Have you ever felt really stuck when trying to solve a problem in your life?  Maybe you feel like you only have two options, and you don’t really like either one of them?  

You might just need more options!

At the heart of creative problem solving is the belief that there are more options for addressing an issue than those which present themselves up front.  In most situations, there are unconventional choices that just might perfectly address the challenge at hand.

However, those unconventional choices usually don’t immediately come to mind.  They’re shy.  They need a little coaxing to come out to play.  

In this blog, we’ll explore some of the ways that we can bring those creative ideas into the light.  I’ll share an example from my own life, and I hope it will help you use these tips on a problem in your work or personal life.  

Quick Recap:  Creative Problem Solving 

Let’s start with a quick recap of the most important foundations for creativity and creative problem solving.  

• Creativity is a mindset, a process, and a set of tools.

• Creativity can be learned, and everyone can be creative.  

• Creative problem solving requires divergent thinking (generates ideas and options) and convergent thinking (evaluates ideas and makes solid decisions).  

• The starting point is always seeing problems as questions. 

There are four distinct stages to creative problem solving.  

1. Clarify:  Identifying the issue, expanding understanding with related data, and formulating the real challenge to be addressed.

2. Ideate:  Generating ideas that may address the challenge.

3. Develop:  Evaluating, strengthening, and selecting a solution to be implemented.

4. Implement:  Exploring acceptance and identifying resources and action steps to implement the selected solution.

Last week, we took an in-depth look at the Clarify stage.  Now it’s time to generate some new ideas in Ideate.

Ideate

In this second stage of the creative problem solving process, we generate ideas that answer the challenge question that came out of the Clarify stage.

The goal of this stage is to produce a large quantity of possibilities from which you can choose one (or more) to continue to work with in the next stage (Develop).  

It’s worth emphasizing up front that the end result of this stage is one or more ideas that may solve the challenge.  The end result of this stage is not to have a fully developed solution to the challenge.  Remember, there are still two more stages after ideation!  

All ideas will need further development and refinement… and we’ll get to that next week.  (I promise.)  But first, we have to engage in fruitful ideation… otherwise, we’ll have nothing to develop!

Diverge

As with the Clarify stage, we begin with using divergent thinking.  Here, our goal is to generate a long list of ideas.  

This is often where people say, “Oh, I’m not good at that.  I’m not creative.”

Now it’s true that some people have talents that make it easier for them to engage in ideation.  For example, in the world of CliftonStrengths®, there is even a talent theme called “Ideation®!”  People who lead with Ideation are fascinated by ideas and can easily find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.  They naturally think outside the box and they get energized whenever they come up with a new idea.  If you’re a person with this talent, you’ll probably find divergent thinking easy and fun.

There are other talents that might inadvertently “get in the way” of divergent thinking.  For example, I lead with Deliberative®, which makes me careful and vigilant. I take time and great care to think through the pros and cons of each alternative when making a decision.  Divergent thinking can be challenging for me.

But there’s good news…  (and you’ve heard it before)

Creativity is a mindset, a process, and a set of tools, and creativity skills can be learned and enhanced.  

There are guidelines that help to foster divergent thinking.  Following the guidelines can help to give some direction, energy, and momentum for divergent thinking.  

Defer Judgment – During divergent thinking, we focus only on adding ideas, and do not allow any judgment – positive or negative – about any idea shared.  

Why is this important?  

Nothing kills creativity faster than mocking, eye rolls, derisive laughing, or “We tried that before and it didn’t work.”  When people feel embarrassed, self-conscious, insecure, or ashamed, they shut down and withhold their ideas.  

However, the second-fastest way to slow or shut off the flow of ideas is to offer premature positive affirmation.  Why?  Because if the group seems to like someone else’s idea (as evidenced by comments like “Ooh, I love that,” or “We should totally do that!”), then why should I bother tossing in my idea (and risk it being met with total silence)?  

Positive affirmation can be offered during divergent thinking exercises, but it should be aimed at the group’s effort or the ideas collectively, not toward any one idea in particular.

Now for those of you who (like me) have natural critical thinking talents, it’s important to note that deferring judgment isn’t the same as not judging.  It’s just holding off on that until the right time.  Knowing that there will eventually be a time for looking at pros and cons makes my Deliberative talent very happy, and it makes it easier for me to engage more freely in divergent thinking.

Combine and Build – Use ideas as springboards to other ideas, building, combining, and improving as you go.  Sometimes the most innovative ideas are actually tweaks of a previous idea.

