Try lots of different techniques: Working on your own and coming up with a list.
Asking yourself questions about how they are similar in shape or
colour or process or any other thing you can think of.
Brainstorming.
Focusing on one aspect of either of the two areas.
Getting up, walking around, and seeing if the problem looks differ-
ent when you are on your feet.The kinds of ideas you might have come up with would include: Both use money.
You go to jail if you don’t pay up.
There are risks involved.
You “go round in circles” when playing Monopoly and when trying
to save money.
When you pass “Go” you get money and when you do something
to cut costs you get money.If at any time the connection you are making between the two
items gives you an idea, capture it. What tends to happen is that to
begin with the ideas are quite obvious. After a while the thinking
starts to deepen. Someone might notice that the houses at one end
of the board are cheaper than those at the other end. This could
suggest to you that the best way of cutting costs would be for you
to move offices to cheaper ones and make a significant saving,
rather than spending so much of your time talking about making
minor cuts.
Games like these are a good metaphor for what needs to hap-
pen in a creative organization. Peter Drucker talks of taking “a sys-
tematic leap into the unknown.” Certainly there is much that is
unknown, but equally there is much that can be done to make
creativity more systematic.Try this technique out on some of your most pressing business issues and see what happens.168 Power Up Your Mind