BRAINSTORMING

Brainstorming is one of the most

important techniques to generate
and develop new ideas
Lateral Thinking

Vertical Thinking

Comments that Reduce

Brainstorming to Braindrizzling

Comments that Reduce Brainstorming to Braindrizzling

That won't work
That's too radical
It's not our job
We don't have enough time
That's too much hassle
It's against our policy
We haven't done it that way before
That's too expensive
That's not practical
We can't solve this problem

Suggested Uses of Old Cars as

Equipment for a Children's Playground
Free Association
Take the tires and roll them along the ground.
Get on the roof and use the car as a slide.
Take the seats out and use them as a bed to rest between
activities
Teenagers could take the engine apart and try to put it back
together.
Cut the body of the car up to make a 3-D puzzle.
Make a garden by planting flowers inside.
Use the tires to crawl through as an obstacle course.
Make into sculpture.
Take off the doors and use as a goal for hockey.

Osborn's Checklist for Adding New

Ideas
Adapt?.... How can This (product, idea, plan, etc.) be used as
is? What are other uses it could be adapted to? Modify?....
Change the meaning, material, color, shape, odor, etc.?
Magnify?.... Add new ingredient? Make longer, stronger,
thicker, higher, etc.? Minify?.... Split up? Take something out?
Make lighter, lower, shorter, etc.? Substitute?..... Who else,
where else or what else? Other ingredient, amterial, or
approacj? Rearrange?.... Interchange parts? Other patterns,
layouts? Transpose cause and effect? Change positives to
negatives? Reverse roles? Turn it backwards or upside down?
Sort? Combine?.... Combine parts, units, ideas? Blend?
Compromise? Combine from different categories?

Using Osborn's Checklist

Adapt:
Take the hood off and use it as a toboggan in winter
Modify:
Remove the engines and side panels and make gocarts
Magnify:
Over inflate the inner tubes from the tires and use
them to create a "romper room"/jumping pit.

 Minify:
Crush the cars into cubes and allow the kids to climb
on the blocks
Substitute:
Use the car's seats in swings
Rearrange:
Turn the car upside down and use it as a teeter-totter
Combine:
Use the side panels or roof to make a huge canopy
or fort

Other People's Views

Think about walking around on your knees;
how would this change your perspective-that is, imagine the playground from a
child's height.
What was your favorite playground toy?
How could this be mimicked with used
auto parts? Example:
from a child's viewpoint, the intact car
would be an exciting change to pretend to
be a "grown-up." Just take off the doors
and remove other equipment (electrical,
etc.) and let the kids pretend to drive. Just
leave the car as it is!

Random Stimulation

Random Stimulation is a technique which is especially useful if we are

stuck or in a rut. It is a way of generating totally different ideas than
previously considered and can "jump start" the idea generation process
and get it out of whatever current rut it may be in. Random Stimulation
makes use of a random piece of information (perhaps a word culled from
the dictionary or a book, or a random finger placement on one of the
words in the newspaper.) This word is used to act as a trigger or switch to
change the patterns of thought when a mental roadblock occurs. The
random word can be used to generate other words that can stimulate the
flow of ideas.
Example: Our finger fell on the word "document" in a newspaper.

Practicing Creative Thinking

Practice creative thinking by with the following techniques:

Brainstorm ideas to ask another question or suggest another calculation that can be
made for this homework assignment.

Brainstorm ways you could work this homework problem incorrectly.

Brainstorm ways to make this problem easier or more difficult.

Brainstorm a list of things you learned from working this homework problem and what
you think the point of the problem is.

Brainstorm the reasons why your calculations over predict the conversion that was
measured when the reactor was put on stream. Assume you made no numerical errors
in your calculations.

"What if..." questions: The "What if..." questions are particularly effective when used with
the Living Example Problems where one varies the parameters to explore the problem
and to carry out sensitivity analysis. For example, what if someone suggested that you
should double the catalyst particle diameter, what would you say?.