Which brainstorming technique do you use to get new ideas? How do you improve your creative thinking? What do we mean by brainstorming?

What is brainstorming and why should we do it?

Brainstorming is about thinking creatively and generating new ideas to start initiatives or solve problems. Effective brainstorming encourages lateral and divergent thinking, allowing us to explore ideas beyond the expected approaches to challenges.

To achieve our life goals, we must employ some brainstorming. If we have big dreams, then we are likely to face big challenges and therefore we are going to need some creative thinking to help us achieve them.

“Until we are free to think for ourselves, our dreams are not free to unfold.” –  Nancy Kline

The Swiss Army Knife approach to problem-solving

When growing up I used to love going into the woods and pretending I was in a survival situation. I would make shelters, build fires and forage for food. The more experienced I became, the more I would enjoy limiting the tools I would take with me. In some instances, I would take little more than a penknife.

One of my prized possessions was a Swiss Army Knife. As with most Swiss Army knives, mine had several built-in tools, each with a different use. The more I used this multi-tool, the more I found alternative uses for each item. For example, the large blade was good for cutting but could also be used as a small mirror. The flat screwdriver head could be used for screws (not that there were many in the woods) but was also very handy for prying bark off trees. The small saw blade could be used for sawing through branches but could also be used as a scraper to create wood shavings or even as a sort of grater for food.

Having only one tool, even a multi-tool, forced me to think of novel ways to solve problems. I not only started to look at the penknife in a new way, but I also looked at the challenges in a new light. My brain was more open to finding new ways to approach each issue.

How to brainstorm ideas: The Right Questions Multi-tool

And that is the power of creative thinking. By forcing our brains to think divergently or laterally about something we can come up with new ways, and often multiple ideas, for tackling a problem.

The idea of The Right Questions Multi-Tool is to use forced association (or forced connections) as a creative thinking technique. These are approaches that I first came across from Edward de Bono, author of Lateral Thinking, and have proven useful on many occasions, both in my work and personal life.

Here are three of my preferred approaches to brainstorm ideas, options, and solutions:

Forced number association

Forced number association helps generative thinking by giving the brain a target number of ideas to create. For example, using the Rule of 3, you can give yourself a goal of creating three different options to achieve your aim. This is a common approach when developing courses of action for achieving your goal, a subject we will return to with The Right Questions Guidebook tool.

When brainstorming you can give yourself a larger number. Ten or twenty is a manageable number which will also create a good number of divergent options. Therefore, for this technique just follow these steps:

1. Pick a target number for your ideas (10-20 is recommended)
2. Now brainstorm ideas until you have hit your target number, recording them as the thoughts emerge.

Handy hint: I often like to use Post-its for this sort of exercise and put them onto a wall or flipchart. In this way, you can play around with how you arrange the words which can lead to new connections, insights and ideas.

Forced word association

Forced word association uses random words, that are generally un-associated with the issue at hand, to force you to think laterally. As with the number association technique, you might want to set yourself a target number of ideas and then follow these steps:

1. Select a word at random. This can be done by opening a dictionary at random, having random words written on slips of paper you can pull out of a hat, or using an online word generator. There are web options you can use for free such as https://randomwordgenerator.com

• Consider how the random word could help address the issue you are thinking about. This might not be easy, and the answer might seem to be crazy but don’t worry, the idea here is creativity.

Word Association Worked example 1:

For example, your goal might be to run a marathon and the random word could be ‘rose’. A rose could be a colour, a flavour, a flower, or the name of a person. Maybe you like roses and can reward yourself with some for achieving a run. Perhaps there is a person called Rose who can support you in some way. Maybe you could fuel yourself with rose-flavoured Turkish Delight! It might be you don’t use any of these ideas in the end but forcing the brain to make new connections will help you to look at the challenge from new perspectives.

Word Association Worked example 2:

Another example could be to consider what to do in the holidays. I used randomwordgenerator.com to give me a random word and it gave me ‘morning’. By thinking of the word ‘morning’ along with the idea of ‘vacation’ my brain starts to prompt questions such as what do I like to do in the morning? Where would I like to wake up in the morning? What would the perfect morning look like?

I am also flooded with pictures and memories; the sun coming up over a mountain as my feet crunch through frost-crusted snow, the smell of great coffee in an Italian café, the snuggly feeling of waking up in fresh hotel linen (knowing that I don’t have an alarm forcing me to get up). Suddenly I am full of ideas of things I want to do! And that is just one word and a few seconds of thinking.

“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

Forced picture connections

The forced picture association method is the same as forced word association, except, as the title suggests, you use pictures instead of words. You can use magazines, photo albums or books for your pictures or free online resources such as https://randompicturegenerator.com. Just follow the same steps as used for the word association.

Expert tip: combine all three techniques by setting yourself a target number and then using a mixture of words and pictures for inspiration. Place them all on a large surface and experiment with their placement. Get some friends involved with the process to improve the diversity of thought in the creative process.

