DIY Brainstorm Stimulation
You can stimulate your own brainstorms in a hundred ways. A toy manufacturer brainstorms by parking his car beside a playground and watching children at play. A production boss walks along an assembly line, notebook in hand, noting down every idea that occurs to him.
Thumbing through magazines, the indices of technical journals, a catalogue of parts can be stimulating if it bears a relationship to your problem. For example, a chemist might ignite ideas by glancing through a list of chemicals offered by a supply house. While he did it his subconscious might hook up combinations of chemicals he would never have thought of logically.
A writer I know gets ideas by wandering through a library, haphazardly walking from section to section, looking at titles, idly flipping open books, hitting on ideas almost by chance.
A sales manager can brainstorm by strolling through a busy supermarket or department store; an architect by driving slowly past many homes; a city planner by flying over his home town in a helicopter.
One way to brainstorm drugstore displays, for example, is to drop into a dozen drugstores, chat with the owners about what displays they use and why—and then sit in the car and note down any ideas you get, either from talking with the druggist, from seeing competitors' displays, or just by seeing a drugstore in a new light.
Thumbing through magazines, the indices of technical journals, a catalogue of parts can be stimulating if it bears a relationship to your problem. For example, a chemist might ignite ideas by glancing through a list of chemicals offered by a supply house. While he did it his subconscious might hook up combinations of chemicals he would never have thought of logically.
A writer I know gets ideas by wandering through a library, haphazardly walking from section to section, looking at titles, idly flipping open books, hitting on ideas almost by chance.
A sales manager can brainstorm by strolling through a busy supermarket or department store; an architect by driving slowly past many homes; a city planner by flying over his home town in a helicopter.
One way to brainstorm drugstore displays, for example, is to drop into a dozen drugstores, chat with the owners about what displays they use and why—and then sit in the car and note down any ideas you get, either from talking with the druggist, from seeing competitors' displays, or just by seeing a drugstore in a new light.
posted by Lyn Devon at 8:21 PM
0 comments
