Thinking Well Outside the Box
Brains are pattern recognition systems which allow us to recognize objects and situations very quickly. However, pattern recognition can work against us and make us fixed in our thinking - making it difficult to be creative. The good news is that you can use lateral thinking techniques to break out of your old ways of thinking and boost creativity.
How to brainstorm
- Brainstorming is used to develop creative solutions to a problem. Simply focus on the problem, and come up with as many radical solutions as you can as fast as possible.
- Give yourself a chance to do some creative thinking in your daily work. Edward de Bono coined the term "'Creative Pause": A short but habitual break to consider other creative options.
- View problems as opportunities for improvement.
- Individual brainstorming may lack the dynamic a group can bring. If you are brainstorming in a group, chair sessions tightly so that uncreative or less secure people don't "block." Choose participants from as wide a range of disciplines and experience as possible. Often the only difference between creative and uncreative people is self-perception. Challenge their perception.
- Define the problem clearly and any criteria to be met. Keep focused.
- No criticism, analysis or evaluation of ideas during the session. Don't choke the creative process with analysis.
- Encourage an excited, uncritical attitude. Get everyone to contribute and develop ideas.
- Ensure that no one train of thought is followed for too long.
- Encourage development of other people's ideas, or use ideas to create new ones.
- Appoint one person to note down all the ideas for later.
Examples of brainstorming techniques
- Reversal is a great tool for improving a product or a service. Simply ask the opposite of the question you want to ask, and apply the results; e.g., "How can we reduce customer satisfaction?" The answers may illustrate the keys to the problem in reverse.
- To use Random input, select a random noun from the dictionary and use it as the starting point for brainstorming, or to re-launch a session. Or try thinking of ideas beginning with "n."
- Provocation statements are tools to make links between patterns. Make a deliberately stupid statement in which something normally taken for granted about the situation is not true. Then suspend judgment and use that statement to generate ideas. Examine the consequences of the statement, what the benefits would be, and what might convert it to a sensible solution.
- Attribute listing focuses on key attributes of the product, service or strategy you are examining. Use each attribute as a column heading. List as many variations of each attribute as you can. Randomly select one item from each column, or select interesting combinations of items to create new approaches to such attributes as market sectors, customer needs, products and marketing.
