In Mitch Ditkoff’s article, “14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas” http://changethis.com/, he looks at the creative process and suggests ways to enhance this process. According to Ditkoff, people spark innovation. In order to get new ideas, you need to realize where ideas come from in the first place and get out there and. There are two schools of thought. The first is that you can make up new and different ideas if you will yourself to do so. The second, ideas are not created, but already exist and must become accessible to other human beings. Ditkoff goes on the lay out a 14-point plan for generating ideas. The plan includes; follow your fascination, immerse, tolerate ambiguity, make new connections, fantasize, define the right challenge, listen to your subconscious, take a break, notice and challenge existing patterns and trends, hang out with diverse groups of people, brainstorm, look for happy accidents, use creative thinking techniques, and suspend logic.
Three of the fourteen suggestions stood out and spoke to me, in both positive and negative ways.
1. Immerse
Breakthrough ideas come at odd times, so we are not always ready to receive them according to Ditkoff. In order to counteract this, we need to immerse ourselves, by becoming completely involved or absorbed in something.
Of his fourteen suggestions, this is the only one I disagree with. When I am working on an idea or stuck, the last thing I want to do is immerse myself in the problem and I find it is the least helpful. I also do not think this is a very inventive or helpful idea, because most of us who are looking for breakthrough ideas are already immersed in our own thoughts and ideas. I find immersion more helpful when trying to get something done or learn as much about a subject as I can, but as far as generating ideas, I think it is a waste of time and something that most of us have already tried and we are still stuck. When you can think or your great idea, obsessing about it is not going to help, it jst make you more frustrated.
6. Define the Right Challenge
“It’s not that they can’t find the solution, they can’t find the problem!” – G.K. Chesterton
Ditkoff says that most people in their hurry to find a solution, forget to frame their challenge in a meaningful way. Coming up with the right question is at least half of getting the right answer. To generate a breakthrough idea, you need a question that “communicates the essence of what you’re trying to create.”
While reading the article, this is the one suggestion that really stood out to me above anything else. I have a tendency to get stuck trying to solve problems without looking at the bigger picture or I end up overlooking the question I am trying to solve. Be reframing a problem and looking at it from a different perspective, I think this tactic could be very useful in generating ideas, but sometimes coming up with a great question is just as difficult as coming up with a great answer.
I have already started to implement this suggestion in my own creative life. I am in the process of writing a short script and I have been so stuck in my own head and having trouble getting ideas on paper, I decided to frame my problem by asking myself, “What am I trying to create?” The answer was quite simple, I want to create something with meaning, a story that will make people think.
10. Hang Out with Diverse Groups of People
Ditkoff states that most of us tend to stay within familiar groups of people, whether they agree with us, report to us, or are joined to us at the hip. However, diverse inputs are essential to the development of breakthrough ideas. To increase our chances, we need to break the bonds of the familiar, hang out with a different crowd, seek the input of oddballs. If we can let go of our need for comfort and agreement, we will likely find ourselves with new ways of seeing, thinking, and acting.
This is one of the most repeated and obvious suggestions when it comes to generating new ideas, but it is one of the most helpful. Just talking about different subjects or hearing a new opinion, one different from that of people you talk to everyday, can spark new ideas and even lead to think in new and different way. Anyway in which you vary or stray from your normal routine is helpful when trying to come up with the next great idea. Obviously, our old way of thinking and doing is not doing the trick, so spicing up our lives is ideal. It can only heighten our senses and make life more interesting if nothing else.
Prompt 10
Make a list of ten people (or groups of people) outside of your traditional “posse” who you can spend time with this month. Who’s first? When?
- Elderly
- Exchange Students
- Professors
- Handicapped
- Eden
- Sigma Alpha Lambda Girls
- Townies
- Graduate Students
- Non-Ohioans
- Old Friends
The elderly come first, because I rarely spend time with anyone not in their 20s and I find their lives very interesting and have always enjoyed spending time with the elderly. I just have not made a point to do this. I always find I leave thinking about something I would not have normally considered and many older folks have great insights and amazing stories. I am going to call today and make a date with GoodWorks Senior Life program to go talk with elderly people in the Athens community.
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