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application requires no special training other than the guidance offered 4 : STEP TWO – GENERATING NEW IDEAS
in this book. The techniques are united by the shared theme of drawing
heavily upon right-brain divergent thinking – the process of generating
many different types of ideas. Table 4.1 below identifies the different
routines within each type of mental workout.

Table 4.1 Types of mental workout and associated individual routines

Type of mental workout # Individual routine

Checklists 1 Davis
2 Osborn
3 SCAMPER
4 The big four
5 Mapping the customer journey

Stimulus material 6 Pictures/objects/words

Combinations 7 Morphological analysis:
G Four on the flat
G Four + on the flat
G Cube-crawling

8 Force-fitting

Free association 9 Brainstorming
10 Mind-mapping

Analogical thinking 11 Transferring an underlying principle
12 Transferring a business process
13 Transferring sub-systems and components
14 Bionics

Upside-down thinking 15 Rule reversal
16 Assumption reversal

ground rules for productive mental workouts

Chapter 2 touched on the ground rules for divergent thinking. Four of
these ground rules are particularly helpful as you attempt each of the
mental workouts. Let’s explore each of these in turn.

ground rule 1: defer immediate judgement and
evaluation Put your left-brain logical and analytical thinking to one

side. Successful right-brain divergent thinking relies on your ability to
suspend analysis and judgement. If you immediately evaluate and
criticise every idea as you generate it, you will automatically limit the
number of ideas you produce and so reduce your chances of generating
a unique solution. It is far more productive to list every idea no matter
how foolish or impractical it may seem at first. There will be plenty of
time later to apply rational judgement and convergent thinking.