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Getting Creative: Finding Great Ideas When You Need One! Part Two

First, set aside analysis and criticism. They will be important later. Analytical thinking causes a creativity to stop. Once analysis and criticism enter the picture, people censor their thoughts and share only what they feel will be acceptable or what they can defend. Criticism in any form is the fastest way to kill creativity. Next, generate some good ideas to work with. Step back and look at the challenges you are dealing with from a distance. Force yourself to look at several different perspectives. Here are some tools that will help you do that.

Associate
The place where people most often describe getting creative ideas is the bathroom. Those ideas are not the result of an analytical process but are the result of a random association. Association can be formally used. Instead of focusing, associate. What are things that weigh less than a pound, what are possible uses for baking powder, uses for paper clips, items with numbers on them. One idea leads to another.

One idea triggers connections or associations to a new train of thought. In training programs, I use non-business examples to get people to loosen up. Once they are associating freely, they can take that form of thinking and apply it to a work issue. Associate all the things you can think of that effect morale (or effectiveness of meetings, employee retention, customer service, etc.)

Context
All ideas are the result of context. If you have ever lost your car keys, the first thing you probably did was mentally go back to the "context" of the last place where you remember having them. That context might be at the front door or in the car or you remember having the keys in your hand with the groceries. Change context and you get different ideas.

The same principle applies to creativity. If you want to improve morale, what contexts relate to that issue? Possible context might include: training, evaluations, leadership style, involvement, variety of work, positive feedback, focus of the work team, snacks available, bonus plan, etc. Making a list of possible contexts causes a group to step back and generate an overview of the situation. Every issue has many potential contexts and each context opens new perspectives to view the issue from.

What's working
Whether you are concerned about morale, retention, customer service, project management, leadership, or effective facilitation of meetings, some aspect of your current challenge is working. Or, they have worked in the past. Identifying what's worked holds great clues to continuing success. Use association to identify what has worked. When a meeting has been effectively facilitated, what caused it?

Reversal
A reversal is looking at the opposite of the current challenge, and also one of the fastest ways to get a group unstuck and creative. If customer service is the issue, forget it for a moment. Instead of improving customer service, make a list of things you could do to make it worse. If you wanted really lousy customer service, what could you do?

I had a conversation once with a man who was deeply concerned that his company would lose its competitive edge in the Natural Gas industry with de-regulation. His concern was obvious. I asked him, "If you wanted to lose your competitive edge, what could you do?" His first reaction was confusion. Why would he want to think about that? His next reaction was a smile. He was so concerned about losing his competitive edge, he hadn't looked at the things he had the ability to work with.

When you use a reversal to look at an issue, some of the things on the list are actually happening right now. Identify them so you can work with them.

Put it together
Use the tools. Associate to loosen up. Apply association to the issue you are working with. Generate a list of things related or associated with the issue. Create a context list including different contexts that have an impact. Look at what's working when the issue is working smoothly. Make a list of things you could do to make the situation worse. In a short time, you can come up with a lot of perspectives.

Once you have done this, it is time to bring in analytical thinking. Debate, analyze, and decide what to do next. The better you have done in generating perspectives on the issue, the better your solution will be.

About the Author

Ed Oakley is the founder of Enlightened Leadership Solutions. Solve your greatest management challenges with his new book, Leadership Made Simple http://www.leadershipmadesimple.com

Author Profile: edoakley

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