Creative Quickie - A Creative Thinking Exercise with "3 Steps and Pick"

When you need to tap your creativity for a new look at an old project, try this 3-step creative quickie approach with a goal of generating 33 new ideas from each creative thinking exercise step.

A Creative Thinking Exercise with "3 Steps and Pick"

Step 1 – Think Connections: Ask, “What’s this project like?” Generalize the project, select an analogous situation, and then apply attributes, lessons, and possibilities from the analogous situation to your project.

Step 2 – Think Random: Select random words, phrases, and images from a magazine and ask, “What does this word, phrase, or image suggest about possibilities for my project?” Stuck for a good magazine to use? Try “Real Simple” or any other big, picture-rich magazine outside your field.

Step 3 – Think Again: Go back through your 66 current ideas and start pairing them up to generate 33 more possibilities.

Pick: With the 99 ideas you now have, there should at least 10 to 15 possibilities that you can select and directly apply to your old project to enliven it!

How's that for a creative quickie to get a lot of ideas and then do something with them! - Mike Brown