Top tips on creative thinking as a powerful business tool

Do you remember playing the word association game? What is the first thing that comes to mind in response to 'creativity?' For most people it is probably 'art' or something similar, it is probably never 'business.'

Creativity is not simply the preserve of the artist. It is something built into everyone, even the businessperson! Thinking creatively is a powerful business tool that can help businesses exploit new opportunities and solve problems, all of which can result in improved profitability.

Mike Waddell of Adsidia offers tips on creative thinking as a tool to help you generate new thinking in your business.

Edward de Bono, of 'lateral thinking' and 'Six Thinking Hats' fame, observed that the human mind is a very efficient pattern making and matching system. The problem is that our minds are lazy. This means that we tend to force fit new scenarios to old patterns instead of making new ones. De Bono called this 'cliché thinking.' These clichés include our responses and so we inherently limit our ability to exploit new opportunities.

The question is how can we break through the clichés to benefit our business? This in essence is what creative thinking is about - it is the process of finding new perspectives and developing new thinking.

Change the question!

As cliché thinking limits us, it is important to find new ways of looking at problems within a business. Broadening and rephrasing a problem is an important tool. For instance, a business problem might be expressed as "we cannot cover our costs," which leads to a demoralising cost cutting exercise. If you broaden the problem into: "we are not making enough money to cover our costs," this leads to a restatement such as: "how can we make more money?" A whole set of optimistic questions then emerge to help deal with the situation. Broadening and rephrasing problem statements are powerful cliché breaking actions.

'Object forcing' method helps you to think outside the box

Having a good problem statement starts the process but sometimes it is difficult to generate new thinking. 'Object forcing' is one of a number of tools that helps to initiate and maintain creative thinking.

The idea is to take any object and consider how that object might affect the solution. Fun ideas are encouraged because the exercise is about generating new thinking.

Problem: The company is using too many elastic bands.

Unrelated object: A crab!

What solution could the crab create?

You can look at the characteristics of the unrelated object and see how they may affect the situation, for example, the crab has an armoured shell - so the elastic bands could be kept in a secure container.

'Object forcing' is most effective in a brain-storming mode, but remember not to evaluate or criticise ideas until the session is completed. The ideas can then be reviewed and developed, and associations can be investigated. Remember, this is not simply about the ideas that arise from object forcing; it is about breaking the cliché. You can develop fun new ways of looking at problems that energise your workforce and stimulate creativity.

Try the above techniques for approaching new opportunities within your business. Who knows, your business may become the next Google.

For information on the University of Bedfordshire's MSc in Managing Business Creativity and Innovation visit www.beds.ac.uk/news/2009/jun/090608-creativity

(July/August 2009)

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Top tips on creative thinking as a powerful business tool