Page 81 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

\ ► lk\ it the ten %vont!, e)(.e how each 01 111(.11) give.

1)11 ',twit. insight into your problem. Can you use any to

(Ir„111alogies that could lead to solutions? Take the words

that grab you and use them to brainstorm solutions, or use

them to form new associations that can then be used to brain-

storm solutions. Write your ideas on lines la through 10a.

Creativity consultant Roger von Oech used names of celeb-
rities to trigger ideas. The problem was to develop icons for
a new software package. When Vanna White's name was
introduced, the group thought first of letter turning, then
pretty women, and finally, for some reason, airhead. Bingo!
The new icon was a vacuum cleaner for a function that col-
lected something from one place and put it somewhere else. 8

Regular Association

The difference between free association and regular associa-
tion is that in regular association, the associated word must
somehow be related to the word before it. Thus, "airplane"
could lead to "pilot" but not to "tree." In free association, in
contrast, any word, the first word that pops into your mind,
can be used.

SUMMARY OF STEPS

1. Write down a word (or two) that may or may not represent your
problem or some aspect of it.

2. Write down whatever word comes to mind relative to this word.
3. After completing a series of such associations, study the words to

see if any of them lead to insights or solutions to your problem.

30/4. ATTRIBUTE ASSOCIATION CHAINS

As in attribute listing, this technique begins with a list of the
attributes of a problem. But instead of analytically changing
the attributes as you would in attribute listing, you free asso-
ciate on each attribute to generate ideas about the problem. 9

For example, suppose that the problem is to improve on the
phonograph record as a device for carrying music. You begin
by listing the attributes of the record—its size, weight, color,
composition, cost, and so on. If you free associated on these
attributes, you might look for ways to reduce the weight of the

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