How to Start Thinking Creatively (technique and example)

What is this article about?

The article is about creative thinking, one of the most elusive stages of the Innovation process.

Creating thinking requires to think outside of the box and it is not as easy as it seems. In this article I am sharing with you a technique that was proven to be very useful. I call it ”Creative Thinking Routine" and it is a synthesis of the tips I have gathered from smart people, throughout the years, and my own experience.

You will find:

•     An example for ”Creative Thinking Routine"
•    Creative thinking technique - pragmatic tips
•     An example of creative thinking

Audience

People that innovation is part of their role and are required to think creatively on a regular basis or any one who require to solve problems creatively across disciplines and industries.

The importance of a "Creative Thinking Routine"

Creating thinking requires to think outside of the box and that is hard, because we normally live inside the box – it is where we feel most comfortable. ”Creative Thinking Routine” helps to think creatively because it creates a familiar structure, clear flow and fallback in case of unavoidable mind block. So the routine itself creates a known/comfortable environment that allows the creative thinking to happen.

Recently, I saw a documentary about a famous and productive music composer. This guy shared his technique for how he came up with the best melody to the lyrics. He mentioned a daily routine in which he went to his studio and kept trying different melodies. He said that it usually takes a few days till he gets an enlightenment. Of course, his story does not necessarily indicates that this is the only or the best way to compose music, but I do like the idea that he had created a routine and put effort into it. He is not waiting, passively,  for a muse, he actually work hard to “summon it”. He is devoted to the goal of composing music.

Since it is very rare that "the apple" fall on your head just by chance I find following routine as very helpful.  It is my personal example. If, the general idea, makes sense to you, you should probably adjust it to your needs and style. 

”Creative Thinking Routine” example

Routing technicality:

• Decide up front about the duration you want to allocate for creative thinking practice. This is a special time where you are going to practice only creative thinking and nothing else.
• Once your are in your routine use all of its allocated time.
• Disconnect yourself from interruptions like whatsapp, Facebook, email, phones etc.
• Let your mind fly, but only if it is related to the problem you are trying to solve. This is important. It is very easy to get distracted while practicing this routine because creative thinking gets frustrating at times.
• Remind yourself what you want to solve and why? Make sure it is clear as possible.

Why it needs to be solved? Who ares?

What are the challenges?

Why is it a problem?

Albert Einstein cite (perhaps apocryphally)(resource):

"If I had 20 days to solve a problem, I would spend 19 days to define it. "

• Examine your existing list of ideas. Sometimes you may look at an idea and get stimulated to come up with a different one, combines between two ideas etc. Don't delete any of them, instead mark them with quality or with question marks.
• If you get stuck or just don't feel in the mood, you can use the time to get inspired. See below.
• Get inspired. Listen to music that makes you energetic, do some physical exercise, watch an inspirational lecture on Ted - whatever suits you best. See below for some other examples:

Watch the Insider channel on youtube and see some cool innovations

Participating in creativity contests

Read about cross industry inspiration  ttp://www.moreinspiration.com/search     https://www.stumbleupon.com/

Read about global trends  https://www.trendhunter.com/ https://trendwatching.com/

Creative Thinking Technique

Note: Some of the tips below may not be clear at first sight - the example below should help to clarify.

• Once the problem/need, you want to solve is perfectly clear to you, start asking the following questions:

Why not doing X?

What if we do Y?

What if X don’t exist?

What could we assume instead?

What would be an alternative?

What cause the problem? Can it be isolated?

What if X doesn’t lead to Y?

What is another way to look at it?

What if we will do it this way?

How can it be done better e.g. more user friendly, cost-less, faster production etc.

What would be an example?

How does X affect Y?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of...?

If I do X, what would be happening that does not happen now?

• While asking the questions above look for an alternate solution from what exists ”in the box” today. It can be a combination of ideas, one that creates a more elegant solution, cheaper to produce, better performed etc. Change the "setting" (take the problem out of its current domain) and change variables (add/remove). Use Osborn's check list (resource)

Modify? Give it a new angle? Alter the colour, sound, odour, meaning, motion, and shape?

Magnify? Can anything be added, time, frequency, height, length, strength? Can it be duplicated, multiplied or exaggerated?

Minify? Can anything be taken away? Made smaller? Lowered? Shortened? Lightened? Omitted? Broken up?

Substitute? Different ingredients used? Other material? Other processes? Other place? Other approach? Other tone of voice? Someone else?

Rearrange? Swap components? Alter the pattern, sequence or layout? Change the pace or schedule? Transpose cause and effect?

Reverse? Opposites? Backwards? Reverse roles? Change shoes? Turn tables? Turn other cheek? Transpose ‘+/-‘?

Combine? Combine units, purposes, appeals or ideas? A blend, alloy, or an ensemble?

Use SCAMPER check list (resource):

S - Substitute- components, materials, people

C - Combine - mix, combine with other assemblies or services, integrate

A - Adapt - alter, change function, use part of another element

M - Modify - increase or reduce in scale, change shape, modify attributes (e.g. color)

P - Put to another use

E - Eliminate - remove elements, simplify, reduce to core functionality

R - Reverse - turn inside out or upside down

• Don’t expect a "ta-da" moment and don’t force yourself to look for ”The solution” per se, because you may get frustrated. Thinking creatively means freeing your mind to come up with any idea groundless as can be. Therefore, it is a good idea to mute your self judgment voice.
• Make a list of your ideas – as stupid as they may seem at first. Attach comments and thoughts to them to avoid forgetting what you meant.
• Practice innovation Modeling - Look at other products and identify the creative thinking beyond it. ”Steal” other peoples’ ideas and project them into your domain. In some cases it will come with a twist on the original idea.

Was similar problem already solved in different industry/product?

