Ideas Area Techniques




Image 1, Creative Problem Solving Model. (Creative Skills Handbook, 2019). 

 None of the techniques from the idea area were presented in any of the creative skills sessions. Therefore, there is no detailed outline of the techniques. 

Force-to-Fit 
The force-to-fit technique is about making a physical or psychological excursion/trip, which is then used as the key source of the inspiration and starting point for the idea area. This excursion could either be short, such as studying an image, which is also psychological, or long and physical, such as visiting a museum or world exhibition. This particular excursion, should then involve associations or bisociations. An association is a non-random connection between related ideas, whereas a bisociation is a fusion between habitually incompatible frames of reference (Creative Skills Handbook, 2019). 

Strengths
  • Clear guidelines on what to do in terms of either physical or psychological
  • Everyone can do it the way they want. Either physical or psychological, which makes this technique suitable for almost everyone
(Personal Communication, 2019).

Weaknesses
  • It takes a longer time than some other techniques. It can have up to a two-hour duration (Louter, 2017).
The Trigger Technique 
The trigger technique can be used in order to trigger the feeling of "Oh yes, that's true", which is very common to think at some time or another. For example, when sitting in a train staring out of the window and seeing the fields, the thought of having forgotten to close the fridge might pop into one's thoughts. Essentially, seeing the fields "triggered" something in the mind that made one remember that one forgot to close the fridge. Often this trigger comes from a specific process. For this particular example it could have been: fields, cows, milk, fridge. Then the response ‘Oh yes, that's true, I forgot to close the fridge', follows. It is never necessary for triggering to be logical. When applying the trigger technique, you will deliberately tap into this effect, on the basis of a structured approach (Creative Skills Handbook, 2019). 

Strengths
  • A lot of interesting ideas can come up from this, since in a group of people, each person might have a different thing that is triggered each time. For example, when thinking of a rose, someone might think about love, whereas someone else may think about the colour red, or the rose hurting, since they might have hurt themselves on a rose thorn before
(Personal Communication, 2019).   

Weaknesses
  • The technique has up to one-hour duration (Louter, 2017).
  • It doesn't suit everyone. Some people might have issues with finding this trigger, and might try to find it rather than letting it come naturally
(Personal Communication, 2019).   

Analogies
Analogies are about distancing oneself from the problem and draw subjects that do not instantly have a connection with the problem definition. Through associating and looking for similarities between those subjects and the problem itself, new ideas will be generated (Creative Skills Handbook, 2019).  

There are different types of analogies:
  • The keyword or catalogue analogy (choose an arbitrary word or object)

  • Bionics or analogy with nature (choose an aspect of nature)

  • The personal analogy (getting close to the problem)

  • The analogy of the book title (the same as 1, but now a book (title)
   
  • The metamorphosis (choose an object with external similarities)

This technique is very similar to force-to-fit (Creative Skills Handbook, 2019). 

Strengths
  • Clear guidelines due to the different types of analogies
Weaknesses
  • Not everyone might be able to draw subjects that are not connected to the problem definition e.g. some might focus too much on the problem definition
  • It is a bit more complex technique due to the different types of analogies 
(Personal Communication, 2019).   

Reversal Technique 
This method is very simple, since all you have to do is reverse the problem by changing the order of the keywords in a problem definition. For example: ‘How will I persuade my clients to buy more each time they visit?’ The keywords in this problem definition are: I, clients, buy, more. Changing the order of the first and third keywords results in the following problem definition: ‘How will buying more, persuade clients to buy from me?’. This particular shift in words, results in a whole new perspective on the problem (Creative Skills Handbook, 2019).

Strengths
  • Very simple
  • Suitable for groups up to 15 people
Weaknesses
  • Perhaps too simple, so there could be a need of implementing other techniques and not just this one
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is one of the most well-known techniques for developing new ideas and being creative. This is also because it has the most variants. Furthermore, the brainstorming technique can be applied in teams, as well as individually, which makes it even more suitable. The brainstorming technique was developed by Osborn, and is relatively easy to use for any situation. The general objective of brainstorming is to develop a large number of ideas for a clearly defined problem in a short time frame without evaluating these ideas. Below is an overview of the variants of brainstorming (Creative Skills Handbook, 2019).

1. Traditional Brainstorming 
This is when each participant provides verbal suggestions on the problem based on the basic rules with which we are all now familiar (postponed judgement, the "more" the "better") (Creative Skills Handbook, 2019).

2. Imaginary Brainstorming
Like traditional brainstorming, but with one important exception: certain conditions or requirements are radically different (Creative Skills Handbook, 2019).

3. Anonymous Brainstorming
Participants are asked to write down their ideas in advance (preferably on post-its). The beginning of the session will focus on evaluation and convergence. Convergence is when participants will group their ideas. The second part of the session will focus on divergent. This is when the various groups of ideas will be taken up for further development (Creative Skills Handbook, 2019).

4. Destructive-constructive Brainstorming
This type of brainstorming, begins with a destructive phase. This means there will be criticizing and a breakdown of anything relating to the problem in some form or another. In the second part of the session, the problem is then constructively built up again: solutions are devised for all of the weak points of the problem (Creative Skills Handbook, 2019).

5. The Discussion 66 Technique
This technique is only possible for very big groups (20-100 individuals). The group will be split up into a number of smaller groups consisting of 6 individuals. Each group will then spend 6 minutes to discuss the problem and will be expected to have developed one idea, to the best of their abilities, by the end of the 6 minutes. Afterwards, these ideas will be presented centrally. The initial presentation is followed by a second and third round and possibly more. In each round different aspects of the problem are discussed, allowing the problem to fully expand and be fully worked out at the end (Creative Skills Handbook, 2019).

Strengths
  • Anonymous brainstorming, is a big strengths of brainstorming, since it avoids the problem that arises from traditional brainstorming, which is the hierarchical differences in a group and a person dominating the brainstorming session
  • There are different types of brainstorming, so a group or individual can select which one fits the best with him/her
  • Popular technique
Weaknesses
  • The dominance of a participant (or participants), dominant ideas, a contribution based
solely on an individual's own area of expertise, hierarchical differences between participants 

(Personal Communication, 2019).   

Brain writing 
The principle of brain writing: each participant records his ideas individually. The other participants then read these ideas and comment on them in writing in the form of variants of the original ideas.

1. The 6-3-5 Method
5 participants will be given 5 minutes to write down 3 ideas. After 5 minutes, the pieces of paper will be passed on and the second round will start. The participants will start to read the ideas already indicated on the form. If possible, these ideas will now be developed further (Creative Skills Handbook, 2019).

2. The Writing Pool Technique
This technique is very similar to the 6-3-5 technique. However, it is different because there are limits in the number of ideas generated. A 'pool' of forms is created in the middle of the table. Each participant will take a first form from the pool, on which they will note down all of their ideas. When a participant no longer has any new ideas, he will return his form to the 'pool' and take a new one from the pool’ (Creative Skills Handbook, 2019).

3. The Collective Notebook Technique
In this technique, the ideas are noted in a notebook on an individual basis. This notebook circulates between the various participants, resulting in cross-pollination (Creative Skills Handbook, 2019).

Strengths
  • The reading of someone else’s ideas also results in cross-pollination, on the basis of which possible new ideas are generated.
  • The brain writing techniques are quite social and are great for group settings
Weaknesses
  • Potential bias - some might like the individual ideas of other's better, because they are friends
  • The collective notebook technique can take weeks to complete
  • There might be too many opinions and solutions
(Personal Communication, 2019).

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