Great ideas: how you can generate breakthroughs - includes creativity and problem solving exercises and a list of hardcopy, software and audio resources to stimulate creativity - Tutorial

Home Office Computing, June, 1994 by Donna M. Partow

The factory of the information age is the human mind. Yet the average person uses less than one-tenth of one percent of his brain power. "We now know that breakthrough ideas come from the integration of logic and imagination--the merging of left brain (analytical, convergent) and right brain (creative, divergent) thinking," says Chic Thompson, author of What a Great Idea! (HarperCollins). "We can transform our minds into idea-generating powerhouses if we learn to operate them a peak efficiency." Innate convergent thinkers often find that their linear approach is too limiting. They get stuck on the root of an idea and find it difficult to branch out. Naturally divergent thinkers pop out plenty of ideas but find itdifficult to backtrack, focus, and bring a single concept to full development. By gaining a better understanding of how the mind works and using techniques that stimulate your creative and problem-solving abilities, youcan groom your thought bank into a great idea-generating machine.

Identifying a Problem Before You Create a Solution "It just hit me" is the explanation most people give when asked where their great ideas come from. Serendipity, it seems. Yet closer examination reveals that "the best ideas start with a passion to solve the specific problem or find an answer to a burning question," says Thompson. Simply asking yourself the right questions is a launching pad to problem solving. The world changed forever when the first nomad stopped asking, "How do we get to water?" and askedinstead, "How can we get the water to come to us?"

It was sheer frustration that led Philip Payne of Edmonds, Washington, on a quest for a solution that would eventually evolve into a fruitful business. Twenty years ago, Payne was a Cambridge University student typing his doctoral dissertation on an IBM Selectric. "Much of my research was in Hebrew and Greek," he recalls. "It was an extremely painful process because I had to leave blank spaces, then go back and hand-write the foreign lettering. I realized the need for a system that could handle both Roman and non-Roman scripts." He often thought about writing a book based upon his research, but he was hindered because there was no software that handled English, Hebrew, and Greek. "The minute I saw the Macintosh WYSIWYG interface, I knew I'd found my answer," says Payne. "I studied the internal architecture and learned how to create my own fonts. Within a month, I was printing documents in Greek."

Payne was so elated with his discovery, he wrote a letter to a computer magazine. The editor wanted to run an article on his product line. Caught off-guard, Payne invented a company name on the spot: Linguist's Software. After the article was published in the September 1984 issue, Payne's phone started ringing off the hook. He also received dozens of special development requests, including programs for Russian, Hungarian, and Chinese. Payne now offers a catalog that contains more than 200 different language programs available in Mac and Windows versions. "We hope to sell $600,000 worth of products this year," he says.

If you want to generate great ideas, "Ready, Fire, Aim" should be your motto. Clearly identify the problem by asking the right questions (Ready). Throw out dozens--even hundreds--of possible solutions, from wacky to wonderful, from silly to sublime (Fire). At least one of these ideas is bound to be good (Aim). The notebooks of geniuses like Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Eistein are filled with scribbles, doodles, and unconnected thoughts--all evidence of a vigorous Fire stage.

Where to Find Fuel for Thought Ideas to fuel the Fire state can be so simple that people often overlook or dismiss them. "Fuel for great ideas lurks everywhere," says Bill Shephard, director of programs for the Creative Education Foundation in Buffalo, New York, a non-profit organization founded by the father of modern-day brainstorming, Alex Osborn, and dedicated to nurturing creativity, innovation, and problem solving. "Newspapers, magazines, and books are filled with idea fodder. So is nature and recreation. Children are infinitely creative and can often spark new ideas." He cites a case in point. "When Edwin Land took a picture of his young daughter playing at the beach, she asked when she could see it. Land replied that the film had to be developed first. His daughter asked, 'Why can't we see the picture now?' That picture inspired Land to invent the instant photography technology for the Polaroid Land camera," says Shephard.

Summoning the carefree child within us can also fuel ideas. For example, Barry and Susan Brooks wanted to start a business, but they needed to choose a field where they would truly enjoy and have fun with their work. They wondered about professions for several months until one day in 1977, sitting at the kitchen table, Susan asked, "What do we enjoy doing together?" The seed for an idea was planted and Barry shouted, "Cookies!" Each year they had a blast baking holiday cookies using old family recipes. Their cookie-filled tin cans were always a big hit.