• Browse the internet. Do your research. Start with looking for a solution to the same problem. Today information is available to all. Anyone can posses the same information. Some people already came up with good ideas. Look at other ideas with a questioning eye and you may find ways to improve them even better.
• Share your idea with colleagues– challenge them and get new ideas.

Shipping wine example

I use this example for the sake of creative thinking demonstration. Wine shipping is not my domain. I also never ordered wine and received it in a shipment. I just wanted to pick something that I don’t know about. 

The problem/Need

While shipping wine it happens that bottles breaks.

Why is it a problem?

Naturally, when the wine bottle breaks it is a total lost, no way to return the product, no way to identify where and when it happens, lost of money etc.

This is a problem for the manufacturer as well as for a shop (online or not) that ship wine.

Why does anyone cares?

Consumer is naturally unhappy. Getting a new shipment means delays.

Seller is unhappy. He needs to reship, lose money, time and potentially losing the consumer.

Delivery company – potentially angry about the mess, might be charged if the responsibility is own them.

Challenge the problem cause

What cause the problem? Can it be isolated?

Is it the product itself - i.e. the bottle

is it the packaging

is it the delivering technique

It is hard to detect why exactly or when the bottle breaks. It is of course related to the fact the it is a glass bottle and it is ship in a carton box.

What are the challenges on hand?

Advanced packaging materials may increase the price or reduce the seller margin (price of the packaging plus the time it may consumes to pack). Apply the packaging cost to the consumer may cause the consumer to buy elsewhere. 

What is the trade-off between the lost of N broken bottles in front of the cost of more advanced shipping material? it should be cost effective.

Shipping material might takes more place, more heavier and introduce also extra delivery cost.

KISS - The need to find an elegant simple solution that is not expensive and easy to implement. A solution that doesn't add problems of its own.

Research example

• The Future of Sustainability in Packaging to 2018
• Trends - Glass keeps the wine quality – but – ”In the US, over 90% of wine is consumed within 24 hours of purchase” resource
• Recent trends and future of pharmaceutical packaging technology

Ideating the bottle material

What if X don’t exist?

Substitute - What materials or resources can you substitute or swap to improve the product?

what if it wasn't a bottle of glass but paper or plastic? resource

Glass bottle, as for today, is a rigid material and not flexible on the other hand it has UV-proof nature.

"Glass is well-known for being eco-friendly and recyclable for a variety of reasons. It does not decompose or change in state over time like certain plastics or other waste, so it can be safely thrown away in landfills without further pollution concerns." resource

cons - Plastic is considered cheap and that degrades the wine brand.

cons - Wine flavors may be harmed

pros - Paper and plastic are significantly cheaper than glass

pros - On a paper container the producer has more space for advertisement

cons - Wine contains alcohol - it probably not work well with paper from chemistry POV

cons - Glass is heavier – if it will be in plastic or paper it will be less prone to break...delivery company will be happy because the packages will be less heavy, less fuel is needed and of course lower chance of damage.

cons - People use to pour wine from a glass bottle - problematic to change the product container

Modify - How could you change the shape, look, or feel of your product?

What could you add to modify this product?

Can we make the glass thicker? 

Can we change the shape of the bottles? Can we make smaller bottles? Will it be less prone to break? – there is a trend to consume less wine at once- storing wine that is already open defects the flavors. E.g. different sizes of bottles like coca cola did.

Can we split the wine from the container ? e.g. supply the wine and the bottle separately resource 

Can we use flexible glass (e.g. Willow Glass) resource

Wine is stored in a wooden barrel (aging, flavors etc.)- why not using wooden bottle?

Ideating the package material 

Breakage occurs as the glass items inside the standard carton box simply don't have enough padding to absorb vibrations and collisions.

Use of Styrofoam flex. e.g. loose fill peanuts. If we need to ship more than one bottle there is still a chance that they collide. it also tend to be too messy. The advantage is that it can fit any bottle size.

Use of Expandable Foam e.g. PVC foam. cons - expensive, not recycled. pros- fit prefect to the shape you want to protect...might be messy to extract the bottle

Use of a carton paper mold

Use of plastic bag with air bubble or air bags. 

Use rubber rings to put on each bottle and protect it form glass to glass collision.

Use of Styrofoam mold

Double boxing - this for example suggested by UPS

Ideating the delivery

can we entirely eliminating the shipment? e.g. buy online and collect from a local re-seller.

Was a similar problem already been solved?

Eggs are even more delicate than bottle of wine. The solution for eggs is a carton mold. The mold also allows to pack eggs package one on top of the the other (compact). 

Shipping wine Ideating- example conclusions 

The above example of creative thinking is not complete, it’s just for the sake of demonstration. The carton mold, as done in egg case, is a cost effective solution and it is simple. My "Research" shows that existing solutions focus on padding to absorb vibrations and collisions.

Challenging the bottle material, e.g. to paper/plastic container for wine, is not a growing trend probably due to the branding and prestige impact. The Willow glass is interesting, but it aims more toward electronics (e.g. smartphones) other than bottles. 

Take-aways

Creative thinking requires dedication and time. There are various ways to accomplish it.  I suggest ”Creative Thinking Routine” as one of them. I have tried to show that Routine and Creativity are not necessarily an oxymoron and that ”Creative Thinking Routine” can help because it sets the ground for creative thinking. It is, by all means, not to imply that creative thinking should be only done within such a routine. From my experience, great ideas came up, hours or days after but I credit them as a byproduct of the routine as the practice causes ideas to resonate in my head.

>>Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Links

Creative Thinking Skills

Before You Innovate, Ask the Right Questions

Osborn's_Checklist

Metaphorical Thinking

The-future-of-the-glass-packaging-industry

Willow glass