On Lateral Thinking

I understand why some people are so afraid of brainstorming. Coming up with ideas that no one else has thought of before is an intimidating task. But a large part of the intimidation comes from the belief that coming up with amazing ideas is a serendipitous experience.

It’s not by the way. But for some reason, no one ever tells you that.

Brainstorming is a process. Coming up with the ideas during a brainstorm is attributed to a creative method called lateral thinking, which is the polar opposite of the logic-driven vertical thinking that we use to get us through the day. Lateral thinking is about identifying ideas that are not immediately obvious – they can’t be reached by using step-by-step logic. Lateral thinking is about finding connections between previously unrelated ideas or concepts in order to break out of old patterns and stimulate new lines of thinking. It’s a network model on overdrive.

So what sparks imaginative lateral thinking? In my opinion, it’s unexpected stimuli (auditory, verbal, visual, it doesn’t matter). The lateral thinking secret is that if you don’t have new stimuli, you can’t make new connections. Sit around the IC office for an afternoon and you’ll start to realize why this group is so capable at this type of thinking – our interests are so divergent that we continuously generate new and diverse types of stimuli. From sociology to human factors, film noir to robots, graffiti to gaming, and academia to ambient computing, this is an eclectic crowd with a very, very wide set interests.

The Problem with Dandelions

A (brief) moment of honesty – I used to be a really bad at brainstorming. Even worse, I thought I was phenomenal at it. If all you ever knew were dandelions, you wouldn’t realize your were missing out orchids. And when you work in an organization without a disciplined approach to great ideation, you lose the context that allowed you to discern what an original, quality idea looks like.

I used to be into dandelions in a serious way.

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but if your organization brainstorms infrequently, you are probably dandelion-lovers. If you only talk about your own business during these ideation sessions, you dig the yellow weeds. If the only people who attend your ideation sessions are senior managers – dandelions. And if you all reach consensus in the first twenty minutes of your brainstorms, you guessed it – dandelions.

Dandelions are what keep organizations from coming up with breakthrough ideas. And unfortunately, when you don’t know realize that you’re missing out, you’re unlikely to change. I recognize that a single post isn’t going to convince anyone that their organization’s brainstorming practices are flawed, but perhaps I can appeal to your sense of logic. Mastery is an elusive goal that requires practice and dedication. If you agree, then I think you’ll be willing to believe that there’s room for improvement in your brainstorming methods.

Get Stimulated

For experienced lateral thinkers, drawing on a lifetime of diverse experiences and interests to provide that stimuli that inspire creative ideas is natural. For those of us who aren’t quite as renaissance, a little help is always appreciated. It took some serious help from my good friend Matt Milan of Normative and a little orange box.

If lateral thinking is about connecting previously unrelated concepts, then the more concepts you can draw on the less expected the ideas. Teasing experiences out of our subconscious for use as stimuli is not always easy – especially when our peers, managers and clients are all (secretly) judging the quality of our ideas. Working with Matthew, I was taught that it’s okay to use external tools as stimuli in lieu drawing on past experiences to make connections.

And with this, an amazing thing happened – I relaxed, I experienced flow, and I saw orchids for the first time.

Where to Find Inspiration

I’ll re-iterate. Use external stimuli to brainstorm better. Even if you think you’re phenomenal at ideation, I guarantee that drawing from unexpected places will make you better. Don’t be shy or embarrassed about using external tools. Your team will forgive you quickly if you come up with a game-changing idea.

Here are three sources I regularly use when I need some brainstorming stimuli:

Use a randomized list of words. The little orange box I mentioned earlier is what I describe as my brainstorming crutch – a tool called ThinkCube. What is valuable about this tool is that it uses a curated set of words to spark connections (the dictionary is always another more laborious option). Terms like ‘Story’, technologies like ‘RFID’, and concepts like ‘Biomimicry’ injected at an appropriate time can spark completely new lines of thinking. During a previous ideation session, a card that said ‘Puzzle’ allowed my team to completely re-imagine how financial services products are sold.

Use images to spark your imagination. If you’re luck enough to have gotten your hands on our book No One Works Here, you’ll see some of the photographs that have inspired the Idea Couture team while problem solving. If you don’t have a copy, head over to Flickr, use a generic search term like ‘Unexpected‘ in slide show mode.

Crowdsource your stimulus needs. Wikipedia has consolidated the world’s knowledge into one location and introduced the killer lateral thinking tool – ‘Random Article‘. Visit Wikipedia with a problem and use whatever random content they provide as inspiration.

Lateral thinking is a skill that requires practice and inputs. Regardless of how good we think we are at it, there is always room for improvement. People who generate masses of truly original ideas are really just experts at accessing their historical experience. Using external tools featuring words, ideas and images can help level the playing field and help spark unknown connections.

