How to come up with great ideas

A tale from an ideas factory...

There’s a story about a guy in a design agency. For a while, he appeared to do nothing all day but doodle and stare into empty space. Understandably, this frustrated his colleagues. They thought, ‘Why should that guy be able to get away with doing nothing all day?’

Eventually they approached the boss of the agency about the matter. The boss’s response surprised them. “Excellent,” he said, “Make sure he’s comfortable and keep him topped up with coffee. The last time he behaved like that, he came up with an idea that made us millions!”

The power of ideas

As the story above illustrates, ideas are powerful.

You can see or touch an idea, but it has the power to stir you emotionally, and throw a fresh light on old problems.

How do you come up with great ideas?

There is no right or wrong way to come up with ideas. However, you may find these tips helpful:

Brainstorm. Get a blank sheet of paper and, either individually or with colleagues, write down anything that comes to mind. At this stage, you aren’t criticising any of the ideas; you’re just letting your mind run free. It doesn’t matter how silly an idea seems; sometimes apparently silly ideas lead to brilliant solutions, so stick it on the sheet!

The next phase of the process is to analyse the ideas generated, rejecting some and investigating others further.

You may find the results of this process amazing. It unleashes the power of the unconscious mind to generate ideas, and you may find that it uncovers ways of approaching a problem you hadn’t even considered previously.

Don’t expect an instant light bulb moment. Sometimes you’ll think about a problem and the solution will come to you instantly, but sometimes solving a problem takes time. Also, sometimes you’ll need to plough through lots of ideas that don’t work before you find one that does. That’s just the nature of the creative process; don’t take it personally.

Next time you’re struggling to find an idea that works, consider this. When trying to invent the light bulb, Thomas Edison had literally thousands of failures before he found a solution that worked. When asked by a reporter about these failures, he said, “Son, I haven't failed! I've simply discovered another way not to invent the light bulb!"

Stand on the shoulders of giants. Find out what has worked for other businesses that are facing the challenges that you are facing. Your circumstances and theirs will be different, but there may be lessons you can learn from them.

Don’t over-complicate things. If you are a football fan, you probably can think of a player who is creative but who sometimes does an elaborate manoeuvre when a simple one would be better. Be careful to avoid being creative for the sake of being creative; creativity is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

Avoid becoming so emotionally attached to an idea. It won’t love you back, and there may be better ideas out there!

Ask ‘why?’. Let’s say sales are down. A good starting point might be to ask why they are down. Is it because there just isn’t the same demand for your product or service as there used to be? Or is it because a competitor is undercutting you on price? Alternatively, it may be that your marketing is not reaching the people you need to reach.

If you can work out why your sales are down, it will help you to address the problem, and the ‘why?’ approach can be applied to many problems.

Relax. If you try to relax and enjoy the creative process, you’ll find that ideas will flow more easily. Should you find it hard to relax, you might want to consider relaxation techniques such as hypnosis and meditation.

The little thing that makes a huge difference...

A great idea can transform your business.

It can solve old problems and create new opportunities, and be the little thing that could make a huge difference.