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What do Pringles
potato chips and the printing press have in common? Both their
inventors were people who dared to look at things differently,
to make connections between objects that, on the surface,
had absolutely nothing in common - to think creatively.
Once considered
the exclusive domain of inventors, artists, and writers, creativity
has earned its rightful place as a powerful strategic tool
capable of transforming the way businesses operate. Take the
example of Conoco, where a group of engineers used a creativity
technique called "what's good?" and "what if?" to ask what
was good about toxic waste. As a result of their questioning,
they found a substance in the water that could be turned into
a lubricant. Creativity is a skill that can be developed and
used by everyone in an organization, and what better time
than spring to try out some fresh ideas. To get your creative
juices flowing, we have assembled the following tried and
true creativity sparkers that are sure to produce results.
Compare
Ideas: Comparing is the use of similes and metaphors to
compare unrelated
concepts and find similarities between them.
The compare
technique was used to invent Pringles potato chips. The biggest
problem with potato chips? Breakage, of course. Pringles asked,
"How is a potato chip like a leaf and why doesn't that leaf
break? Answer: the leaf has moisture in it. The concept of
shaping and packaging Pringles while still moist came about
because of this exploratory technique.
What similarities
does your idea have with cooking a meal? Hiking the Appalachian
Trail? Repairing a flat tire? How can you use analogies to
approach problems in a new way? One way is to put your current
challenge in the form of a direct analogy.
To illustrate,
as a staffing consultant I might ask, "How is recruiting like
gardening?" My task is to generate several descriptors of
gardening. One example might be "gardening requires making
sure the soil is rich in nutrients and free of harmful elements
(insects, toxins, etc.). I then examine each descriptor and
generate ideas on how to approach my challenge. Example: I
need to build and maintain relationships with a network of
strong candidates (ensuring that the soil is rich) and eliminate
negative attitudes such as thinking that there aren't enough
candidates to go around (remove harmful elements from the
soil). What can you compare your idea to?
Ask
"What's Good?" and "What If?": Sharpen your creative vision
and stretch your thinking by asking "what if?" and "what's
good?" questions. What's good about an acquisition? What's
good about being fired? What if the problem were actually
worse? what would it look like? What if our problems were
really our solutions? What off-the-wall questions can you
ask about your idea?
Incubate:
The incubation technique simply means that after you have
gathered data and information and have reviewed it, you let
it sit and simmer in your subconscious. This is the time to
do something else, something unrelated to your idea. Incubation
works because your subconscious mind is continually processing
information, coming up with new ideas and approaches. An old
Zen paradigm says, "stop thinking and talking about it and
there is nothing you will not be able to know." What problems
are you working on that would benefit from a break?
Embrace
Your Failures: The year Babe Ruth hit the most home runs
was also the year he struck out most often. What does that
suggest? Do you celebrate your failures as well as your successes?
Creative people tend to make more mistakes. They realize that
risk is an inherent part of the creative process. As Woody
Allen says, "If you're not failing every now and again, it's
a sign you're not doing anything very innovative." When was
the last time you celebrated a failure?
Which
of your current projects or challenges could benefit from
a healthy dose of creative thinking?
Sources:
A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech
Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Business Creativity by Michael
Michalko
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