3. OPTIONS
How can I solve this problem?
Different people have different levels of knowledge, experience, contacts, motivation, etc. Maybe you have not been able to see any option, any pathway to try to solve the problem. Then you have to think which is your own way. Or maybe you see several options and not sure about them.
When we don't see an option, then this is definitively the area to work on.
Different people have different levels of knowledge, experience, contacts, motivation, etc. Maybe you have not been able to see any option, any pathway to try to solve the problem. Then you have to think which is your own way. Or maybe you see several options and not sure about them.
When we don't see an option, then this is definitively the area to work on.
3.1. Brainstorming / Brainwriting. Brainstorming is a popular tool to generate ideas in a group. The main idea is to generate as many ideas as possible without judging them and trying to be open to any type of ideas, even the "crazy" ones, thinking big, etc. As here we work individually, the activities are design to be written by one person who is the one thinking about it (that is why is called Brainwriting to differentiate with the popular Brainstorming). Even though Brainstorming can be a powerful tool when used properly, many people advocate for Brainwriting to avoid the situations in which people don't want to say some things before other colleagues or relatives for different reasons, wasting the opportunity of having new ideas that can be on detriment of some people but beneficial in global.
|
You can write list of different things such as ideas that come to your mind, things that have been tried before, ideas that could be implemented if you had unlimited resources (think big), list of assumptions and invert them (what if?), list of questions (why not?)
|
3.2. Associations. Any word, image, idea, product or service can be a trigger to innovative ideas that can be generated when linking them with our problem. This is to try to link things that doesn't seem linked naturally. The effort of trying to find these connections will help to look at the problem from different angles.
|
Look at the examples in the video where it is suggested to find any trigger randomly, as the best triggers to find innovative ideas originate when linking things that are far away (different domains, etc.).
|
3.3. Analogies. This a bit related to the one before. It can be used also with similar, opposites, close or far concepts.
|
You can think about similar type of problems or the opposite type of problems (yours or from other people). You can do analogies with something you know from a different field (extrapolate) or you can think about different level of abstraction of the problem (for example, on a personal level, family level, community level, country level, world level).
|
3.4. Search. There is so much information available! A lot of information is available online, but also in libraries, from family and friends, etc. You can find ideas and adapt them to your circumstances or use them as inspiration.
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources" Albert Einstein
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources" Albert Einstein
|
How do you search information on the net? There are so many options: wikipedia and its links, google, google scholar, Youtube, Slideshare, Quora, blogs, forums... but also indirectly you can find it through Amazon, Eventbrite or Meetup. And what about libraries or bookshops? Even if you a search engine, Do you know how to use the possibilities to search this search engine has? And the possibility of using email, whatsapp and twitter?
|
3.5. Draw ideas. You can do one (or several) Mindmaps, or use drawings to represent ideas or do a W.A.I.T. process (Write-A:Underline-Interrogate-Try to answer).
|
It is good to use different ways of expressing ideas. It could be by writing, drawing, singing or building them. You could use words or images, photographs, collages, etc.
|
3.6. Modifications and combinations. Sometimes you can build ideas by modifying some of their components or combining them with other ideas. A new idea could be a new combination of two "old" ideas. “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.” Steve Jobs
|
There are several tools to do this. You could do a list of attributes and the different options of each attribute (for example in a table). You could use a check list of instructions or questions such as SCAMPER. You could think about the modifications of a product and apply them to a different product or service.
|