Creative Thinking Techniques in Action – Forty Uses For a Brick

Creative wondering techniques assist us understand to proliferate ideas. When we learn to proliferate suggestions we develop into improved at divergent considering – 1 of the most potent resources in a trouble solver’s toolbelt.

When another person asks you to occur up with ideas to remedy a trouble, how quite a few do you typically deliver? A single? Two? 5?

The following example illustrates how we can use a several basic innovative imagining strategies to produce tons of beneficial tips.

The trouble: How many diverse approaches can we use a brick?

Our aim is forty suggestions.

Move One particular – Vacant Your Head

Fast record all the strategies you can feel of, off the top rated of your head, to use a brick.

1. Construct a wall
2. Develop a mailbox
3. Facet a residence
4. Use it for a desk paperweight
5. Use it as a melee weapon (whack anyone on the head)
6. Use it as a projectile weapon (throw it at somebody)
7. Use it to pave a sidewalk or patio
8. Make a deck

Eight, complete. Not a lot of.

Stage Two – Team the things into popular themes

Many of my thoughts fell into the classification of ‘building product.’ So concentrating on that, what other items can be developed out of bricks?

1. Flowerpots
2. Landscaping
3. Mailboxes
4. Barbecues
5. Smokehouses
6. Outhouses
7. Shelving
8. Outdoor bar

Eight a lot more proper there. My operating overall: 16.

Also, a few of the thoughts fell into the category of ‘small, challenging, somewhat hefty objects.’ What other utilizes are there for that?

1. Doorstop
2. Bug whacker
3. Ballast
4. Keep down sheets of cloth, plastic etcetera.

You can find 4 much more. My functioning total: 20

Phase A few – Take into consideration the typical characteristics

What are the characteristics of bricks?

• Tough
• Strong
• Rectangular
• Smallish
• Retains heat effectively/insulates
• Compact
• Arrive in a number of earth-tone hues
• Low-priced

“Retains warmth effectively” evokes a new focus for concepts.

1. Kiln
2. Lining for a metallic grill
3. Anything to guard a vulnerable surface area from a hot pot or pan
4. Mount a metallic grill/smoker on a wooden deck
5. Mount a sizzling water heater on a wooden/tile/linoleum floor

Also bricks are “challenging.” Do some works by using have to have excess toughness or durability?

1. Higher explosives/hazardous products storage buildings
2. Higher explosives/hazardous products handling amenities
3. Backstop for a shooting array
4. Firing position
5. Vault

10 additional there. Managing whole: 30. We are three quarters of our way to the goal, and we’ve kept matters fairly standard.

The creative considering procedures I have used so considerably are rather linear. To appear up with definitely new and different concepts, we need to get more abstract in our imagining.

The subsequent tool will take us into the abstract arena. It falls under the class of ‘forced connections’ – determining the partnership in between two things that are seemingly unrelated.

Step 4: Force Connections

‘Random words’ is a essential device for forcing connections. I pull out a random terms listing, shut my eyes and issue a finger at:

• nut
• pet
• Mass
• healthcare facility
• trophy

How could these words potentially support me appear up with extra works by using for a brick?

Merely record the matters you associate with each individual term, and ‘force’ a connection with bricks.

Right here are the phrases and phrases that I associate with just about every:

• nut – compact, delicious, almond, walnut, squirrel, fiber, pecan, pie, cookie, peanut, bought in luggage, baseball game titles, sold alone or blended
• pet – pet, cat, hamster, gerbil, snake, lizard, sold in specialty shops, cute, pet foodstuff, fish tank
• Mass – Catholic, church, support, Eucharist, sanctuary, baptism, wafer, wine, Pope, priest, nun, prayer, forgiveness, assortment
• healthcare facility – emergency, rooms, beds, clients, physicians, nurses, functions, x-ray, MRI, expensive, overall health care, ambulance, surgery, therapeutic
• trophy – prize, engraving, presented to the winner, valuable, status, mantle piece, show case, pleasure

Forcing connections with the terms and phrases I get these thoughts:

1. Pet – dog – Develop a doghouse
2. Nut – squirrel – Make a squirrel/fowl feeder
3. Mass – service – Make a memorial
4. Mass – service – Create an outside altar
5. Medical center – x-ray – Line an X-ray or radiology area
6. Mass – baptism – Make a baptismal font
7. Trophy – mantle piece – Create a fireplace
8. Trophy – exhibit case – Construct a trophy situation
9. Pet – fish tank – Construct an aquarium stand or situation
10. Trophy – engraving – Build engraved pavers for fund elevating

That is ten additional, bringing my whole up to 40. Intention achieved!

To be sincere, this was much too easy. I could have stored generating idea right after strategy by utilizing other resourceful pondering equipment.

And just feel of what a Team of thinkers could appear up with – in an innovation workshop, for a group of five I would have established the purpose at 100-150 ideas.

“Forty works by using for a brick” could have sounded daunting at 1st, based mostly on the thoughts at the top rated of our heads.

But as I have revealed it would not choose a large amount of pondering to proliferate tips, as lengthy as you do it systematically, using tested equipment and tactics.

Strategy technology is the foundation of divergent imagining, which drives business enterprise creative imagination. Learn to proliferate concepts in this way and you may turn into a superior innovator for it.