Maybe Try Another Solution

What happens when we use the same solution over and over even when the problems change?

We don't really solve new problems that way do we? And yet so often we pull the same old tools out of our tool box and try the same old solutions.

New problems require new thinking. New problems require new solutions.

It's funny how we sometimes keep trying to same solution on totally new problems.

Funny, but not effective.

Let's do better than that. Let's be more creative. Let's develop new ideas.

How do we do that? Here are a few ways:

turn your idea upside down - how would it work reversed?
ask other experts what they think
ask people who are NOT experts what they think
look at the problem as if you were ten years old again. What would you do?
reframe your problem as a goal. How could you achieve that goal.
rethink your problem as a benefit. What would you do to get more of that problem? Now, how would you reverse that?
is the root cause what you think it is? what if it were something different? how do you know?

There are many more ways to stay creative. Go for a walk, look at some art, attend a play (yes, do it!) go to a movie, play an active game -- get things moving within your self and you will likely get things moving within your ideas.

And the ideas are endless. Why settle for less?

-- Doug Smith

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