Generating ideas

Some people find creative thinking easier than others. It is also sometimes seen as an ability you either were, or weren't, born with.

However, according to research carried out by Harvard University, creativity is 85 per cent a learned behaviour. That means that you can improve your ability to think creatively.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

— Edward de Bono, leading authority on thinking abilities and creative skills

There are many techniques that can be used to generate ideas.

Association

One technique is known as . This is the practice of making connections between seemingly unrelated ideas.

The highly successful Virgin brand entrepreneur, Richard Branson, strongly supports the idea of creating associations.

Looking back, I am always flabbergasted at just how well all the Virgin dots line up with each other. We now have brand loyalists who fly with us, work out with us, use our cell phone and broadband services, ride our trains, drink our wines and will soon be able to bank with us.

— Richard Branson, entrepreneur and founder of the Virgin Group

Real-life example

Colourful post-it notes on a white background

Whilst working at 3M Company, Spencer Silver was trying to make a very strong adhesive to be used in building planes. Instead, he managed to create a very weak adhesive that could be peeled off and re-used. At the time, Silver could not think of a use for this weak adhesive.

Many years later, Silver’s colleague Art Fry, who sang in a local choir, kept losing the bookmarks in his hymn book. A resulted in making an association between Silver’s weak glue and his bookmarks falling out. The idea of Post-It notes was created.

Question

Jenny Marsh is a pet shop owner. Jake Jones is a jeweller. They would like to go into business together. What associations could you make in suggesting potential products or services they could offer together?

Additional techniques

Questioning - Asking why, how and what instead of just accepting something you are told.
Observing - This is more than seeing things. Think about how you got to school recently. Did you see every part of your journey and can you remember it? Observing means using your senses at the fullest capacity by paying close attention to as many details as you can. This includes what you see, smell, hear and feel.
Experimenting - This involves trying new things or different ways of doing things. Google first introduced the idea of 80/20 time. This means Google employees can spend 20 per cent of their time toying with new ideas.
Networking - This means involving people and ideas that are different from your own. There is so much diversity that this is sure to increase your capacity for generating ideas.

Question

In three minutes, list as many uses as you can think of for a paperclip.

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Creativity and innovationGenerating ideas