Page 152 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

1. The Excursion. I IH leader instructs cach nicinber of the 101
group to take an imagined excursion into or through sonic CREATIVE
physical location that has nothing to do with the problem at PROBLEM
hand. Normally the leader asks participants to close their SOLVING
eyes and use their imagination for this journey, which may TECHNIQUES
be through a museum, a jungle, a city, or any other kind of
place, real or imagined. For example, a Star Trek journey 137
through space and to unknown planets is popular with some
problem solvers. 26 The ability to let go and create visual im-
ages is critical to the success of this part of the exercise. If the
leader is not confident that all members of the group have
this ability, he or she might offer some brief instruction and
encourage people to give them imagination free rein. Par-
ticipants are asked to write down what they see during their
excursion. The excursion itself need not last more than five
or ten minutes, but it is important for participants to record
detailed descriptions of what they see. I recommend that
they draw three columns on their papers and write what they
saw on their excursion in the first column. If they prefer,
group members can record as they go rather than after the
excursion is finished.

2. Drawing Analogies. When the excursion period is over,
the leader asks participants to take ten to fifteen minutes to
draw analogies between what they
saw during the excursion and
the problem as defined. Par-
ticipants are not limited to
analogies; they can express
the relationships between
their visual images and the
problem in other ways if
they wish. They write their
analogies or other relationships
in the second column opposite
each of the items they saw.

3. Evaluating and Under-
standing. Now the leader
asks the participants to deter-
mine what the relationships de-
termined in step 2 really mean