noted: "The best way to get a good idea is to get lots of ideas and throw the bad ones away." What to Do In the next 5 minutes, write down as many ideas as you can think of in response to your most pressing business challenge Do not censor yourself in any way Circle your favorite 5 ideas Chose one and then brainstorm it for 10 minutes
2.	Lead Into Gold One of the reasons why so few of us innovate is because we are bound by limiting assumptions — those false conclusions and beliefs that tell us what is possible and what is not. The lines we draw in the sand. It's why a lot of 15th century Europeans never sailed to the "new world." They assumed the Earth was flat. It's why Fred Smith's college professor gave him (the future founder of FedX) a "C" on a paper describing the idea for an overnight package delivery service. It seemed so farfetched. Naming the assumption, however, is only half the battle. What's far more important is finding a way to transform one's limiting assumptions into breakthrough solutions — much like alchemists, in days of old, transformed lead into gold. What to Do Make a list of your assumptions about your biggest business challenge Ask a friend or co-worker to add to this list Transform each assumptions into an open-ended question, beginning with the words "How can I?" Choose your most intriguing "How can I?" question and brainstorm it
3.	The Right Question A rocket shot at the moon that's a degree off on planet Earth misses the moon by thousands of miles. Similarly, a brainstorming session that's a degree off in the articulation of its purpose also misses its mark by a wide margin. Since most of us are so pressed for time, we rarely give ourselves the luxury of stepping back, reflecting, and really identifying the true nature of our business challenges. And because we don't, we end up spinning our wheels in brainstorming sessions again and again. As G.K. Chesterton so aptly put it, "It's not that they can't see the solution. They can't see the problem." What to Do Frame your biggest business challenge as a question, starting with the words "How can we….? Rewrite this challenge at least five other ways Circle the question that feels the most compelling Ask yourself if "there's a problem behind this problem" — a more essential issue needing to be addressed. Show your new problem statement to a friend or co-worker, get their feedback, and amend your question as needed
4.	The Seed of Fascination The reason why so few of us get inspired ideas at work is because we are rarely inspired. The reason we are rarely inspired is because we do not follow our fascinations. The reason we do not follow our fascinations is because we judge them as impractical, irrelevant, or impossible. And so it goes — sometimes for an entire life. The good news? This cycle can be reversed. It begins by suspending judgment. It's followed by entertaining what fascinates you. It continues with getting inspired. And it ends with arriving at an inspired idea — one with the potential to transform your business. What to Do On a piece of paper, make three parallel lists: the first What Fascinates Me, the second People I Admire, and the third What I'd Do If I Had More Time. Fill out all three lists Look for connections between the items on your three lists Jot down your inspired ideas. Then circle your favorite… and brainstorm.
5.	The Good Thing About a Bad Idea One of the inevitable things you will hear at a brainstorming session is something like: "There are no bad ideas." Well, guess what? There are plenty of bad ideas. Terrorism, for instance. Arena Football. Bow ties. What well-meaning, "keep hope alive" brainstorming aficionados really mean is this: Even bad ideas can lead to good ideas if the idea originator is committed enough to extract the meaning from the "bad." It happens all the time. Do you think War and Peace was written in one sitting? Madame Butterfly? The Idiot's Guide to Volkswagen Repair? No way. There were plenty of earlier drafts that were horrid, but eventually led to the final outcome. Even diamonds begin as coal. What to Do Write down the worst thing about your edgiest, new idea Write down everything good (i.e. intriguing, eye-opening, etc.) about this "worst thing" — something that makes your idea redeemable Using this "redeemable essence" as a trigger, generate at least five new ways to develop your most exciting, new idea or project
6.	Personas Do you know why Halloween is such a popular holiday? People get permission to be somebody else for a night. Wearing a costume makes it easier to act differently, to let go of one's "normal self" — perhaps our society's simplest and most socially approved way to change perspective. And so, if you are feeling stuck or bound by old perceptions, why not declare today your own, personal Halloween? Try on a different mask. Be someone else for a change. See differently! The more you can look at your business challenges through others' eyes, the easier it will be to go beyond old ways of thinking and have a creative breakthrough. What to Do Select a new persona (i.e. Einstein, Madonna, Bruce Lee, the CEO, etc.) Close your eyes and imagine you actually are this new persona See your biggest business challenge through their eyes (i.e. How would your new persona approach it?) Jot down all new ideas that come to mind — even if they seem odd NOTE: If your new persona's approach gives you only a generic clue (i.e. "be more scientific," "be outrageous," "have more patience"), brainstorm specific ways you can manifest more of that particular quality.
