Looking for New Ideas? How to be Creative in Business [5 Ways]

How many times have you sat at your desk not knowing what to do next?

Have you been looking for that different angle to approach a problem and differentiate yourself from the competition?

Do you struggle with creating new ideas?

Creativity Is A Challenge Opportunity

If you have struggled with creativity, you’re not alone. But that’s GOOD NEWS.

If being creative were easy, everybody would be doing it. But since creativity is challenging, it actually creates an opportunity for you and your business.

You can differentiate yourself from the competition if you’re simply a bit more creative than your competitors. And since they are also intimidated by the challenge of creativity, this creates an opportunity for you.

All you have to do is be slightly more creative than they are. And if you follow these simple tips, you can easily improve your team’s ingenuity and creative insight.

5 Ways To Be More Creative In Business

1. Conduct a “Question-Burst” Session

This isn’t your tired, old, boring brainstorming session. It’s totally different.

Well, not “totally” different, but it is a “lot” different … and better.

In brainstorming sessions, you’re just trying to come up with as many ideas as you can. But in a “Question Burst,” you want to be asking questions about the problem instead of trying to directly solve it.

Why questions instead of ideas?

Beginning with questions puts you in a different state of mind with regard to the problem. By asking questions about the problem, you look at the problem from a new angle. And this new angle will often open you up to completely new insights.

Ever had a colleague come up with a great idea seemingly from left field? Did you ask yourself “How did they come up with that?”

Almost certainly, they came up with the idea by asking a different type of question about the issue at hand. So instead of asking yourself how they came up with that answer, ask yourself what kind of question must they have had that caused them to get that answer.

How do you conduct a Question Burst? MIT’s Sloan School of Management professor Hal Gregersen (whose book is the source for the idea of question bursts) suggests you set a 4-minute timer and require 20 questions to be asked. The time limitation forces you to focus solely on questions. And having to generate 20 makes you ‘dig deep’ to ask questions that will reveal new angles.

There is an added benefit to the Question Burst method. Gregersen found that after the Question Burst sessions, the moods of the participants drastically improved. Feelings of frustration were replaced by optimism and excitement.

Human beings evolved as problem-solvers. We had to solve problems in our evolutionary past to be able to eat and escape tigers. As a result, we get a burst of excitement (and probably dopamine) when we solve a problem. And asking questions shows us that the problem can be solved - thus improving our mental state. This leads to a virtuous circle since improved mental states naturally lead to better problem-solving.

My whole field of philosophy is based upon asking questions. Indeed, I often tell my students that my goal is to teach them how to properly ask questions. Once they can do that, they’ll have insights into life that escape most of their peers.

The importance of asking questions is not limited to philosophy. No less an intellectual than Einstein himself emphasized the importance of formulating questions. In fact, his famous theory of special relativity is the result of him asking a different, outside-the-box kind of question about light. If he hadn’t, modern life would look very different (bye-bye GPS, welcome back maps taking up my whole front seat).

At one point, Einstein famously stated “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”

That’s an 11:1 time ratio of formulating a question to finding a solution. If the technique of prioritizing questions was good enough for Einstein, it’s good enough for your business.

2. Use the Inversion Approach to Solve the Problem

Inversion is another way to approach problems from a different angle. Actually, from two different angles, since there are two different types of inversion. In both cases, you’re going to be working backwards - thus the name ‘inversion.’ And by going backwards, you’ll be able to more clearly see new and creative solutions.

The first way to do inversion is to think about how the world or business operations would look if the problem were already solved. Once you’ve adequately imagined that, work backwards to see what would have needed to happen to reach that point. By doing so, you’ll be able to find a new, creative way to solve your problem.

A famous example of this type of inversion (recounted by Rhiannon Beaubien and Shane Parrish here) is how Lucky Strike cigarettes was marketed to American women in the 1920s. At the time, few women smoked. The American Tobacco Company hired public relations expert Edward Bernays to create a marketing campaign to turn females into customers.

Bernays began with inversion - he wondered what the world would look like if women already smoked. He decided that in such a scenario, cigarettes would be on dessert menus in restaurants. In addition, kitchen cabinets would have dedicated cigarette compartments. He set about to bring about these particular changes, and cigarette sales to women subsequently increased.

The other way to do inversion is to work backwards by asking yourself how you could make the problem impossible to solve. Or what you could do to make the problem worse. Then, actions that are the ‘inverse’, or opposite, of those actions may be clever ways to solve the problem.

Do you want to improve the attitude of your coworkers? Think about how you could ruin their attitude and decrease their motivation. You could speak negatively of their performance within earshot of their superiors. You could impute the worst motivations to them. You could insult their family and go out of your way to point out each little mistake they make.

Once you’ve done that, you’re already on your way to figuring out how to solve your problem. Increase co-workers’ motivation by going out of your way to compliment them to their superiors within earshot. Work under the assumption that they have the most noble motivations. Give a random compliment to them about their family. Be sure to point out something they did well (even if their doing this well was ‘expected’ and ‘part of the job’).

One of the most famous speeches in recent history was an 'inverted’ speech. In 1986, Charlie Munger delivered the commencement speech at Harvard. The title? “How to Guarantee a Life of Misery.” His purpose was obviously the opposite. By using inversion, Munger was giving his audience great insights into how to live a happy, meaningful life.

Ever attempted to solve a maze by going backwards? It was easier, right? That’s the power of inversion. Don’t neglect to use it. It’s a powerful tool that should not be wasted.

3. Make 10 Ideas Lists

I know I dismissed the traditional idea of brainstorming earlier. This particular version of brainstorming has been so effective in my own life, however, that I would be doing you a disservice by not mentioning it.

