Many businesses owe their success to a secret — think of the recipe for Coca-Cola or Google’s web page ranking algorithm. Likewise, many thinkers rely on secret formulas to help them “think different” and create great ideas. Over the years I’ve watched these thinkers and tried to figure out their secrets. So far, I’ve identified more than 60 of them. In this column and the next, I’ll introduce you to some of these creative principles that you can use to free your thinking and give you ways to come up with new and better ideas.

The challenge

As with most things, these principles are best explained with an example. When you meet someone new, you give them your business card. Assume that you want to go beyond handing over a plain vanilla business card and to do something that will leave a lasting impression. Challenges are best stated as simple “How to” questions. This challenge could be, “How to introduce myself to others in an impressive, memorable way?”

Remember that when ideating, you are only generating ideas, without regard to whether those ideas are sensible or meaningful. The best thinkers know that in order to produce the best ideas, they need to come up with many, many ideas, from the mundane to the insane.

Questions: What is a challenge that you face now? How can you express it as a “How to” question?

Creative principle 1: Reverse it

Try to reverse your challenge and look at its opposite. In other words, turn it on its head and engage in “upside-down thinking.” According to Michael Michalko, Henry Ford’s use of the assembly line resulted from a challenge reversal which changed, “How can we get people to the things they need to work on?”, into, “How can we get the work to the people?”

In our sample challenge, one way to reverse it is, “How to make others introduce themselves to you and find you memorable as a result?” One way to do this might be, “Address people who are wearing name tags by their name and with a big smile; this will prompt them to ask for your name — and remember it.” Another could be, “Wear special glasses with face recognition software that projects the name of the person on the inside of the glasses, thus allowing you to amaze a stranger by greeting them by name.” (Welcome to the brave new world of Google Glass.) Another way to meet this reversed challenge might be, “When shaking hands, take their hand in both of yours and smile at them.”

Questions: How can you reverse your challenge? What ideas come to your mind when you reverse it?

Creative principle 2: Change dimensions

Try changing the dimensions of your challenge. You can go up from 2D (surface) to 3D (space) to even 4D (space and time) or down from 2D to 1D (line) to help with your ideation. Moving from 3D to 4D was one of the things Einstein did while working on the theory of special relativity.

For our challenge, changing dimensions may result in ideas like these: “Make a business card with your information printed both normally and in the raised dots of Braille, so the blind can read it” (2D to 3D); “Add a URL to your business card that links to your CV” (2D to 4D); “Use a laser beam to draw your name on a wall or surface” (2D to 1D).

Questions: What dimension is your challenge in now? How to resolve it by shifting into another dimension?

Creative principle 3: Ask “What if”

Asking “What if” questions and engaging in wishful thinking is certain to fire up your imagination. Formulate a question that starts with the words “What if,” followed by a statement that isn’t true. For example, Einstein asked the question “What if I were traveling on a ray of light through the universe?”

For our example, we could ask, “What if we only had one second to memorably introduce ourselves to another person?” One idea is, “Wear a shirt with a giant rubber stamp on it, and hug the person you’re meeting to imprint your name and contact info onto their shirt.” This question: “What if you were judged on how much fun your introduction was?” might trigger the ideas “Give them a squeeze ball with your personal information on it, that they can play with and use to reduce stress,” and “Sing your name and contact details, or give them a business card that sings that info for you.”

Questions: What contrary-to-fact “What if” questions can you ask about your challenge? What ideas are prompted by those “What if” questions?

Creative principle 4: Play with time

Travel backward or forward in time, speed things up or slow them down, or change the sequence of events. In his master’s thesis, Fred Smith imagined speeding shipments up and creating an overnight delivery service for time-critical components. Although his “infeasible idea” earned him a “C,” Fred Smith went on to found FedEx and create a new business model and industry segment.

For our challenge, going back to an earlier time produced the idea, “Wear a formal hat, and introduce yourself while removing your hat and bowing.” Another idea based on time is, “Introduce yourself while speaking v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y to give them more time to hear your information.” Or, “Use software to simulate how you will look when you’re 90 years old, and introduce yourself by describing what you hope to have achieved by then.”

Questions: How can you play with the time associated with your challenge? What ideas do you get when you do this?

Creative principle 5: Omit an essential element

Omitting something you think is essential to your challenge can free you from false constraints and lead to surprising ideas. Steve Jobs challenged the idea that a computer had to have a keyboard and a mouse. This freed the design team from those constraints, and led to the iPad.

In our example, omitting an essential element may lead to ideas like these: “Hide your face behind a mask or helmet to hide your identity while adding enigma and intrigue”; “Don’t give your name, or use a pseudonym, to add suspense and mystery”; and “Don’t tell people what you do, and make a game out of figuring out your role and position.”

Questions: What do you think is ‘essential’ about your challenge? What ideas come to mind when you omit each of those essential elements?

© Dr. Detlef Reis 2013. This article was published in parallel in the Bangkok Post under the same title on 23 May 2013.