Everybody’s talking (and talking) about innovation. It’s become the buzzword du jour—and losing much of its meaning via overuse. Well, maybe it’s time to stop thinking so hard about innovating and try some creative problem-solving instead. The truth is, no matter how you label it, you have practice, career and even personal problems that cry out for a new approach.
So for this Friday Five, we’re taking a few leaves from the creativity professionals’ books with five ways to think differently about what’s bugging you—or holding you back—and generate some solutions.
The Power of Upside-Down Thinking
Author and speaker Dale Dauten is quoted as saying, “The history of ideas is just a long, banana-peel hallway.” And that says it all. It’s risky. You could get hurt. But it’s also classically humorous. So let’s have a little fun and figure out how to flip the creativity switch in your head and launch into problem-solving mode.
WARNING! These exercises are guaranteed to produce interesting ideas. Some good, and some really, really bad. The quality of the idea—and its ability to transform your practice—rests with you.
- Cancel the meetings. Asking a creative person to produce a good idea in a large meeting is like putting a comedian on the spot by insisting, “Say something funny!” It doesn’t work. And it ticks off the people you ask. Go have a latte instead. Draw on napkins. Make paper airplanes. Pass notes.
- Make hamburgers of sacred cows. Figure out which parts of that tough nut problem situation are ironclad, carved in stone and unchangeable. Then change them. Or play with the concept of changing them. Just see what happens. Shaking loose those sacred cows may be the most inspiring thing you ever did. Next thing you know? “Aha!”
- Find fresher minds. Give your eight-year-old and his friends some chocolate milk, paper and markers. Describe the problem to them in simple terms. Ask them to draw pictures of what they would do if it was them. Nine times out of ten, they’ll go straight to the heart of the matter. (While thinking about kids, go watch this. 10,734,589 people can’t be wrong.)
- Behave like a kid yourself. Daydream. Draw pictures. Pass notes—sharing ideas leads to collaboration. Question authority, even your own. Set up a flip chart in your office and scribble on it whenever the spirit moves. Leave it there. Add. Refine. Toss. Frame.
- Look at it upside-down. Think this doesn’t work? Next time you do a crossword puzzle, switch it around halfway through and see if you don’t find previously unfindable answers. Looking at things from different perspectives raises brand-new ways of solving them.
And if you still want to talk about Innovation, here’s a pretty good invitation.
Merrilyn Astin Tarlton is Partner/Catalyst with Attorney at Work. She has been helping lawyers and law firms think differently about the business of practicing law since 1984. She was a founding member and past President of the Legal Marketing Association, past President of the College of Law Practice Management and an LMA Hall of Fame inductee. She blogs about innovation at www.astintarlton.com.
This post was inspired by an article written by Ms. Tarlton for the July/August 2002 issue of Law Practice magazine.
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