The idea of a “10 ideas list” was popularized by James Altucher. He suggests that every day you come up with 10 ideas about a topic in order to exercise your ‘idea muscle.’ Once you’ve done this over a short amount of time, you’ll realize that your ability to come up with new, creative ideas improves dramatically.

Even though this idea may sound weird, I can tell you from personal experience that it works. I started my 10 ideas lists shortly after reading his book and quickly found myself being much more creative. I came up with ideas I could never have imagined creating before.

I don’t know if there’s an ‘idea muscle’ per se, but doing this exercise each day definitely increases your ability to think creatively. In fact, many of the ideas I use for my clients, for teaching my “Philosophy for the Business World” class, and for writing these blogs are the results of doing 10 ideas lists.

I can’t discuss the 10 ideas list idea without mentioning my greatest success with it. It’s not necessarily business related - but very important nonetheless (as I’m sure you’ll agree).

During the pandemic, my wife was celebrating one of her “big” birthdays - you know, the type that ends in an “-0.” Given that everything was locked down, I assumed I would be “off the hook,” so to speak, of having to create some huge celebration.

I was wrong!

It was made very clear that pandemic or not, this birthday needed a proper celebration.

Given my limited options, I sat down one afternoon and decided to create a 10 ideas list for gifts and celebrations.

I CRUSHED IT!

I had a few ideas that were seemingly divinely-inspired. I have no idea how I came up with them, but I’m thankful my idea-muscle came through when it “really” mattered! (If you want to know what I did, or if you need “birthday gift idea consulting,” you contact me here.)

If you want to be more creative, come up with a 10 ideas list every day.

Don’t know what to write about? Start off with that! Create a “10 ideas of topics to create 10 ideas about” list. Start to exercise your idea muscle, and encourage your employees to do it too.

When I teach my philosophical business consulting class, we start off each class session with a 10 ideas or 10 questions exercise.

Of course, the 10 ideas list isn’t used solely to build your idea muscle. Use it to solve a problem you’re facing. Have everybody on your team come up with 10 distinct ideas about how to solve it.

The key to doing this correctly is not to give up at #7. Go all the way to #10. You’ll probably realize that the first 6 or 7 ideas are easy to come up with. Once you get to #7 or #8, though, you brain starts to stall. Sit there and make yourself come up with something. Expect that you will have 2 or 3 more ideas (because you will!). Often, this is when the best, most creative ideas occur. It usually only takes a couple more minutes. It’s a bit painful (mentally), but the payoff is substantial.

What are you waiting for? Start writing a 10 ideas list (and let me know when it has helped you).

4. Think in Terms of Extremes

This is another good exercise that reveals new angles from which to solve a problem. Take whatever problem you’re dealing with and impose some sort of extreme limitation on your time or resources. Then think about how you would solve the problem given this limitation. By doing so, you’ll often see a new way to go about solving the problem without the extreme circumstance.

For example, let’s say you have to reduce your budget by 10% within a year. Think about how you would reduce the budget by 10% if you had to do so within a month? Or by the end of this week? If it was absolutely necessary to cut out 10% by Friday, what would you do?

Alternatively, let’s say you have a $10,000 marketing budget. How would you market if you only had $1,000 instead of $10,000. What would be essential?

If you typically use a vendor to carry out a particular business function, what would you do if that vendor went out of business tomorrow? How would you complete the task if you had to perform it without the vendor you typically use?

The point of this exercise is to jump-start your creative processes. You won’t ‘actually’ have to work under these limitations. But by considering what you would do if you did have these limitations, you’ll discover new insights.

5. Avoid False Dilemmas - Assume a 3rd Option Exists

In philosophy classes, we teach students to watch out for a fallacy called the “false dilemma.” A false dilemma is when you assume you only have two options and you must choose one or the other.

For example, I often tell my students that Winona Ryder either hates me or loves me. And I know she doesn’t hate me. Therefore, I can conclude the Hollywood actress loves me!

Of course, I haven’t moved out to Hollywood yet to date Winona because my argument is a false dilemma (and because my wife would kill me.). Her loving or hating me aren’t the only two options. I left out that she could also not even know about me (or worse yet, that she could like me “as a friend”).

False dilemmas are dangerous because it’s our natural instinct to ‘crawl inside’ the false dilemma once we have identified two options. We get ‘inside the box’ of trying to decide which option is better without ever pausing to realize that there may be a 3rd option we never thought about (if you want a fancy philosophical term, call the 3rd option a “tertium quid”).

If you want to “think outside the box,” imagine you are always in a false dilemma. Whatever options you are considering, just assume that there must be some other option out there. If you could choose neither of the two obvious options, what would you do?

If you assume there is a 3rd option and that you are prohibited from choosing either of the two obvious paths forward, you will be surprised at how often you come up with an idea that is completely novel and outside the box. Indeed, this is how many innovations have come about.

You Can Invent New & Creative Ideas in Business

If you stop viewing creativity as a challenge and regard it instead as an opportunity, you’ll soon realize that coming up with new ideas is a good way to distinguish yourself and your business.

Everybody else out there is struggling to create new ideas. If you use these 5 ways to foster creativity and inspire innovation, you have a head start on them.

Don’t give up your lead. Start creating new ideas today!

If you would like help implementing some of these ideas in your business to become more creative, Contact me.

Did you find these ideas useful? If so, let me know how they helped your organization. Read my other blog posts here. Sign up for my weekly newsletter HERE for more tips to optimize soft skills in your business environment. You can also follow Philosophy 4 Business Leaders on LinkedIn and browse my website www.philosophy4business.com. Finally, share this blog with others through your social media channels by clicking the relevant icon below.