141 -- Practical techniques for producing profitable ideas
Are you stuck for an idea on your current project? Try
running through these pointers to get those creative juices flowing.
Robert W. Bly Consultant
Here is what you should do: Identify
the problem, assemble pertinent facts, gather general knowledge, look for
combinations, sleep on it, use a checklist, get feed-back, team up, and give
new ideas a chance.
Identify the problem
The first step in solving a problem
is to know what the problem is. But many of us forge ahead without knowing what
it is we are trying to accomplish. Moral: Don't apply a solution before you
have taken the time to accurately define the problem.
Assemble pertinent facts
In crime stories, detectives spend
most of their time looking for clues. They cannot solve a case with clever
thinking alone; they must have the facts. You, too, must have the facts before
you can solve a problem or make an informed decision.
Professionals in every field know
the importance of gathering specific facts. A scientist planning an experiment
checks the abstracts to see what similar experiments have been performed. An
author writing a book collects everything he can on the subject, newspaper
clippings, photos, official records, transcripts of inter-views, diaries,
magazine articles, and so on. A consultant may spend weeks or months digging
around a company before coming up with a solution to a major problem.
Keep an organized file of the
background material you collect on a project. Review the file before you begin
to formulate your solution. If you are a competent typist, use a typewriter or
word processor to rewrite your research notes and materials. This step
increases your familiarity with the background information and can give you a
fresh perspective on the problem. Also, when you type notes you condense a
mound of material into a few neat pages that show all the facts at a glance.
Gather general knowledge
In engineering, specific facts have
to do with the project at hand. They include the budget, the schedule, the
resources available, the customer's specifications, plus knowledge of the
products, components, and techniques to be used in completing the project.
General knowledge has to do with the expertise you've developed in engineering and
business, and includes your storehouse of information concerning life, events,
people, science, technology, management, and the world at large.
In most plants, it is the gray
haired foreman, the 20-year veteran, that the young engineers turn to when they
have problems. This senior worker is able to solve so many problems so quickly
not because he is brighter or better educated than others, but because in his
20 years of plant work he has seen those problems-or similar ones before.
You can't match the senior man's
experience. But you can accelerate your own education by becoming a student in
the many areas that relate to your job. Trade journals are the most valuable
source of general engineering knowledge. Subscribe to the journals that relate
to your field. Scan them all, and clip and save articles that contain
information that may be useful to you. Organize your clipping files for easy
access to articles by subject.
Read books in your field and start a
reference library. Think back to that 20 year plant foreman if he writes a book
on how to troubleshoot problems in a chemical plant, and you buy the book, you
can learn in a day or so of reading what it took him 20 years to accumulate.
Take some night school courses. Attend seminars, conferences, trade shows. Make
friends with people in your field and exchange information, stories, ideas,
case histories, technical tips.
Most of the successful professionals
I know are compulsive information-collectors. You should be, too.
Look for combinations
Someone once complained to me
"There's nothing new in the world. It's all been done before." Maybe.
But an idea doesn't have to be something completely new. Many ideas are simply
a new combination of existing elements. By looking for combinations, for new
relation-ships between old ideas, you can come up with a fresh approach.
The clock-radio, for example, was
invented by someone who combined two existing technologies the clock and the
radio. Niels Bohr combined two separate ideas-- Rutherford's model of the atom
as a nucleus orbited by electrons and Planck's quantum theory to create the
modern conception of the atom.
Look for synergistic combinations
when you examine the facts. What two things can work together to form a third
thing that is a new ideas your chemical engineering work, if you have two
devices, and each performs a function you need, can you link them together to
create a new invention?
Sleep on it
Putting the problem aside for a time
can help you renew your idea producing powers just when you think your creative
well has run dry.
But don't resort to this method
after only five minutes of puzzled thought. First, you have to gather all the
information you can. Next, you need to go over the information again and again
as you try to come up with that one big idea. You'll come to a point where you
get bleary, punch drunk, just hashing the same ideas over and over. This is the
time to take a break, to put the problem aside, to sleep on it and let your
unconscious mind take over.
