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Ideas Generation Techniques
5 Steps to Creativity
Finding the solution
to a problem or need that is cost effective and good enough for the
purpose requires creativity of the highest order. No person should be an
island in creativity exercises as each one of us has different levels of
creativity, as well as ideas. Starting on the creative problem-solving
journey requires as many ideas as possible so that the solution arrived
at is the best available solution.
There are techniques that will make the journey to the eureka stage and
beyond much more efficient, effective and quick. Use any one of them or
in combination for best results.
THE 5 BASIC STEP TO CREATIVITY :
Knowledge
Knowledge
of the world around you through your 5 senses of taste,
smell, sound, feel and sight form the starting point for
developing your creativity.You need ideas - the more
knowledge you have, the more ideas you can have. Explore
areas outside your work or hobby - the less restrictive you
are with your knowledge, the better.
"Knowledge is being applied to
knowledge itself. It is now fast becoming the one factor in
production, sidelining both capital and labour."
-- Peter
Drucker
The first step to
creativity: Acquire as much knowledge as you can.
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Thinking
Here's
where you're using your mind to start thinking deeply and
thoroughly about a problem that you would like to solve.
Just set out your problem clearly. You are now looking for
ideas that could be possible solutions, and you will want to
think of all angles for those ideas. Some ideas will be
unworkable (too expensive or not practical), some will be
ridiculous, and some will seem unlikely to ever be a
solution, but that is not your concern at this stage. You
may be able to form connections between one idea and the
next to come up with a possible third solution that is the
answer to all your problems! If you have a team of
like-minded people, you can leverage on their knowledge and
come up with even more possible solutions. Thinking long and
hard about the problem is the key to solving it - put 100%
of your mind power into thinking!
"Sometimes searching for ideas is like being a mosquito in a
nudist colony. You know what you want to do, but don't know
where to begin."
- Michael Michalko
The second step to creativity: Think deep and long about
the problem and its possible solutions.
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Incubation
Here's
the stage where you have been thinking long and hard about
the possible solutions to your problems but you're unable to
come to any solution. Here's when you relax. Go for a walk.
Try sleeping for a while. Do something totally unrelated to
what you've been working on. You don't know it, but your
subconscious mind will continue to work on the problem. This
background work will sometimes produce ideas and solutions
that you'll never think of when you're actively working on
the problem!
The third step
to creativity: Let your subconscious mind help you think
about your problem and possible solutions.
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Eureka !
The epitome of all your hard work and efforts.
You've shifted through all the possible solutions, made
connections with unrelated ideas, thought about it deep and
long, incubated it for a while, and now you've got the
solution! Saviour the moment. It doesn’t normally get any
better than this!
"I can remember the very spot in
the road, whilst in my carriage, when to my joy the solution
occurred to me."
- Charles Darwin
The fourth step to creativity: Discovering the
solution!
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Development
If you've set out on your
creativity journey with the intention of benefiting
everybody who has a need for it as well as make a profit,
then here's where you come to the hardest part of your
solution - making it functional, useful, cost-effective and
profitable. Developing your solution further so that it will
be a "hit" with the public requires time, effort and money.
You may need experts in
manufacturing, financing, marketing and promotion. In short,
you will want your solution to be known and available to
everybody at a price that they can pay while feeling that
they've got a good deal. If you can do this, you've achieved
your goal. The profits will certainly follow. And it all
started off with an idea in your head !
The fifth step to creativity and
profits: Further developing and refining the solution
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