10 Ways to Foster More Creative Solutions and Breakthrough Discoveries

Creative ideas are most often generated in the context of a specific problem, rather than occurring at random. So it's important to tackle every problem from every relevant perspective.

In business, this means taking a customer view, vendor view, as well as your internal process view.

Very often, a problem gets solved in one environment, but years go by before the implications are recognized in other disciplines. For example, winemakers long ago learned to personalize their brand for added value, while other products still suffer as a commodity.

• A key habit to develop is one of asking multiple questions that push the limits of your thinking, rather than taking the first idea that comes to mind and running with it.
• Another is consistently trying new things, and overcoming your fear of failure.
• Finally, be sure to reward yourself and celebrate all your successes.

Stop being so immediately critical of your and other peoples' ideas. Collect a range of ideas first, before trying to evaluate any of them.

All ideas have some positive and some not-so-positive elements. The key is to build on the positive elements to make the idea stronger.

Save the concerns until last, and then strive to address your concerns with a creative question. This way, your mind will immediately begin to look for ways to overcome the concerns, instead of killing the entire idea.

You never want to discourage team members from sharing ideas with you.

To get new ideas, you have to stretch beyond the first seemingly obvious solution to a question or issue. The more ways you can find to accomplish your goal, the greater your chances of doing it with creativity and innovation.

Be sure to look for solutions from others, as well as yourself.

Don't give up quickly if your creative skills seem awkward or contrived at first. This is a normal human reaction the first few times any person plays the piano or throws a baseball.

In fact, we are all inherently creative in different and valuable ways. Encourage team practice as well.

Every new problem is just a sign of a gap from where you are to where you need to be. That is a good thing in business since it leads to the creativity that is necessary for continued and future success.

Also, by keeping you positive, it reduces the burden of stress that usually accompanies problems.