Seek Wild Ideas – There’s great value in stretching to include wild ideas.  While these may not work directly, they might inspire another idea that will work that wouldn’t have come from a more conventional thought.

Go for Quantity – a longer list of potential ideas is more likely to result in a novel and effective solution. 

These guidelines should be followed whether you are working with a group to address a problem or you are doing some creative problem solving on a personal problem.  Even if you’re the only one ideating, you’ll still want to defer judgment, combine and build, seek wild ideas, and go for quantity.

Brainstorming

One of the most well-known tools to spur divergent thinking is brainstorming.

Fun fact:  Brainstorming was invented by an advertising executive named Alex Osborn, right here in my hometown of Buffalo, NY!  Osborn developed the process from the late 1930s through early 1950s and introduced it to the world in his book, Applied Imagination in 1953.

The process for brainstorming is simple:

1. Write the challenge statement that resulted from the work in the Clarify stage.

2. Set the following “rules” (based on the guidelines for divergent thinking):

• Defer judgment 

• Write ALL ideas down

3. Encourage the group to combine and build and to go for wild ideas.

4. Set a target number of ideas and a time limit.

5. Keep going until you meet the target.  If you surpass the target before time is up, set a new “stretch” target!

Brainstorming My Garden

What does this process look like in real life?  Well, the image that goes with this blog is my real-life brainstorming with virtual sticky notes!

I started with the question:  “How might my yard become a place that is neat, colorful, and low maintenance?”

I generated 33 ideas in about 10 minutes on my own.

A few times, I caught myself in the act of “mental editing” (aka not writing an idea down because I knew it wouldn’t work or seemed too crazy), but then I reminded myself of the guidelines to defer judgment and write down ALL the ideas.

I put some wild ideas out there… and other workable ideas came from that.  For instance, “Light the weeds on fire” led to “make a fire pit where the garden is now.”  That’s reasonable and workable.

I combined and built on ideas.  The wild idea of “pave over the entire yard” led to “create a basketball court” (which my husband would enjoy) which led to “pave an area for the hammock” (which I would enjoy and is very appealing…).  

If I would have “phoned a friend” and worked with even just one additional person, I’m confident that working together, we would have more than doubled the number of ideas.

But I’m pleased with the results – and now it’s time to use convergent thinking.

Converge

Divergent thinking gets a lot of attention in the Ideate stage.  But convergent thinking has a role to play, too!

The “converge” step is where critical thinking and judgment can be used!  Here’s a simple way to bring convergent thinking into this stage:

• Review all of the ideas generated; mark those that are workable, innovative, and may solve the challenge.

• Try to keep some of the wild and unusual ideas in the mix.  (Remember, in the next stage, wild ideas can get developed and tamed as needed.)

• If needed, group the ideas that “rise to the top” of consideration into thematic clusters representing paths to solving the problem.

• Choose the cluster(s) that appears to be the best path to take.  Restate it using the starter phrase, “What I see myself doing is…”

• If more than one cluster is appealing and workable, you can move multiple ideas forward into the next stage (Develop) where you can work with them further and eventually choose the strongest solution.

Sorting my Garden Ideas

I’ve sorted all my virtual sticky notes.  Just doing that step was very helpful!  It actually helped me continue to clarify what I really want out of this process, and it helped me begin to envision a different reality in the future.  

After weeding out the ideas (pun intended) that were not workable or desirable, I’m left with four clusters:  hire help, outdoor living space, vegetation options, and fun and whimsy.  I think my final solution will involve some ideas from all four of these clusters, so I have a lot to bring into the next stage.  

Side note:  In this example, another part of my “convergent thinking” process is to consult my husband.  I need to find out how serious he’d be about having a backyard basketball court…

Stay tuned until next week to find out which idea or idea cluster we’ll move forward in the Develop stage!

Conclusion

The Ideate stage typically infuses new energy into the situation.  If you hold to the guidelines – especially the one about deferring judgment – you’ll find that new ideas start to flow.

Next week, we’ll dive into the "Develop" stage, exploring how to refine the “raw material” of ideas into workable solutions.  Until then, I encourage you to practice ideation on one of your vexing problems.  Find a brainstorming buddy, share the challenge statement that you’ve clarified, and have some fun coming up with a long list of possibilities!  

And in the meantime, if you have more ideas for me and my yard/garden, hit reply and let me know so that I can add to my sticky notes!

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