PURPOSE

To kick start your thinking or extend it further with more radical ideas. You
can use a range of random items (e.g. clock; pen; scissors) or random
words (open the dictionary at a random noun or use a noun from a book)
or pictures.
  

 PROCESS

1. Choose the random item
2. Generate ideas by force fitting the item with your challenge
3. If you generate “crazy” ideas, work out how you might make them practical

 BENEFITS

• Although this technique can appear strange on hearing it, it really can work very well and is particularly good if you are stuck with no ideas at all

 DISADVANTAGES

• Some people can be sceptical about it or treat it as a joke. Ask them to defer judgement

TIPS 

Have belief it can work! If we address a bid situation in a building contractor: “How might
we increase the number of successful bids?” and choose some items from my desk:

• Glass of water – have a display on a river barge and take the clients for a river trip to view your proposals
• Post It notes – print notebooks with the client building as a faint background
• Sellotape dispenser– print client’s telephone number on rolls of Sellotape as freebies

None of these are particularly earth shattering ideas, but we thought of them faster than
we would have done just trying to think of ideas with no stimulus and someone else
might make some of them more radical