Generate more ideas with these simple training techniques
By: Katie Moore
Tags: Ideation, Assumptions, Ideas, Brain, Thinking

Wouldn’t it be great if you could become the ‘ideas person’ — no matter what you were faced with you could find countless ideas for the situation. I am an ideas person, but it didn’t happen by magic. I trained myself to be an ideas person.

First of all, let me dispel the myth that thinking is either ‘left brain’ and analytical or ‘right brain’ and creative.

The original research from the 1960s, which created this myth, is floored. The findings came from a study that investigated cognitive processes of patients whose band of neural fibres that connect the two hemispheres had been cut as a last resort treatment for epilepsy, removing the natural process of cross-communication.

Recent studies have proven that ideas aren’t from a single side. Rather the whole ideation process calls upon different areas of the brain across both sides throughout the task.

And there are 3 areas of the brain used in ideation.

The Imagination Network — this is the area of the brain that helps us build mental images of the past and future scenarios.

The Attentional Control Network — this is the area of the brain that fires up when we need to concentrate, it gives us focus.

The Attentional Flexibility Network — this area helps us switch between the other two networks and helps us consider what’s going on around us.

Science tells us that creating ideas is actually about training our minds in the process of production and using these 3 networks in the right way. To the point where if you continue to ideate, eventually it becomes natural and your brain completes the journey without struggle.

There are two principles for production of ideas that were brought to the fore by James Webb Young in his book A Technique for Producing Ideas:

an idea is nothing more or less than a new combination of old elements the capacity to bring old elements into new combinations depends largely on the ability to see relationships

So, anyone can become an ideas person, you simply need to train accordingly, understand the process, prepare your mind and begin.

Training Lesson 1: Overwhelm your brain

One of my biggest tips (which I do all the time) to get you on the right path is to overwhelm your brain.

The mind is expansive and giving it more than you think it can handle will see it step up to the challenge. Putting your brain into a shock situation will naturally engage more of your creative area than it normally would when it is comfortable. Push past the natural boundaries and that’s when we grow and find out what we’re truly capable of.

Forcing your brain to overthink will wake up those areas of your brain and you’ll automatically start to perform better at ideation moving forward.

How to do it:

Take the problem or scenario for which you are looking for ideas and, as a starter for 10, force yourself to write down 10 ideas — doesn’t matter how crazy or doable they are. At the point of ideation, there are no restrictions to be implemented, just as many thoughts as possible.

If you get to 10, explore each one and create an additional 1 idea off of the back of each of them, so you make it 20… and so on — really really force yourself to come up with more ideas from each one.

When you really have nothing else to write down, do 1 of the following things

Go for a walk Take a shower Do the washing up Do something else mindless

Once one of the above is completed, go back to the paper and run the previous exercise through again, you’ll be surprised at the fact you can suddenly write more ideas down.

Let me explain how why this works… when the brain is overwhelmed with a problem it attempts to pursue the paths of least resistance in order to bring order to the chaos and ultimately you stop thinking. However, when our minds are free engaging in something where it doesn’t need to think, we shed fixed patterns of thinking and our brain automatically explores more creative thoughts.

So the idea of implementing the above tactics is to deliberately switch off — stop thinking about the issue.

Training Lesson 2: Challenge your assumptions

The second set of tactics that will help boost ideation include:

Watching a documentary or 2 about something you know NOTHING about Looking for the opposite side of the story/assumption

This tactic literally means picking an assumption you hold and then going out of your way to find the opposite argument/side to dispute your own.

These tactics force you to think in new ways and this opens up channels that may not be firing.

Training Lesson 3: Become more curious

Now whilst the first two training lessons begin to help you formulate ideas, the most important thing for ideation development as a long term skill is curiosity and imagination. To harness these, there are some simple things you can do daily, which can help you find more opportunities throughout your day.

Here are some basic ways to begin expanding your own curiosity and by extension your imagination:

When you wake up — look at something with ‘fresh eyes’ — we become lazy and with many things we see what we think is there and what is expected. How about you choose something that you see daily and this time look at it in a way you haven’t before.

When you drive to work (or somewhere familiar) — we have a habit of zoning out on a journey we know well, but this time stay in the present. Look at what’s happening around you, pay attention to the little things.

When at work — rather than simply going through the motions of routine look for opportunities to challenge yourself — ask questions such as ‘what’s interesting?’ ‘What’s missing?’ ‘How could this be better?’ ‘What’s stopping me?’.

Socially, when talking to others — ask more questions, even if you think you know the answer — pretend you don’t and see what else you can find.

The more you practice the above steps of curiosity, the more natural it becomes and the better you get at ideation — it’s proven!

Training Lesson 4: Schedule time to think

The final step in the process to becoming a killer ideas person is to actually schedule time to think. It may sound silly and like a luxury but it is proven that giving yourself the time to think can make a massive difference.

If you need proof then one of the most successful executives in the world can provide it. Bill Gates schedules ‘think weeks’ into his diary a few times a year. During this time he removes himself from civilisation and heads to a cabin in the woods for a solo retreat. At this time he disconnects from everything and everyone. He surrounds himself with newspapers, books, reports, industry news and a variety of other literature to ponder. He jots down responses to what he reads and lets ideas flood into the area of his mind he has cleared for them.

Whilst I’m not suggesting taking a week off, I do recommend finding at least an hour or two a week for ideation in a different location — this may even be parked somewhere new in your car — during this time, switch off your phone.

Scheduling time to think without distractions, means you can clear away mental clutter and focus your thoughts. Being in a different environment has been proven to boost creativity simply by the virtue of being somewhere with fresh inputs.

To make this time as useful as possible set yourself a goal and then let your imagination run. If you have 2 hours, you can even use the first to read everything you can find on a topic you are considering. And then use the second hour to just brainstorm crazy, wild ideas forcing yourself to keep thinking. I think you’ll be surprised what you come up with.

The above is in a very quick nutshell my process and tips to improve ideation and things I know you can implement immediately — so what are you waiting for?

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