Creative solutions

The Box, conceived and designed by the sparky marketing consultancy Omobono for its client, the East of England Development Agency, contains 25 block-busting ideas. Ever get stuck for a creative solution to a problem? What you’ve got is a creative block. To remove it, try the Creative Block, a little box from Space For Ideas. Here are the first 15:

• HEROES
Think of one of your heroes - whether work, music, politics or any other field. What would they do?

• HOW REFRESHING
Is there anything that is at all associated with your problem which you’ve been doing the same way for more than two years? Change that.

• THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY?
Never be afraid to imitate others’ ideas, but never imitate without creating major and meaningful differences.

• ASK THE RIGHT QUESTION
Write the problem down in 6 different ways. The issue may be you’re trying to answer the wrong question.

• MOTHER KNOWS BEST
Ask your mum. Even defining the problem in terms that she would understand provides a different way of looking at the issue.

• TIME GENTLEMEN PLEASE
Set an arbitrary deadline (say 6 minutes) to write down a solution. Split the deadline into 3 time chunks (2 minutes each). Plan the idea for 2 minutes, write it down in 2 minutes then review and refine it for 2 minutes.

• WONDERFUL WORLD
Say ‘wouldn’t it be wonderful if’, and then try to solve the problem. It can often free up your thinking enough to spot the answer. For example, wouldn’t it be wonderful if ‘we could switch on anti-gravity’ or ‘we had the SAS on the project team’.

• THINK BIG
Quadruple the target. Incremental increases and tinkering with margins can limit your thinking.

• GET SPARKY
Stuck? Think about a different problem for 10 minutes to get your thoughts flowing again. For example, if you were to invent a new game for the Olympics, what would it be?

• PLAYING MIND GAMES
Try this mental challenge - say the colour each word is (not what it says):
GREEN BLUE BLACK RED WHITE PURPLE PINK YELLOW BROWN

• BACK TO THE FUTURE
Focus on the business need; technology is only a tool. Can you imagine a solution that doesn’t involve technology?

• GET OUT OF YOUR BOX
Think out of the box, literally. Get up and go for a walk, a jog or a bike ride. It’s liberating, energising and gives you time to think without distraction.

• LOST FOR WORDS
Take a word from a dictionary, thesaurus or a book at random. Write down all the word associations it inspires. Now attempt to link these words to your problem in however convoluted a way.

• A SPORTING CHANCE
Think about a problem you’re facing in a favourite sport or hobby. Then try to read across the thinking to the problem you’re facing now.

• GET A NEW PERSPECTIVE
Stand on your head. Have a lie down. Looking at the world from a different perspective will help break down preconceptions and your standard thinking habits.

Great ideas, aren’t they? Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt had the original concept on which the Box is based; they’re the authors of Oblique Strategies. The ideas above come from people the length and breadth of East Anglia. More soon