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DEVELOPING NEW BUSINESS IDEAS50

G Avoid searching for the one ‘right’ answer
G Allow yourself to express wild, crazy, radical and impossible ideas –

it is easier subsequently to tame a wild idea than to breathe life into
a weak idea, and radical ideas offer completely new insights
G Avoid worrying about being logical or correct – relax, indulge your
brain and embrace non-logical thinking
G Ignore the wish to be practical – imagining impractical answers to
‘what if’ questions can create powerful ideas
G Think in pictures – visualise the idea to make it real and don’t be
afraid to use your other senses literally to feel your way towards
further ideas
G Maintain an uninterrupted flow of ideas – treat each idea as a
stepping-stone to the next
G Build, combine and develop ideas or fragments of ideas as they
arise, creating novel associations wherever you can
G Celebrate the playfulness associated with imaginative thinking –
avoid falling into the (left-brain) trap of secretly thinking that
imaginative exercises are somehow frivolous
G Avoid too much detail – ambiguity can be a powerful imaginative
stimulus
G Have the confidence to challenge convention – social norms are
such that you are bound to fear that you will look foolish in
suggesting outlandish ideas which challenge conformity.

ground rules for convergent thinking

G Emphasise the quality of ideas, not their quantity – one workable
idea beats five ideas which cannot deliver

G Avoid waiting for absolute perfection – move good ideas forward
G Apply robust judgement and logic
G Be affirmative – this means thinking about what you like most about

the idea first rather than rushing to identify concerns
G Ignore preconceptions – always go back to first principles to

evaluate ideas
G Avoid the ‘safe’ option as the easy way out of elaborating more novel

and potentially superior solutions