State the issue in reverse, then brainstorm. Say the question is "How can
we reduce customer/client complaints?" Then it is restated as "How can we
increase customer/client complaints?"
Initially, the brainstorm ideas will be obviously customer/client-hostile
ideas, but as you carry on you will probably identify things that to some
extent are already happening in the company. Once you have a good long
list of all the things that can increase customer/client complaints, you
go through them again looking at how you could reverse them in order to
reduce complaints.
A variation is to try to conceive the worst solution to the original
question. The brainstorm continues, but everyone is trying to think of
lousy ideas that definitely would not work or would make the problem
worse. This can generate a lot of humorous energy in the group as they
heap one bad idea on top of another. But when these atrocious ideas are
subsequently analyzed, some of them can be reversed to generate good ideas
that represent novel for the issue.
Creativity
requires spending time "doing nothing" - workaholism guarantees its
death
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