1. CREATIVE
THINKING FOR
INNOVATION
Formal methodology to get innovative solutions

2. 1. DEFINE OVERALL GOAL
 “I wish…., it would be great if…”
 Check you have all tree:
 Ownership, accountability or influence over the situation
 Motivation to do the work to implement the solution
 A real need for Imagination? Solution doesn‟t exist; you can‟t just look it up or
get an expert to help

3. 2. KEY DATA: SUMMARY OF YOUR
SITUATION
If you had two minutes to brief someone who was unfamiliar with your
situation about your Goal/Wish, what would you tell him or her?
Some questions to start:
 What a brief history of the situation
 Why this is an opportunity or concern for you?
 Who are the people involved and why?
 What have you already thought or tried?
 What is your ideal outcome?
 What criteria does your solution need to meet?
 What else do you think is important to know about this situation.

4. 3. CLARIFY THE CHALLENGE
1. Diverge questions:
 How to…? (H2)
 How might…? (HM)
 In what ways might…? (IWWM)
 What might be all the …? (WMBAT)
 Converge
 Select most promising/interesting question.
 Try turning each piece of data into one or more challenge questions.
If data says: There is limited budget
How to increase funding?
 If you get stuck try:
Tool Cards: Why?, What‟s Stopping You? Or Perspectives
2. Converge: Review list of questions above and select most promising
3. Write one challenge on top of the next page

5. 4. GENERATE IDEAS
0. Your challenge question is:
1. Develop ideas for challenge question. DIVERGE
 Quantity yields quality. Minimum 15 and push for five more.
 If you get stuck try:
Tool Cards: Forced connections, SCAMPER, Perspectives
2. Converge.
 If you get stuck try:
Tool Cards: Evaluation matrix, Card Sort
3. Write your initial solution on top

6. 5. SELECT + STRENGTHEN SOLUTIONS
1. Describe your initial solution statement Create a detailed, vivid description. Don‟t
leave details. Think of solution statement as a “rough draft” of your ideas. Add
as much details as you can in order that anyone could understand completely
what you want to do.
2. User the „Praise First: POINt approach…
1. Pluses. 3 pluses or strengths of your solution
2. Opportunities. 3 opportunities that might result if you implement this idea. It might…
3. Issues. List key issues or concerns and phrase each issue as an ope-ended question
from which you can generate solutions. How to…
3. Review your issues and concerns and decide which ones are most important to
overcome.
4. Write most and second important issue and write ten ways to overcome this
issue.
5. Review ideas just generated. Which ones make your solution more effective. “In
order to overcome first/second issue, I will:…

7. 6. PLAN FOR ACTION
Evaluate following aspects:
1. What steps might you take to put your solution into action?
2. Which resources might help to implement this idea?
3. How might you gain acceptance of your solution?
4. What might you do to gain acceptance/enthusiasm for this solution?
5. What are some things that you might to overcome?
Define short term, mid term and long term actions.