Anecdotal evidence links shower to creativity. So maybe when the status quo response to some circumstance just isn’t working, try taking a shower.

Take a Shower

Pick some media from different industries. You may find that other industries have problems similar to yours but maybe they were solved in a different way.You may also find new linkages between your own industry and another, linkages that may lead to innovative partnerships in the future.

Study Another Industry

Religions are a way for us to understand our relationships with the supernatural and with each other. Learning how such relations are structured can teach you a lot about how people relate to each other and the world around them.Seeing the reason in other religions can also help you develop mental flexibility.

Learn About Other Religions

Learning gives you new information and ways of looking at and understanding aspects of your life and the world. And this helps you expand how you look at problems and the breadth of possible solutions you can come up with.

Take a Class

To stimulate your mind, read something you’d never have touched otherwise. Pay attention not only to the story but to the particular problems the author has to deal with.Try to connect those problems to the problems you face in your own field.

Read An Unfamiliar Genre

Poetry bridges between our emotional and rational capacities. Though it may feel foolish (and getting comfortable with feeling foolish might be another way to think outside the box), try writing a poem about the problem you’re working on.Your poem doesn’t necessarily have to be seen or propose a solution – the idea is to let the more creative part of the brain work on the problem instead of the more rational one.

Write a Poem

Drawing a picture is a right-brained activity, and can help break the hold of your logical left part of the brain on a problem the same way a poem can. Also, visualizing a problem engages other modes of thinking that we don’t normally use, bringing you another creative boost.

Draw a Picture

Turning something upside-down, whether physically or just by re-imagining it, can help you see new patterns. The brain has pattern-making habits that may obscure other, more subtle patterns at work; changing the orientation of things can hide the more obvious patterns and make other patterns emerge.

Turn It Upside Down

Working backwards breaks the brain’s normal conception of causality. You can start with a goal and think back through the steps needed to reach it until you get to where you are right now.

Work Backwards

Children think and speak with ignorance of convention and that can be helpful. Ask one how they might tackle a problem, or imagine how you might reformulate a problem so that a child could understand it.

Ask a Child For Advice

Embrace mistakes and incorporate them into your projects. Developing strategies that allow for random input, working amid chaotic juxtapositions of sound and form – all of these can help to move beyond everyday patterns of thinking.

Invite Randomness

The hardest part of socializing, for many people, is how to start a conversation. However, it is a big mistake to go about life not making the first move and waiting for someone else to do it [in conversation or anything].

11 Ways to Think Outside the Box

Combining the Mind Map Technique with the Creativity Triggers Technique.The novelty of The Better Mind Map is in the custom triggers tailored to a specific challenge. It is a template that provides structure for your early thinking  and customizable to suit your purposes.

The Better Mind Map

<ul><li>Write your design challenge or problem in the center of a blank piece of paper and circle it. </li><li>Add the following five Topic Areas around the central challenge: User needs, Inspiration, Constraints, Commercial drivers, Service design triggers.</li><li>In the Service design triggers Area, Pick 3 triggers from Entertainment, Simplified/light, Adaptable, Economical, Integrated, Durable. </li><li>Consolidate what you know about each topic area into 3 triggers each.</li></ul>

How The Better Mind Map works

From your mind map: <ul><li>Divide a piece of paper into six sections.</li><li>Dedicate each section to a sketched idea, based on a single trigger from your Better Mind Map </li></ul>

Sketching ideas

For many years I've used mind mapping - a simple, effective method for thinking through a problem and organising thoughts. It's an incredibly useful technique, and couldn't help but wonder if it could be used to introduce some structure to the messy process of coming up with ideas.

The Better Mind Map: a quick technique to organise thinking and boost creativity

There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.

<ul>
<li>Vertical thinking is the traditional type of thinking where one moves forward by sequential steps and where each step must be justified.</li>
<li>Lateral thinking is the process of generating new ideas. It teaches you how to look at a problem from a different angle and challenge your thinking patterns to produce better ways of solving a problem.</li>
<li>Vertical thinking is very useful for analysing facts, numbers and data. Lateral thinking is useful to solve unique problems that require innovative thinking.</li>
</ul>

Vertical thinking vs lateral thinking

In the past, there was an exclusive emphasis on vertical thinking (logic or mathematics). Vertical thinking is linear, logical and produce the final solution from a series of accurate statements.  Vertical thinking is useful, but sometimes we need to think outside the box. When vertical thinking is not getting you anywhere, you should switch to lateral thinking. Lateral thinking is important when constructing strategies or challenging old ways of dealing with a problem.

The need for lateral thinking

<ul>
<li>Create alternatives: More choices create better solutions.</li>
<li>Question your assumptions.</li>
<li>Quotas: Generate ten ideas a day. The more you do this, the better you will become at it.</li>
<li>Analogies: Make connections between the current situation and a similar situation.</li>
<li>Fractionation: Break something down into its components, then rebuild it.</li>
<li>Random stimulation: Put yourself into new environments outside your comfort zone, such as a conversation with someone with different views or going to unfamiliar locations.</li>
<li>Identify the main point of a book, conversation, video.</li>
<li>Brainstorm.</li>
<li>Entertain unattractive ideas.</li>
</ul>

Train your lateral thinking

Brainstorming is very effective to solve a problem creatively. Sharing ideas in a constructive environment will likely lead to an innovative solution. <ul><li>Share ideas in a non-judgmental manner.</li><li>Highlight the dominating ideas and explore them further.</li></ul> Another method is the reversal technique. It's based on the idea that you can change your perspective when you change the order of the words or the question. For example, "the parents are educating their kids' or "the kids need to be educated by their parents".