“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.” – Edward de Bono

Making creative thinking a habit

The best way to become more creative is to experiment with these and other techniques. We can improve our ability to think of ideas if we practice so why not start now? Pick a goal you want to achieve or a challenge that you need to overcome and apply one or more of the exercises above. Once you have tried a technique, even just for a few minutes, you are much more likely to use such a tool again and develop better thinking habits.

As well as brainstorming with lateral thinking techniques, the other tool I often use is Mind-maps. You can find out more about mind mapping in my article on What is Mind Mapping and Why Should I Use Mind Maps?

“To find yourself, think for yourself” – Socrates

Whether you are starting a new business, or looking for ways of developing an existing business, you will need to create and evaluate ideas for products and services that you might want to sell. For some people the challenge is coming up with the ideas, for others (and this is often the case with entrepreneurs) the problem can be knowing how to capture, sift and prioritise the many ideas. This post will outline a simple process to help you identify and work through your ideas from the moment of inspiration to the point of launching the business. Whether they are for a home based business, a small business or a new business case within a larger existing company the process is very similar and you can follow the same steps.

When is the best time to consider new ideas?

A business person should always be on the look out for inspiration and new business ideas but all ideas have to have some sort of context. They have to be checked against the big concepts, such as your values and direction, and good ideas will have to be tested by some sort of planning process.

The concept of looking at options comes up in the ‘which’ of The Right Questions approach. It is a pivotal question because once you have your situational analysis, having collected facts and considered big questions, then looking at options creates the transition to more detailed planning, as demonstrated in the diagram below.

Step 1: Generate new business ideas

We all come up with good ideas but we don’t all remember or action them. Therefore I recommend that you keep some sort of list. This can be a list on your phone, a document on your computer, lots of post-it notes on a wall or a note in a pad – whatever works for you. What matters is that you keep ideas so they can be assessed at some later date. Beware; when you start thinking of ideas and recording them you will find that the flow of ideas is likely to increase!

As well as any ideas you already have you may want to generate a bunch of new ideas. Set aside some time – it can be as little as five minutes –  when you are not going to be distracted and then use the time to brainstorm as many ideas as you can. You will probably find it easier to create ideas if you think about a specific area of business or sector. For example brainstorming ideas specifically for a courier service or thinking about products thing you could create with a 3D printer is easier than just trying to come up with random unrelated business ideas. Make sure you capture your ideas as you go.

You may want to approach the brainstorming session with some other people in a workshop; this could be an existing team of colleagues or just a group of friends. Sometimes having people not related to the industry is helpful as they can think beyond the normal confines of the sector.

Lateral thinking techniques may also be useful in generating a larger and more varied list of ideas that you can capture. Using random words or pictures can help inspire new approaches to business ideas. You can find out more about creating new ideas here: options and lateral thinking.

Step 2: Sift and prioritise the business Ideas

For each idea you brainstorm a list of pros and cons (this should only take a minute or two for each option). This will help you take a more quantative approach to assessing your ideas and help you to prioritise them.

Step 3: Identify your top three business ideas

Decide on your top three ideas based upon these pros and cons. Don’t discard the others but put them aside for the time being.

Step 4: Write a short business case for each option

Create one-page business cases for each of the top three ideas. Try and address the following categories and questions:

1. Where? (Situation and Vision): What present situation and the problem that needs to be solved? What is the opportunity?
2. What? (Mission): What is the solution? What are the key elements? What would success look like?
3. Why? (Values and Priorities): What is the value proposition? Why is this idea unique? What is the USP? What are the benefits (financial and non-financial)?
4. Who? (Competition and Market): Who is the competition and what will differentiate you from your competitors? Who are the target customers? How big is the market?
5. How? (Planning, Strategy and Resources): What are the channels to market? What is the outline plan? What are the constraints you know about and the assumptions you have made? What are the next steps to launch the plan? What is the financial potential? What is the revenue model? What resources are necessary? What are the non-financial costs?
6. When? (Time): What are the outline timings and milestones? When would be the optimum time to launch?
7. Which? (Risk and Options): What are the risks? Is the idea feasible? If not what needs to change to make it possible? How do we test this concept? How will you validate the idea and improve on the concept in the short term?

Step 5: Test these business cases

Now take your three one-page business cases to someone you trust and try to sell your idea to them. Choose someone who will give you constructive criticism and use the resulting discussion to test and refine your options.

Step 6: Market test your idea

Before you do for a full launch of your new product or service do a small validation exercise to market test your business case. You should have identified some ideas for this in your one pager so you can put them into practise before writing a detailed business plan. This test might be as simple as stopping ten people in the street and asking them to buy something, or it could be putting up an advert on Google around relevant key words, or trialling a service for a limited period. Whatever approaches you choose, be certain that you test your assumptions about the size and appetite of the market. If people do not want to buy what you are offering then it is probably time to look at another option.

Step 7: Develop a business plan and then go for it

Take the best of the ideas and develop the business case into a more detailed plan. This does not need to be a huge document but it needs to have enough detail for you to turn your business case into action. If you want some hints on how to get going you can read this post on project planning.

You will now have created a business case, tested the market and created a plan. You are ready to launch!