A creative mindset alone isn’t going to transform you into a genius. How brainstorming tools can help.
“Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch a little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper.” – David Lynch
When it comes to creativity, you’ve only been getting half the story. Dozens of authors tell you that you need to cultivate a creative mindset. What they aren’t telling you is that a creative mindset alone isn’t going to transform you into a genius. Your brain needs help.
You see, the brain is powerful, but it’s also incredibly habitual. Unless you’re whacked in the side of the head by new stimuli, you will tend to follow the same well-worn thinking paths you’ve always followed. Also, if you’re like most people, you’ll tend to stop brainstorming the minute you uncover the first “right answer” to your creative challenge. Why is that a problem? Because this type of early, promising idea tends to be of relatively low value.
It’s like fishing in the same shallow waters you’ve always visited, to use David Lynch’s analogy. You’ll catch mainly small fish. In fact, you may discover that your favorite location is all fished out.
How to leap out of your creative rut
To generate higher value ideas and solutions, you need to get your brain thinking in fresh directions. You need to think divergently and laterally, considering many different possibilities and perspectives. To catch the big fish, you must go deep, into new, untapped waters.
How do you do this? Fortunately, some very smart people have blazed a trail that we can follow. They have studied how the brain works, and have experimented to learn what works and what doesn’t. They have identified and proven strategies for real-world, game-changing, Big C creativity. It involves brainstorming tools and techniques that are designed to provide your habitual brain with better questions, new perspectives and fresh stimuli.
Here are 10 of the best brainstorming tools and resources you ought to invest in:
Hand-held brainstorming tools
KnowBrainer: If you are looking for a brainstorming tool that is powerful, portable, and low tech, then you ought to check out the KnowBrainer. This tool does an excellent job of leveraging the mind’s capabilities of association to a major advantage. Developer Gerald Haman has spent years amassing and assessing key words and questions that are the most effective at generating ideas, and he has incorporated them (along with evocative images and quotes) into this colorful, fun-to-use flip card deck.
The other thing that makes this brainstorming tool unique is that it is focused on a creative problem-solving process, not just providing you with an assortment of creative stimuli. It contains sections that are designed to help you to clearly define your challenge and investigate your needs, create ideas, evaluate them using a number of criteria, and put them into action.
Whack Pack: Roger von Oech, author of the best-selling creativity books A Whack on the Side of the Head and A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, has sold the companion Whack Pack brainstorming card deck for years. But he also redeveloped this brainstorming tool for smart phones and tablets.
When you click on one of the buttons to begin a creative thinking session, the Creative Whack Pack first displays the “face” side of a card, which includes the title of the creative exercise and a whimsical illustration, adapted from the print version of the card deck. A button at the bottom of the screen enables you to “flip” the card to the opposite side where the exercise is explained in detail, and you are given tips and questions that you can use to put it to work. You can scroll down through the explanation using the flick motion used to scroll through other iPhone applications.
ThinkPak: This brainstorming tool consists of 56 high-quality cards. Of those 47, are idea stimulator cards. Each card has a colorful back, emblazoned with a symbol that corresponds to the type of SCAMPER questions it contains. For example, the modify/magnify cards are colored pink, and contain a square with a small triangle in it, plus an arrow pointing to a second square with a much larger triangle within it. The back side of each card contains a list of questions related to that part of SCAMPER.
Free the Genie: This brainstorming tool is a deck of 55 cards that you can think of as your “personal genie” — a powerful brainstorming assistant that is available to you anytime, anywhere to help you unstick your thinking. Each card contains a principle of breakthrough thinking (examples include “take some risks,” “suspend logic,” and “leverage your strengths”) and some questions or challenges related to each principle.
There are many ways to use the cards — as an oracle, a brainstorming tool and a creative thinking card game. You can use them for group ideation or on your own, whenever you need a breakthrough idea. To utilize the Free the Genie card deck as a personal ideation tool, you can use the “pick a card, any card” technique: Read the card, reflect on its message and jot down your insights and ideas.
Conjure Your Creativity card deck: Do you ever get stuck coming up with creative ideas? The Conjure Your Creativity tips card deck from Unstuck.com can help you diagnose what the problem is, reveal tips and strategies to eliminate or side-step the barrier and start taking one bite-sized step at a time toward a creative solution.
Get the Conjure Your Creativity card deck here
Mobile brainstorming tools
oFlow: Creativity expert and author Tanner Christensen launched an iPhone app called oFlow that contains 100 creative thinking and problem solving techniques, neatly arranged in a virtual card deck. Each time you t open this brainstorming tool you’re presented with a random idea. You can also request a new random card at any time, browse all 100 creative methods manually, bookmark your favorites to use again later, email any of the creative methods to yourself or anyone in your address book, and create a note to store ideas or random thoughts.
Get oFlow here (from the Apple App Store)
Brainsparker is an intriguing card-based brainstorming tool with a difference: It is flexible, expandable and enables you to share your ideas in a variety of ways. To brainstorm, you shake your iPhone or tap the shuffle icon on the home screen; Brainsparker shuffles the 52-card deck. A procession of colorful card backs step across the screen.Tap it to select a random card; it card flips over to reveal its contents, which may consist of words, questions, quotes, actions or images.
Creative Whack Pack: This is the app version of Roger von Oech’s card deck. This brainstorming tool makes the most of the iPhone’s user interface, and delivers a fun, engaging user experience. When you click on one of the buttons to begin a creative thinking session, the Creative Whack Pack first displays the “face” side of a card, which includes the title of the creative exercise and a whimsical illustration, adapted from the print version of the card deck. A button at the bottom of the screen enables you to “flip” the card to the opposite side where the exercise is explained in detail, and you are given tips and questions that you can use to put it to work.
Get the Creative Whack Pack here
Creative problem solving techniques
Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko: there’s one book I turn to again and again for creative inspiration: Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative Thinking Techniques by Michael Michalko. Thinkertoys contains an amazing variety of unconventional, ingenious techniques for approaching challenges from fresh perspectives and generating valuable ideas for solving them.
Five Star Mind: Games & Puzzles to Stimulate Your Creativity & Imagination by Tom Wujec: Five Star Mind illustrates a wide range of approaches to unlock and expand your creative potential. Using puzzles, visualizations, relaxation techniques, games of “What If,” and continual questioning, Five Star Mind cajoles you into realizing and applying your inherent power for creative thought and expression.
Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity: Keith Sawyer. creative journey, exceptional creators, creative abilities, and world-changing innovations to create an accessible, eight-step program to increasing anyone’s creative potential. Sawyer reveals the surprising secrets of highly creative people (such as learning to ask better questions when faced with a problem), demonstrates how to come up with better ideas, and explains how to carry those ideas to fruition most effectively.
Conclusion
As you can see, you don’t have to go it alone. You have numerous options to help you activate, stimulate and get the most creative ideas from your muse. And they’re simple to use.
So what are you waiting for? If you need to elevate your thinking to tackle some vexing challenges, why not invest in one or more of these brainstorming tools to help you generate some breakthrough insights and ideas?