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

One day an attorney hired him to complete several hundred investigations within 60 days. "The government had closed six banks, so they put me on the trail of any debtors with assets worth chasing," he recalls. Pankau knew the information he needed was available in public records; the question was how to get rapid, around-the-clock access to it.

"Would the government sell me the public records I needed on microfiche?" he wondered. Apparently no one had ever asked before, but the county clerk was willing. Pankau not only discovered a lucrative business, but he also invented a new industry. Today, thousands of people use the methodologies he developed to retrieve information online.

Pankau's there's-got-to-be-a-better-way philosophy paid off with another great idea in 1985. When his hairstylist informed him that she was planning on closing shop and investing her life savings in a business venture with a new boyfriend, Pankau was concerned. "Let me check the public records and see what turns up on him," he suggested. It turns out that lover boy had several wibes and a lengthy prison record. After the salon owner told friends and customers what Pankau had uncovered, scores of single women began calling him to check out their new beaus.

When Pankau mentioned to a reporter from The New York Times that "women are checking out boyfriends like bankers check out buyers," the story made front-page news. Within days, he had received invitations to appear on Donahue, Geraldo, and Larry King Live. Pankau had unwittingly launched yet another industry. Today, computerized character checks on prospective mates are de rigueur and Pankau's company, Intertect Inc., grossed $2 million dollars in 1993.

It Won't Fly, If You Don't Try Whether you have a fleeting notion or a product concept or a fluke--until you put it out for all the world to see. As Alex Osborn has said, "A fair idea to use is much better than a great idea kept on the polishing wheel." Plunge boldly into the arena of ideas, and you just might come out a winner.

Related article: Innovative Exercises for the Mind

The following techniques and exercises were adapted from What a Great Idea! by Charles "Chic" Thompson and are designed to help you explore different ways of thinking that will expand your creativity and problem-solving capabilities.

Trigger the Opposite Side of Your Brain

1. Take out a sheet of paper and, using your dominant hand, write down six words that describe you.

2. Take the pencil out of your hand and for one minute focus your eyes on the center of this graphic mandala.

3. Using your opposite hand, write down six different words that describe you. Be a kid again! Place them all over a sheet of paper but don't put one on top of the other.

4. What similarities and differences do you see between the two sets of words?

Break Mental Blocks

If you're bogged down in a problem and need a boost, begin scribbling with a pencil or pick up a small object with your nondominant hand. The unfamiliar muscular movements from the subordinate side of your body will trigger an electrical flow in the nondominant side of your brain. The net result? New connections, a new perspective--possibly a new idea.