IDEAS ON TAP!

We're celebrating THINKING this week, and I wanted to share methodologies you might find handy, when next you need to generate some fresh ideas:

This is the second of three sketches that Dr Edward de Bono, the creator of Lateral Thinking, once drew for me. I've been sharing my thoughts and experiences around Thinking and Idea Generation. Today I thought to double click on Deliberate Thinking and pay homage to the genius of Edward de Bono.

He often used to tell the story about how Newton was inspired to make his discovery, when he supposedly once sat under an apple tree for a day. Suddenly, a fruit randomly landed on his head! But for us, to look for the inspiration of new ideas, that would mean spending many unsuccessful hours under the apple tree. One might need to give the tree a little shakeup. And so de Bono came up with lots of tools and methodologies to "make those apples fall!"

The DATT or Direct Attention Thinking Tools, are all designed to induce a sense of structured thinking, that's a little more deliberate than to sit around and wait for a flash of lightning, or the proverbial apple to fall. Some of these tools help you decide about the root of the problem, the real one behind your perceptions. Others deepen your understanding or simply get you to think about what you're thinking about with clearer focus.

PMI (PLUS, MINUS, INTERESTING)

I like this one a lot. When faced with a decision to make, about whether an idea or outcome is a good or bad one or to explore a problem more, before making a commitment, the PMI comes in handy.

Divide a piece of paper into three and tag the sections with "+", a "-" and "i" for interesting. Now begin to explore only the positive aspects of the situation, idea or problem under this column. Quickly write down the good things. Don't judge, just explore. Next, you move to focus on the negative aspects - the bad things. Lastly, isolate the interesting things you can spot. What stands out, is unusual or noteworthy about this problem or decision? What sparks potential ideas to solve it or bring it full circle?

The amazing thing about doing compartmentalised, focus thinking on these three aspects, often times will spark a deeper understanding and more clarity will begin to emerge. Be sure to write it all down though, don't just "do it in your head!"

RAD (RECOGNISE, ANALYSE, DIVIDE)

This tool is great to help you break big ideas or problems down into smaller, manageable parts. It is a concept for systems thinking. Begin by only focusing on the boundaries of the situation. How big is it; How wide does it spread or influence? Can you define the scale of the issue?

Next spend time to look for patterns you recognise. Has this happened before? Is there something like this? What's different to what you know? Is there a trend?

Finally, you spend two or three minutes identifying the prominent moving parts of the problem or situation. Write them down quickly, then spend time to think about how they interact; What are the relationships?

Again, this is an exercise you could do in ten minutes max and you'll be surprised at the fresh perspectives that will reveal themselves so that you can get to deeper thinking about the specifics.

OPV's (OTHER PEOPLE'S VIEWS)

We often are so close to a problem that we only recognise our experience of the situation, and that means it is harder to get fresh perspectives. I understand this tool to be one that explores different points of view through empathy.

Take moment to write down different stakeholders who might experience this problem or situation. What do you think their perspective or feelings might be? Be sure to write them down, because the process of putting pen to paper (not digitally) is part of your discovery. Next, think about these stakeholders' beliefs and WHY they might have this position on the matter?

To end with, think about how you'll explain or clarify your ideas to them. You'll find that spending time in other people's shoes might just give a better insight to aspects of the problem or situation you've not seen before.

LATERAL THINKING TECHNIQUES

Of course there are many more tools, and in the space where you explore methodologies to move ideas forward and develop them more clearly or expand on them, this next two tools really rock it:

Random Entry is a really cool way to keep a list of 100 words handy somewhere in a diary, or a set of random images in a file. When you're stuck to get going on an idea, ask someone for a random number between 1 and 100, turn to the page and use that word to inspire new thinking by connecting, let's say "bicycle" to your problem. In a remarkable way, our brains are wired to look for things that make sense within the crazy. Pretty soon the pedals, or two wheels or even the spokes or single seat might just begin to get creative juices going. The same for that picture of the elephant!

Provocation and Movement are ways to use a more carefully designed statement, to inspire strange or unusual conditions under which the impossible might just jumpstart new ideas. You may need to go read up on this more to understand exactly how you can set up your own "provocation".

The theory goes that Landrover worked to figure out how one could place the engine on the vehicle's roof, so that it could even drive through water, yet the weight distribution of such an engine high up would have made the drive very unsafe in rough terrain. In the end, encasing the engine in a box, and allowing it to breath through a pipe that is higher than the roof, essentially achieves the same effect. So here the provocation would have been: "What would happen if we could put the engine on the roof?"

SIX THINKING HATS

Finally, if you ever need a Thinking System to get everyone around the table aligned, there isn't anything more powerful than Six Thinking Hats. To me, much of Edward de Bono's work has the central theme of HARMONY, of something he called "surpetition" rather than competition. If we work together, align or use Parallel Thinking - it makes sense that the result will be more powerful. Because two or three brains are always better than one!

I hope this brief glance at a life's body of magnificent work, inspires you to pick up a de Bono book this week and explore a fresh angle on your thinking, or rekindle some marvellous memories of how fearless we all were when we were younger, and dared to challenge the impossible!

Wishing you hours of wonderful thoughts this Wednesday!