Don’t Be Foolish

Be Practical

Be Serious

Think of Your Image

That’s Not Logical

It’s Not Practical

It’s Never Been Done

It Can’t Be Done

It Didn’t Work for Them

We Tried That Before

It’s Too Much Work

We Can’t Afford to Make a Mistake

It Will Be Too Hard to Administer

We Don’t Have the Time

We Don’t Have the Money

Yes, But...

Play Is Frivolous

Failure Is Final

If you think you have a great idea, don’t let anyone talk you out of it even if it sounds foolish. Don’t let
yourself or anyone else subject you to creativity killers. After all, you can’t do something new and exciting if you
force yourself to stay in the same old rut. Don’t just work harder at the same old thing. Make a change.

2. Think Creatively by Asking the Right Questions

Creativity is largely a matter of asking the right questions. Management trainer Sir Antony Jay said, “The
uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a creative mind to spot wrong questions.” Wrong
questions shut down the process of creative thinking. They direct thinkers down the same old path, or they
chide them into believing that thinking isn’t necessary at all. To stimulate creative thinking, ask yourself
questions such as...

Why must it be done this way?

What is the root problem?

What are the underlying issues?

What does this remind me of?

What is the opposite?

What metaphor or symbol helps to explain it?

Why is it important?

What’s the hardest or most expensive way to do it?

Who has a different perspective on this?

What happens if we don’t do it at all?

You get the idea—and you can probably come up with better questions yourself. Physicist Tom Hirschfield
observed, “If you don’t ask, ‘Why this?’ often enough, somebody will ask, ‘Why you?’” If you want to think
creatively, you must ask good questions. You must challenge the process.

3. Develop a Creative Environment

Charlie Brower said, “A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to
death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man’s brow.” Negative environments kill thousands
of great ideas every minute.
A creative environment, on the other hand, becomes like a greenhouse where ideas get seeded, sprout up,