The process
Exploring a problem from different viewpoints can help to improve creativity1. Shown below are some different viewpoints you could use to stimulate your thinking.
The idea is to generate as many ideas as possible by looking at a problem from at least two different standpoints. Once you have the problem clearly expressed in a way that invites solutions (see here for how to do this), the viewpoints below give you several different ways of coming up with ideas.
The structure of the process is first to choose one of the viewpoints and use a 'divergent thinking' mindset (no judgement of ideas, be as imaginative as possible, go for quantity of ideas not quality, and use others' ideas as further inspiration) to generate as many ideas as possible.
You then choose another viewpoint (or make up a viewpoint of your own that you think is particularly relevant) and repeat the exercise to generate more ideas. Repeat this process as often as you like. When you have plenty of ideas, you can apply convergent thinking techniques to pull out the highest quality, most feasible options.(See the briefing page on 'Encouraging Creativity and Innovation' for more details on divergent and convergent mindsets.)
Possible viewpoints
- Objective data
- Soft data, qualitative data, or professional assessment
- Forces: encouraging and/or hindering
- Emotions: ours / others
- Possibilities: opportunities / threats
- Preconceptions: ours / others'
- Futures: our dream / our nightmare
- What would our competitors do?
- What if we do nothing?
The viewpoints are:
Data: What do we know about the challenge we are facing? What hard facts do we have about it, and possible solutions? What do we know that is not exactly a fact, but the experts think is right? What else do we think is likely to be true? What do we have a hunch about?
Forces: What factors external to the team are pushing you in certain directions? What is encouraging you to move in a certain direction? What obstacles might you face?
Emotions: Are there strong emotions connected with the issue and any solutions you might come up with? Emotions inside the team? Outside the team?
Possibilities: As you look at the challenge can you see opportunities? Can you see threats?
Pre-conceptions: Do you have fixed ideas about this challenge or its solution? Are you making assumptions about what will work and what won't? Do others have pre-conceptions that are unhelpful?
Futures: What might happen in your dream scenario? Supposing everything turned out right for the team? What would the dream look like? Supposing everything went wrong? What is your nightmare scenario?
To do or not to do: What would happen if you decided just to continue with the status quo? Would it be so bad? Can you think of another team - perhaps one you admire, perhaps a competitor? What would they do in this situation?
The exercise
(Take about 15 minutes for each viewpoint)
- Think of a challenge you or your team are facing at the moment.
- Formulate the challenge as a question that invites a creative solution.
- Follow the Viewpoints process as your divergent thinking process.
- Select the most promising option - see here for how to select the best.
1. See Vernon et al An evidence-based review of creative problem solving tools: A practitioner’s resource; Human Resource Development Review 2016, Vol 15(2) 230 - 259