We don’t all start out as ideation experts. If we’re willing to admit there is room for improvement, then we can begin to break out of old patterns of thinking and come up with the brilliant ideas that we are all capable of.  Explore new ways of making connections and shed your dandelion complex.

Throughout my career, I have constantly been amazed that people believe brainstorming is a serendipitous process. Get a dozen people in a room, bring some post-it notes, and you’re guaranteed to leave with an industry-shattering idea.

Brainstorming is easy. And so is coming up with really bad ideas.  Brainstorming well is much, much harder.

The technique of brainstorming, first penned by ad executive Alex F. Osborn, is meant to unlock the hidden creativity in individuals to identify new opportunities. In many organizations, however, brainstorming has lost its luster.  Regardless of the socially accepted rules of brainstorming – generate quantity, remove criticism, combine through association, there are no bad ideas – the process has been bastardized  by many organizations who compound the bad behaviors of looking for shortcuts,  and allowing power differentials to influence outcomes, and sucking the fun out of an enjoyable experience.

Looking for Shortcuts

In many of the brainstorming cultures I have seen, the ideation process stops after first ideas. First ideas are those that sit at the surface – the ones that are often an elaboration on what you’ve seen before, the ones that rehash old ideas that have been thought a million times before.

In a past life, I watched a client accuse an agency of not pitching a new idea in five years. That’s the result of lazy brainstorming.  When five people show up to a brainstorm with ten “first” ideas, there is very little time for good ideation. And with the usual “rush-to-make-a-decision” that we all feel, teams usually settle on the best poor idea.

While most of the folks at Idea Couture can draw on their renaissance interests and learning based discovery through future scanning and ethnography, we can’t all be so lucky. The goal of brainstorming is to unlock real creative power through the formation of lateral connections.

In order to accomplish that, you need lateral stimuli.

Power Dynamics

The hippo effect (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion) is unfortunately a major influencer of the brainstorming process. When ideating with senior management, the dynamics can easily swing to a game of “guess what the boss is thinking”. If the book The Wisdom of Crowds has taught us anything, it’s that dedicating a brainstorm to pleasing one person is not the way to great ideas. Divergent thinking generates new ideas – pleasing behavior creates the Zune.

And even when divergent thinking is accepted, the loudest person in the room can often rule a brainstorming session. There’s always one of them – the person who believes their ideas are the best and isn’t interested in the opinions of others. A brainstorm doesn’t suddenly turn introverts into confident contributors, so getting others to contribute while muting that individual’s voice is one of the greatest challenges in facilitation. The goal of brainstorming is to harness the dynamics of a group by allowing everyone to be heard.

In order to accomplish that, you need to break down power differentials and give all voices a chance to be heard.

Brainstorming Isn’t Fun Anymore

When I was first introduced to the process of brainstorming by an expert facilitator, I felt like I was stealing. Getting paid to participate in this type of activity seemed criminal. My Commerce courses at Queen’s University never prepared me to play in an office.

When you brainstorm effectively, the event is magical, seamless, and incredibly productive. But when done poorly, brainstorming is a painful best. It’s like a grade 8 dance – everyone walks away disappointed after experiencing conflict, fighting and judgment. I went to an all boys school by the way.

Brainstorming sessions are supposed to leave criticism and debate at the door, but only a great facilitator can ensure that this happens. But few corporations appreciate the impact of expert facilitation, leaving the role to a brave few that aren’t given the opportunity to practice as much as they would like to. The goal of a brainstorm is to generate great ideas, and a fun process ensures a greater number of those ideas.

In order to bring the fun back to brainstorming, we need to help our facilitators curate the brainstorming experience.

The Answer – Gamestorming

Brainstorming needs some innovation. I believe the answer is gamestorming.

Gamestorming is a competition-based facilitation technique that several of us here at Idea Couture have been playing with for some time. Designed to deal with the issue of shortcuts, power dynamics, and the lack of fun in brainstorming, gamestorming is a structured process of play-based facilitation that uses tools and rules to break brainstorming complacency.

All games have two core elements – tools and rules. Tools are the things required to play, like cards, tokens, or pieces. Rules are the laws that define how a game is played, like order, responsibilities, and desired outcomes.

By introducing tools and rules into brainstorming, I have witnessed lifeless brainstorms come alive. I have seen how introducing a points system into the process has generated hundreds of ideas from a group who used to produce only dozens. I have experienced HIPPO’s support new hires in delivering creative concepts. And I have watched rookie facilitators run a room with the confidence and composure of a seasoned veteran.

Over the next few months, ideacouture.com/blog will be the place to learn about gamestorming. In this series, I hope to show you how you can harness this technique to rediscover the power and benefits of brainstorming in your organization.