Creativity is like the weather. Everyone talks about thinking outside some proverbial box, but not many people ever do anything about it. Okay, that beats the mythical no one who does anything about the weather. By the way, what's so special about this famous box that it demands no one think inside of it? For that matter, even discussing thinking outside the box could be construed as being trapped within another box.
Anyway.
Creativity requires examining everything from a different perspective. By letting go of what we perceive to be reality, we can then begin a new paradigm. New ideas spring from old concepts that are viewed in a different way. We simply have to alter our everyday perspective. Let's try some examples.
Changing the size of an item can alter its potential uses in radical and exciting ways. For a mundane visualisation, think of a board. At its standard size, it's used for building. Go larger and you have a bridge. Go smaller, and you have a tongue depressor. Join many of them together, and you can build a house. All that was done was a size change.
Uniting two unrelated ideas can develop a new one. Add a clock to a radio, for example, and a new morning annoyance is born. You can do that with almost any two objects. Combine them, and see what results. While most of the outcomes will be less than stellar, all you need is one good marriage to be successful.
Think in terms of strange questions. I'm not only talking about the overworked tree falling in the forest here. Of course, thinking about whether or not there is indeed a sound can help trigger new ways of looking at the world. The point is to move far away from your routine framework of thought. New worlds await discovery. It may as well be you who plants the first flag. Right?
Here some examples of questions that can lead to all sorts of possibilities. Those ideas will lead to other exciting and often challenging results; and so on. I'll leave you with some, and you can run with them anywhere they lead.
Here goes:
When you wake up, does your dream continue with or without you? Or not?
You are stormed in another city's airport for two days. How do you pass the time?
How many alternate routes to work can you take that will get you to the desk on time?
Pick a problem that your company has always faced. Write down ten possible solutions.
Let your imagination run wild with ideas and concepts. Logic is not essential. In fact, escaping from the everyday mode of thinking is best. Approach problems and ideas as a child would think about them. Be creative. Let your mind run free and don't judge any ideas until much later. Let the child play, and lock the judge away.
Set aside time for developing new ideas, products, and services. There's money in creativity. Now that got you thinking, didn't it?
Get creative today, and think outside of the standard outside of the box mentality.
Go for the gold, and go far beyond the proverbial box.
