When innovators discuss thinking creatively, they mean picking out creative approaches to solve problems - new ways to look at things. How do they do it? How will you do it too? We first must ask which are the "box" is. Only then do we looks at how to get outside it.
The "box" will be the normal method of doing things looking at things. It is the assumptions that just about everyone involved is making. The best way to start thinking as is also then, is to identify and challenge all of the assumptions that comprise thinking within the box.
One of the leading liquor brands was faltering years back, and they couldn't appear to boost their sales. Promotions, lowering the price, getting better shelf placement - these were the "in the box" solutions. Then someone challenged the assumptions, by asking "What if we stopped the promotions and simply raised the purchase price?"
The cost spent my youth as an experiment, and purchasers soon doubled. Actually, particular sorts of liquor are ordered quite often as gifts. Buyers don't want the most expensive one, but they also don't want to seem cheap, so they won't buy products that don't cost enough. Imagine what happens to your profit margins when you raise the price and double the sales. That's the power of thinking not in the box.
Ways To Get Outside The Box
Challenging assumptions could be a powerful creative problem-solving technique. The difficult part is always to identify the assumptions. In case you are designing a new motorcycle, pay attention to assumptions like "speed matters," "it needs to run on gas" and "it needs two wheels," not since you expect to prove these wrong, but because challenging these may lead to creative possibilities. Most likely the time has come to come with an electric three-wheeled motorcycle.
Another way to get to creative solutions is always to "assume the absurd." This really is either fun or annoying, for the way open-minded you can be. All you could do is start making absurd assumptions, then finding methods to make sense of them. The simplest way to do it is as simple as asking "what if."
Imagine if a carpet cleaning business was better off with half as many customers? It seems absurd, but work with it. Hmm...less stressful, perhaps. More profitable if each customer was worth three times as much. Is that possible? Commercial jobs that involve large easy-to-clean spaces (theaters, offices, convention halls) earn more money in a day than houses, with fewer headaches. Focusing on getting those accounts could be the most profitable approach to take - not so absurd.
An additional way to more innovative ideas is to literally do your thinking out of the box. Get out of the house or even the office. Browse around at how other people are doing things. On busses in Ecuador, salesmen convey a product into everyones hands and let them hold it since they do a sales hype. Then you have to give back "your" product or pay it off. It is very effective. How may you use the principle within your business?
The "box" will be the normal method of doing things looking at things. It is the assumptions that just about everyone involved is making. The best way to start thinking as is also then, is to identify and challenge all of the assumptions that comprise thinking within the box.
One of the leading liquor brands was faltering years back, and they couldn't appear to boost their sales. Promotions, lowering the price, getting better shelf placement - these were the "in the box" solutions. Then someone challenged the assumptions, by asking "What if we stopped the promotions and simply raised the purchase price?"
The cost spent my youth as an experiment, and purchasers soon doubled. Actually, particular sorts of liquor are ordered quite often as gifts. Buyers don't want the most expensive one, but they also don't want to seem cheap, so they won't buy products that don't cost enough. Imagine what happens to your profit margins when you raise the price and double the sales. That's the power of thinking not in the box.
Ways To Get Outside The Box
Challenging assumptions could be a powerful creative problem-solving technique. The difficult part is always to identify the assumptions. In case you are designing a new motorcycle, pay attention to assumptions like "speed matters," "it needs to run on gas" and "it needs two wheels," not since you expect to prove these wrong, but because challenging these may lead to creative possibilities. Most likely the time has come to come with an electric three-wheeled motorcycle.
Another way to get to creative solutions is always to "assume the absurd." This really is either fun or annoying, for the way open-minded you can be. All you could do is start making absurd assumptions, then finding methods to make sense of them. The simplest way to do it is as simple as asking "what if."
Imagine if a carpet cleaning business was better off with half as many customers? It seems absurd, but work with it. Hmm...less stressful, perhaps. More profitable if each customer was worth three times as much. Is that possible? Commercial jobs that involve large easy-to-clean spaces (theaters, offices, convention halls) earn more money in a day than houses, with fewer headaches. Focusing on getting those accounts could be the most profitable approach to take - not so absurd.
An additional way to more innovative ideas is to literally do your thinking out of the box. Get out of the house or even the office. Browse around at how other people are doing things. On busses in Ecuador, salesmen convey a product into everyones hands and let them hold it since they do a sales hype. Then you have to give back "your" product or pay it off. It is very effective. How may you use the principle within your business?
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