5 Ways to Jolt Your Ideasinto Being

Before You Start:Do you know your problem/theme?

• What are you ideating on?

• More you know about the problem, the better ideas you will have.

1. Take a Hike.Pick something to focus on:

• Shape (circle, triangle, square, etc... Pick just one)

• Color

• Size

What do you see now?

2. Role-Play.Who can you pretend to be?

• Get rid of your own fi lters.

• e.g. What if you were a 3-year-old?

3. Read (duh...).Pick a random page.

• Randomize your input; anything can be a source (encyclopeadia, newspa-per, junk-mail, a book...).

• Limit your intake, time yourself(e.g., 5 min).

4. Change One Thing.

Take an existing idea, and...

• Use it diff erently

• Change color/shape

• Scale up/down

• Substitute its parts

• Change the order

• Turn it upside down/sideways

• Combine it with something

5. Idea Grid, or ‘Fractal Tic-Tac-Toe.’Put the main theme or an idea to expand

on in the middle:

• Fill the rest of the “board” with variations, associated ideas, new ideas.

• When something promising comes up, start a new grid with it in the middle.

• You can go anywhere, tangentically (and tangents are Good)!

THANK YOU.Sources & Further Reading:

Kougu—Tools for Thinking (考具). (In Japanese) By Masaharu Kato, ISBN4-484-

03205-8

FOCUS. The Catalyst for Innovation. By Betsy Burroughs, http://www.focuscatalyst.

com/FocusCatalyst/Book.html

Six Thinking Hats. By Edward De Bono,

ISBN0-316-17791-1