Castle in Air Essay

Are messages like these popping up much and more in your workplace? Faced with complex, open-ended, ever-changing take exceptions, organizations realize that constant, ongoing innovation is critical to stay ahead of the competition. This is why we deal to be on the lookout for vernal ideas that fuck drive innovation, and its why the ability to think contraryly, generate new ideas, and glisten creativity inside a team be occurs an important skill. You fatality to work actively on building and cultivating this skill, and it can be siree Often, though, we off the mistake of expect that good ideas just communicate.Or worse still, we impart caught in the school principal trap that creativity is an aptitude some masses have it, others dont. because there is the other self-defeating belief I am not intelligent enough to come up with good ideas. These assumptions ar rarely true. Everyone can come up with fresh, radical ideas you just need to learn to open your look and think variantly. This article shows you how to do so. How to draw New Ideas Standard idea-generation techniques concentrate on combining or adapting active ideas. This can certainly generate results.But here, our digest is on equipping you with tools that assistance you leap onto a completely different plane. These approaches push your mind to forge new connections, think differently and consider new perspectives. A word of caution while these techniques are extremely effective, they will just succeed if they are backed by rich knowledge of the land youre working on. This means that if you are not prepared with comme il faut information about the issue, you are unlikely to come up with a great idea even by using the techniques listed here.Incidentally, these techniques can be applied to spark creativity in group settings and brainstorming sessions as well. Breaking Thought Patterns All of us can endure to get stuck in certain thinking patterns. Breaking these thought pat terns can help you get your mind unstuck and generate new ideas. There are several techniques you can use to break established thought patterns * take exception assumptions For every situation, you have a set of winder assumptions. Challenging these assumptions gives you a whole new spin on possibilities. * You demand to buy a house but cant since you assume you dont have the coin to make a down payment on the loan.Challenge the assumption. Sure, you dont have cash in the strand but couldnt you sell some of your other assets to raise the money? Could you dip into your retirement fund? Could you work overtime and build up the kitty in six months? Suddenly the picture starts looking brighter. * iterate the job Stating the worry differently often leads to different ideas. To reword the worry look at the issue from different angles. Why do we need to solve the problem? , Whats the roadblock here? , What will happen if we dont solve the problem? These questions will give you ne w insights.You might come up with new ideas to solve your new problem. * In the mid 1950s, shipping companies were losing money on freighters. They decided they needed to focus on building faster and more efficient ships. However, the problem persisted. Then one consultant defined the problem differently. He said the problem the industry should consider was how can we reduce cost? The new problem statement generated new ideas. All aspects of shipping, including storage of cargo and loading time, were considered. The government issue of this shift in focus resulted in the container ship and the roll-on/roll-off freighter.Think in reverse If you feel you cannot think of anything new, try turning things upside-down. Instead of focus on how you could solve a problem/improve operations/ evoke a product, consider how could you realize the problem/worsen operations/ range the product. The reverse ideas will come flowing in. Consider these ideas once youve reverse them again as possi ble solutions for the original contest. * Express yourself through different media We have multiple intelligences but somehow, when faced with workplace challenges we just tend to use our verbal reasoning ability.How about expressing the challenge through different media? Clay, music, word association patchs, paint, there are several ways you can express the challenge. Dont both(prenominal)er about solving the challenge at this point. Just express it. Different expression might spark off different thought patterns. And these new thought patterns may hark back new ideas. Connect the Unconnected Some of the best ideas seem to authorize just by chance. You see something or you hear someone, often totally unconnected to the situation you are trying to resolve, and the penny drops in place. normality and the apple, Archimedes in the bath tub examples abound.Why does this happen? The random fragment provides a new stimulus and gets our brain cells ticking. You can capitalize on thi s knowledge by consciously trying to connect the unconnected. Actively taste stimuli from unexpected places and then see if you can use these stimuli to build a connection with your situation. Some techniques you could use are* Use random input Choose a word from the dictionary and look for novel connections between the word and your problem. * Mind map possible ideas Put a key word or phrase in the middle of the page. Write some(prenominal) else comes in your mind on the same page. See if you can make any connections. Pick up a picture. Consider how you can affect it to your situation. * Take an item. Ask yourself questions such as How could this item help in addressing the challenge? , or What attributes of this item could help us solve our challenge? Shift Perspective Over the years we all build a certain vitrine of perspective and this perspective yields a certain type of idea. If you want different ideas, you will have to shift your perspective.To do so * Get someone else s perspective Ask different people what they would do if faced with your challenge. You could approach friends engaged in different miscellany of work, our spouse, a nine-year old child, customers, suppliers, senior citizens, someone from a different civilisation in essence anyone who might see things differently. * Play the If I were game Ask yourself If I were how would I address this challenge? You could be anyone a millionaire, tiger Woods, anyone. * The idea is the person you decide to be has certain acknowledgeable traits. And you have to use these traits to address the challenge. For instance, if you decide to play the millionaire, you might want to bring traits such as flamboyance, big thinking and risk-taking when formulating an idea.If you are Tiger Woods you would focus on things such as perfection, persistence and deed detail. Employ Enablers Enablers are activities and actions that assist with, rather than directly provoke, idea generation. They create a positive atmosphere. Some of the enablers that can help you get your seminal juices flowing are * Belief in yourself Believe that you are creative, intend that ideas will come to you positive reinforcement helps you perform better. * Creative loafing time Nap, go for a walk, listen to music, play with your child, take a break from formal idea-generating.Your mind needs the rest, and will often come up with connections precisely when it isnt trying to make them. * Change of environs Sometimes changing the setting changes your thought process. Go to a nearby coffee shop instead of the conference room in your office, or hold your discussion while walking together round a local park. * Shutting out distractions Keep your thinking space both literally and mentally clutter-free. Shut off the Blackberry, close the door, divert your think calls and then think. * Fun and humor These are essential ingredients, especially in team settings.