The Fine Art of Blue Sky Thinking
In 1989, Gary Kasparov, the Soviet Union Grand Chess Master, played a two game match against "Deep Blue," the reigning supercomputer of the time.
Kasparov won easily.
When asked by the media what his competitive advantage was, he cited two things: intuition and the ability to fantasize.
Einstein, too, was a big fan of fantasizing. "The ability to fantasize," he said, "is more important to me than my ability to absorb positive knowledge."
Few of us, in the workplace, are ever encouraged to fantasize -- a behavior most commonly associated with children, flakes, or perverts.
And yet, fantasizing is exactly how many breakthrough ideas get their start -- a quantum leap of thought by some "dreamer" entertaining the seemingly impossible.
A SIMPLE BLUE SKY THINKING TECHNIQUE:
1. Make a wish for the successful resolution of your most pressing business challenge. (i.e. "I wish it was easier... faster... cheaper.")
2. Extend this wish further by making a wild wish -- something less likely than your wish, but still in the realm of possibility.
3. Stretch your wild wish even further by thinking of a fantasy solution to your challenge -- a seemingly impossible way to get a result. (If your fantasy solution makes you laugh or whistle, you're on the right track).
4. Distill your fantasy solution down to it's core principle -- the essence or gist hidden within it.
5. Using this core principle as a catalyze, conjure up -- and write down -- at least five new ideas to help you meet your goal.
Excerpted from our Blue Sky Thinking guidebook
It helps people open up to new possibilities
And take intelligent risks
One way we do it real-time
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at July 24, 2010 10:40 PM
Comments
In working with groups, individuals and organizations my goal is always to understand the positive core and how it can be tapped into to achieve dreams. I appreciate this exercise as a way to get to that core and help people to dream. It is much more powerful than the typical brainstorming exercise because it is connected to "wild" dreams.
Dr. Lynn K. Jones
www.lynnkjones.com
Posted by: Lynn K. Jones ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 24, 2010 10:54 PM
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Posted by: john123 at November 7, 2013 09:56 AM
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