Sitting with the problem longer

The pressure of meetings, deadlines and things to do can mean we accept the first idea. 

But try and stay with the problem longer. Really pick it apart, with other minds and perspectives. 

It might be easier to fall in behind the first or dominant voice with a solution, rather than offering up something else. 

If you’re leading the meeting, it’s vital that additional contributions are invited at solution time and that those suggestions are welcomed when they’re given. 

Or when problem solving alone, allow time to work longer on the problem, to ponder and wonder over it. 

The race is not for the first or quickest answer. It’s for the most effective solution with the time and resources available. 

If you usually jump in first ... wait. 
And if you usually wait ... step in as soon as you have something. 

When you’re stuck for ideas

It’s tough running on the idea wheel, waiting, searching for ideas. 

We often need ideas for:  
- projects
- business or branding
- writing and blogging 
- product naming
- workshops and meeting activities
- presentations and pitches
- problem solving. 

Every day we need to draw on our creative abilities to add our opinion, get something started (or finished) or make something happen. 

If you’re focusing on doing the work of a task, it’s tricky to then switch over into a more creative way of thinking. 

We might expect the magic will just flow... but no 😢

While there are plenty of tips on how to come up with ideas, we don’t usually think of those tips when we’re under pressure to make ideas happen. 

I’ve shared previously my use of an ideas book: a journal or sketchbook that catches what I’m thinking about. I can fill a book every few weeks! 

Then it’s an easy flick through a few pages and something will connect. The power of our creative mind swings into action, connecting something with something else and ... boom... 💥 an idea is born! 

Wait forever for the perfect idea to show up or better still, collect them as they come to you, whenever they come to you. 

A little more creativity please

You can see I’m a fan of regularly applying the skills of creativity: in thinking, writing and idea generation. 

The World Economic Forum said the top 3 skills we’d need by 2020 would be
- Complex Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Creativity.

In their updated skills list for 2025, creativity features in half of the top 10 skills, in one form or another. 

And here we are… in a world where we’ve been adapting to a global pandemic, working from home, leading remotely, changing business practices, generating new products, serving customers in new ways and ... keeping it together!

Sir Ken Robinson said “...we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it.”

It’s worth putting some of that creativity back in, and learning to be even just a little more creative! 

We need creativity now and for our future and it's worth asking for a little more creativity please, and being able to deliver a little more creativity. 

Could you morph that idea

When we’re problem solving, trying to find a solution to a situation, we usually brainstorm some ideas. 

Working alone or together with others, we throw ideas about, hoping to land on something that’s worthy of following through and implementing. 

So have you tried morphing those ideas? And could you if you had to?

Morphing happens in animation and films as one thing changes gradually, step by step into something else. 

What if one of the ideas on your list could work to solve the problem at hand, but it needed to change? And then change again?

Could you do it? Would you let go of it and let it morph?

Sometimes we hold on so tightly to a decision or idea that we won’t be swayed or moved no matter the potential or the evidence. 

Even when that idea may not be working. 
Even when it could work if it was changed or adapted - even a little. 

Our willingness to morph an idea is powerful given the world we’re living in. 

Look at the ideas you’ve got ready to go. Which of them would you be happy to morph or change? 

And are there any you’re holding on to a little too tightly? 

The need for ideas doesn’t end

Challenges still present themselves. 
Problems are still to be solved. 

Even when we are overloaded with life in general, we may still have to come up with some genius and share our thoughts and ideas. 

Oh but what if
- we don’t feel like it
- we’ve ‘got nothing’
- we can’t think of anything
- we aren’t ‘feeling it’?

We may expect genius to just show up magically when we require it. 

But the funny - or perhaps cruel - thing about ideas is they can arrive when we’re bored! 

As our brain begins to relax from the pressure we put it under, zoooomwhoosh, in comes an idea. 

‘Out of nowhere’, we’ll say. 

This week I worked with a team to help them get bored... and quickly. 

As boredom arrives from a mundane task, their genius fires up and their ingenuity helped solve the challenge they’d been working on. 

They’ve come up with so many resourceful solutions and surprised themselves about how useful boredom can be. 

We can become less frustrated about times or tasks that are ‘BORING!!!’ and instead use them as the space and place where your clever is bubbling away, working on the problem. 

Get bored and use boredom. It’s a valid, relevant and practical strategy. 

OMG so boring !! 😁😁🤣