Brainstorming and the reversal method

Using lateral thinking for solving problems creatively

The first practical explanation of how creativity works, this results-oriented bestseller trains listeners to move beyond a "vertical" mode of thought to tap the potential of lateral thinking.

Lateral Thinking

The Six Thinking hats is a role-playing model developed by Edward de Bono in 1986. each hat represents a different lens or perspective on a particular issue and is an insightful activity that prevents narrow thinkingThe six types of “Thinking Hats” are:<ul><li>White Hat: Facts</li><li>Red Hat: Feelings</li><li>Black Hat: Cautions</li><li>Yellow Hat: Benefits</li><li>Blue Hat: Creativity </li><li>Green Hat: Process</li></ul>I will break down the hats further in the stash!

What is the six thinking hats technique?

Facts"What are the facts that we know?"<ul><li>Our survey last month indicated a 5% preference for green products by women aged 25 – 45.</li><li>Return rates from sales have fallen by over 50% since the introduction of the new delivery packaging.</li><li>There are new delivery routes available via Company Logistics.</li></ul>These are examples⬆️

White Hat

Feelings"What are your gut reactions?"<ul><li>The green color inspires a sustainable look and is very appealing. This is even a great shade.</li><li>The impact on the reduced return rates could mean additional resources.</li><li>How do the new delivery routes impact our delivery times? I would certainly be interested in learning more about it.</li></ul>These are examples⬆️

Red Hat

Cautions"What risks should I keep in mind?"<ul><li>Is a 5% preference sufficient for us to make a single color product? What happens if preferences change.</li><li>What is the cost of maintaining the packaging quality and sustainability?</li><li>The new delivery routes may not have been proven as reliable yet or may increase our costs.</li></ul>These are examples⬆️

Black Hat

Benefits"Why should I be optimistic?"<ul><li>The new product could increase our revenue diversification stream and increase our family of products.</li><li>We can start receiving better feedback and testimonials from our customers.</li><li>The impact from damage from delivery will meet our service standards.</li></ul>These are examples⬆️

Yellow Hat

Creativity"How can we create opportunities?"<ul><li>A green range could be expanded to a different color range set or be symbolic.</li><li>Creating multiple channels will allow us to establish new partnerships and partners.</li><li>Speeding up the quality and reliability of delivery could allow us to bundle existing products.</li></ul>These are examples⬆️

Green Hat

Process"What systems or processes will be needed?"<ul><li>Let’s go around the room and discuss the color options based.</li><li>How have the reduced return rates impacted our warehousing department?</li><li>Would there be any other changes to our workflow with a new delivery partner and will it change our logistics technology?</li></ul>These are examples⬆️

Blue Hat

Use the Six Thinking Hats model to help with:<ul><li>Running better and more structured meetings especially if there tends to only be a single view at every meeting.</li><li>Making better decisions by having a more holistic and wide-ranging view of the problem.</li><li>Approaching problems from various angles of facts, emotions, and creativity.</li><li>Inspiring idea generation as an ice-breaker activity by having different people play different roles.</li><li>More collaboration during brainstorming and decision making with assigned roles including facilitator responsibilities.</li></ul>

When  should i use the Six Thinking Hats technique 

Six Thinking Hats is a powerful technique for decision-making that includes different points of view.The process and methodology allow emotion and skepticism to be brought into what might normally be a purely rational process, and it opens up the opportunity for creativity within decision-making.Decisions made using the Six Thinking Hats technique can be more resilient and based on a holistic perspective, allowing you to avoid pitfalls and gaps before you have committed to a decision.

Use the Six Thinking Hats for better meetings

The Six Thinking Hats is a role-playing model presented by Edward de Bono in 1986 as a team-based problem solving and brainstorming technique

Six Thinking Hats - Problem Solving & Brainstorming Techniques

Is the ability to generate many ideas or solutions from a single idea or piece of information. It’s thought to be one of, if not the most, important factor in creativity.

Divergent Thinking 

Is the ability to take many pieces of information or data and generate one solution. It is largely taught and encouraged in schools and workplaces.

Convergent Thinking

<ol><li>The Many Uses Exercise: Pick an ordinary object, set a timer for 5 minutes and try to come up with as many alternative uses for a paperclip as you can.</li><li>10 New Ideas: Every day for a week, try to come up with 10 new ideas within a specific topic or category.</li><li>Daily Headlines: Imagine that your day was a news story in the New York Times. What would the headline be? </li><li>Articles on Trial: Challenge the conclusion of articles you read by coming up with one question you’d like to ask the author.</li><li>Start to notice your automatic thoughts and generate alternatives to them.</li></ol>

Exercising Divergent Thinking 

3 simple ways to boost your creativity by practicing Divergent Thinking, the psychological art of expansive and flexible thinking.

Divergent Thinking: The Mental Muscle Behind Consistent Creativity | Nick Wignall

These hacks help you face a situation that “everybody knows” how to solve

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

🥡
Think Outside The Box

11 Ways to Think Outside the Box

The Better Mind Map: a quick technique to organise thinking and boost creativity

Lateral Thinking

Six Thinking Hats - Problem Solving & Brainstorming Techniques

Divergent Thinking: The Mental Muscle Behind Consistent Creativity | Nick Wignall

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

🥡Think Outside The Box

11 Ways to Think Outside the Box

The Better Mind Map: a quick technique to organise thinking and boost creativity

Lateral Thinking

Six Thinking Hats - Problem Solving & Brainstorming Techniques

Divergent Thinking: The Mental Muscle Behind Consistent Creativity | Nick Wignall

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

🥡
Think Outside The Box