Whether you are about to write a new article, thinking about how to re-organize an existing process in the workplace or marketing a new service, what is often needed is a new lens, a new way of doing things. But how does one go about looking at things differently? How does one “acquire” creativity on demand, when needed? Here are 3 key strategies…
Focus on what you want
It’s amazing how it becomes easier to be able to achieve something new when we start focusing on what we want or aspire to, rather than thinking about what we don’t want or what is not working. People who keep thinking about how they don’t want to be overweight are less likely to succeed compared to those who can imagine and visualize clearly the kind of fit person they want to be.
The power of intention creates new non-linear possibilities.
Ask questions
It is sometimes said that young children of age 6 ask around 100 questions a day. By the time we reach adulthood, we stop asking questions and if we do, it is usually around 3-4 a day. Questions we ask, questions others ask – all of these generate possibilities and divergent thinking. Seek out what others think, not just in your immediate vicinity bit also in other organizations, in the industry, in other countries.
A young technology entrepreneur in the US asked himself the question “why do we need food?” and is now heading a start-up to create a powder supplement to replace food. The start-up has already attracted USD 1 million in crowd-funding.
Invert the Proposition
A former corporate manager and his colleagues who had setup a new business venture asked the question “what would happen if instead of the seller, it is the buyer who sets the price?”. This question led to the idea of a reverse auction, where someone for example will offer USD50 for a ticket on a particular day to their desired destination and half a dozen airlines with spare seats on that day will respond.
I guess when Jack Welch said ask your self WHY five times in his book Winning, he was right, you will go from a very large perspective of idea to more narrow target which can then be moulded.
I guess now people have less time to learn from others, a much less expensive road, yet prefer to find it the harder way and thus not only lose focus but the will and energy too, the two most important sources of an individual’s road to success.