A solution may strike you as you
sleep, shower, shave or walk in the park. Even if not, when you return to the
problem, you will find you can attack it with renewed vigor and a fresh
perspective. I use this technique in writing I put aside what I have written
and read it fresh the next day. Many times the things that I thought were
brilliant when I wrote them can be much improved at second glance.
Use a checklist
Checklists can be used to stimulate
creative thinking and as a starting point for new ideas. Many manufacturers,
consultants, technical magazines, and trade associations publish checklists you
can use in your own work. But the best checklists are those you create
yourself, because they are tailored to the problems that come up in your daily
routine.
For example, Jill is a technical
salesperson well versed in the technical features of her product, but she has
trouble when it comes to closing a sale. She could overcome this weakness by
making a checklist of typical customer objections and how to answer them. (The
list of objections can be culled from sales calls made over the course of
several weeks. Possible tactics for overcoming these objections can be garnered
from fellow salespeople, from books on selling, and from her own trial and
error efforts.) Then, when faced with a tough customer, she doesn't have to
"reinvent the wheel," but will be prepared for all the standard
objections because of her familiarity with the checklist.
However, no checklist can contain an
idea for every situation that comes up. Remember, a checklist should be used as
a tool for creative thinking not as a crutch.
Get feedback
Sherlock Holmes was a brilliant
detective. But even he needed to bounce ideas off Dr. Watson at times. As a
professional writer, I think I know how to write an engaging piece of copy. But
when I show a draft to my wife, she can always spot at least half a dozen ways
to make it better.
Some engineers, designers,
researchers and business-people prefer to work alone. I'm one of them, and
maybe You are, too. But if you don't work as part of a team, getting someone
else's opinion of your work can help you focus your thinking and produce ideas
you hadn't thought of.
Take the feedback for what it's
worth. If you feel you are right, and the criticisms are off base, ignore them.
But more often than not, feedback will provide useful information that can help
you come up with the best, most profitable ideas.
Of course, if you ask others to
"take a look at this report," you should be willing to do the same
for them when they solicit your opinion. You'll find that reviewing the work of
others is fun; it's easier to critique someone else's work than create your
own. And you'll be gratified by the improvements you think of-things that are
obvious to you but would never have occurred to the other person.
Team up
Some people think more creatively
when working in groups. But how large should the group be? My opinion is that
two is the ideal team. Any more and you're in danger of ending up with a
committee that spins its wheels and accomplishes nothing. The person you team
up with should have skills and thought processes that balance and complement
your own. For example, in advertising, copywriters (the word people) team up
with art directors (the picture people).
In entrepreneurial firms, the idea
person who started the company will often hire a professional manager from one
of the Fortune 500 companies as the new venture grows; the entrepreneur knows
how to make things happen, but the manager knows how to run a profitable,
efficient corporation.
As an engineer, you may invent a
better microchip. But if you want to make a fortune selling it, you should team
up with someone who has a strong sales and marketing background.
Give new ideas a chance
Many business people. especially
managerial types, develop their critical faculties more finely than their
creative faculties. If creative engineers and inventors had listened to these
people, we would not have personal computers, cars, airplanes, light bulbs or
electricity.
The creative process works in two
stages. The first is the idea producing stage, when ideas flow freely. The
second is the critical or "editing" stage, where you hold each idea
up to the cold light of day and see if it is practical.
Many of us make the mistake of
mixing the stages together. During the idea producing stage, we are too eager
to criticize an idea as soon as it is presented. As a result, we shoot down
ideas and make snap judgments when we should be encouraging the production of
idea". And many good ideas are killed this way.
Kenneth J. McNaughton, Editor
The author
Robert W. Bly is an
independent copywriter and consultant specializing in industrial and high-tech
advertising, 450 East 81st St., New York, NY 10028; tel. (212) 794-8731. He is
the author of eight Books, including “Technical Writing: Structure, Standards,
and Style,” McGraw-Hill, 1983. Bly holds a BS in chemical engineering From the
University of Rochester and is a member of AIChE.