same twenty-five high-quality ideas? The answer: not very high. The sequential approach
relies on pure chance to produce a high-quality idea. It is more logical to increase the
odds by first listing as many ideas as possible. You always can go back and evaluate them
later. Moreover, each idea you list can help spark other ideas. So if you defer judgment
and shoot for quantity, you may produce 125 ideas. Now what are the odds that one of
those is a high-quality one? The answer: very high. You don’t need to be a statistician to
figure out this one.- The Wilder the Better
Although idea quantity is essential for idea quality, it may not always be sufficient. You
can’t always rely on the laws of probability. Thus, you need to free your mind and turn
off censors and shake off constraints. Shoot for wild, crazy, silly, off-the-wall ideas. These
ideas—and the ones they spark—are the ones you need for high-quality, winning ideas.
Don’t worry about practicality when generating ideas. Remember, you’re supposed to
separate generation and evaluation. Instead, focus on how many wild ideas you can think
of. Some conventional ideas are O.K., too. But don’t make a habit of it. Go for the unusual
and see what results. - Combine and Improve Ideas
Another way to ensure high-quality ideas is to not let your ideas get lonely. Give them
relatives and friends. That is, use your natural powers of free association and see how
you can combine an existing idea with another one to form a completely new idea. Or
encourage your ideas to be all they can be. Empower them to use their full potential. Take
an existing idea and try to improve it. How else might it be implemented? What could
you substitute, change, reverse, or make larger or smaller? What would make it better?
Go for it and you’ll increase your IQ (Idea Quotient) and generate better ideas as well.
NOTE: FOR ALL ACTIVITIES, REMIND PARTICIPANTS
TO DEFER JUDGMENT WHILE GENERATING IDEAS.248 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving
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