7.	Reversal Face it. No matter how brilliant an idea you originate is, there are bound to be a majority of people who thinks it stinks. Especially if your idea challenges the status quo. Brainstorming sessions are usually filled with people who have a million reasons why your ideas should never see the light of day. Call them skeptics. Call them idea killers. Call them "doubting Thomases." No matter what you call them, they tend to rule the day. Engaging these folks in a "creative thinking process" can be tough sledding. Which is why the Reversal Technique is so powerful. It works by giving naysayers more of a chance to trash your idea. In fact, you make a game out of getting them to find multiple ways of ensuring that your idea or project will fail. What to Do Explain your idea or business challenge Ask the skeptics to come up with ways to ensure that your idea — or business challenge — absolutely fails. (For example, if your challenge was to triple sales in the Pacific Rim, you would ask everyone "How can we ensure that sales stay flat in the Pacific Rim.") Jot down all of the responses Reverse each of the responses (write it's opposite) Choose a few of the most intriguing "reversals" and brainstorm them
8.	Strange Attractors Some years ago Sony had a policy that required its engineers to spend 25% of their time out of the office, mixing it up with people from other fields. Sony's top management knew that new ideas often happen at the intersections between disciplines — not within the silos and turfs of like-minded people. This "strange attractors" phenomenon is why the Left Bank became so popular in France back in the 1940's and 50's. It was a fertile environment in which creative people could leave their individual turfs and become inspired by others with different points of view. What to Do Take your team on a non-traditional field trip — a setting that seemingly has nothing to do with your core business. On the trip, ask your team to "play reporter" — taking notes as they interact with the people and environments they encounter At the end of the field trip, get your team together for a debrief. Note patterns, trends, insights, and ahas! Brainstorm new ways of growing your business, using your team's field trip experience as the catalyst
9.	Two to Tango Have you ever noticed that a lot of your friends are married to people who seem to be polar opposites? Introverts with extroverts. Analyticals with creatives. Classical music aficionados with jazz buffs. Curiously, many of these odd marriages sustain for a lifetime, bringing with them extraordinary offspring. It's the same with breakthrough ideas. In fact, sometimes, it's the oddest of combinations that spark the most life. What to Do Phrase a current business challenge as a "How can we?" question Write two parallel lists of five nouns Randomly connect words from both lists Pick one of these 2-word phrases and say it backwards and forwards Using this 2-word phrase as a trigger, jot down all new ideas that come to mind re: your current challenge Continue this associative process with the four, other 2-word phrases
10.	First Name Basis Conventional wisdom has it that the best time to name a new product or service is after you create it. After all, that's when you know what you've created really is. Unconventional wisdom has it the other way around: First you give your product or service a name, then you create it. With this approach, the name — instead of being merely the descriptor of your creation — becomes the catalyst for its existence. The key is coming up with a compelling name — one that intrigues, entertains or has embedded within it the kind of multiple meanings that stimulate you enough to decode them. For example, let's say you were writing a book on "business creativity" and wanted to invent new products you could hawk along with your book. You might begin your product creation process by coming up with some names for your still-to-be-invented product (playing off the name "creativity" to get things started.) CreativiTeas (a line of exotic teas that boost brainpower) CreativiT''s ( a line of t-shirts featuring photos of famous creative people on the front and their inspired quotes on the back) CreativiTees (golf tees packaged with fortune cookie-like tips from professional golfers.) CreativiTease (a card game that requires players to match famous quotes on creativity with the people who said them. Hmm… $24.95?) What to Do Make up of a compelling name for something — even if you don't know what that "something" is. HINT: Humor, double entendre, and spelling variations are all useful catalysts. Now that you have a compelling name of an imaginary product/service, brainstorm what that something might be NOTE; To get the ball rolling, you may want to focus on a specific market, buzz word, or product line within ERC