AGENDA

About imagination
• Imagination, Creativity, Innovation
• Capacities for imaginative thinking
GE2134 • Imaginative Quotient
• 6 practices
CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING
Generating Ideas
What is an idea?
Week 8 Generating ideas
SemA 2024

Group activity
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IMAGINE A WORLD OVERVIEW

WITHOUT
 The primacy of imagination and why imagination is important in our lives
IMAGINATION
Imagine a world without art and music, without  Ideas are important and how to find them by means of a series of strategies,
sports and fashion, lacking in discoveries and techniques, and exercises
inventions, no new electronic gadgets …

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 THE PRIORITY OF IMAGINATION ABOUT IMAGINATION
 Albert Einstein once remarked, “Imagination is more important than  Imagination is something we are born with. Yet, it is a capacity that we often
knowledge.” left languish

L analytical
 He went on to say “Knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world,  We go through school and “grow up”
stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”
 Imagination is replaced with analysis
 Imagination is the engine that drives creative thinking

 Why should we care about our imagination and why is it so important?

 Three critical factors for a real estate purchase: “location, location, location.”  A source of creativity and a necessary step toward its development
 Imagination is a splendid and amazing human capacity: a big part of what makes us human
 For creative thinking it is “imagination, imagination, imagination.”
 It is a joy to imagine “alternative realities”
 Necessary to understand and appreciate ideas and creation of others– artistic, musical,
theatrical; philosophical, mathematical, scientific; literary, historical, technological—and
more
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IMAGINATION, CREATIVITY, INNOVATION CAPACITIES FOR IMAGINATIVE THINKING

 Noticing deeply – perceiving details through patient, careful and thoughtful observation
 “to look at things as if they could be otherwise”

=
 Questioning – asking the many kinds of thoughtful questions, “why”… “what is” …
 “to conceive of what is not”
 Embodying – experiencing things through our senses & emotion, physical & psychological engagement

 Are these three words the same?  Identifying patterns – identifying relationships among details; linking and grouping into patterns

 Making connections – linking the patterns with prior knowledge and experience
 The sequence:
[Link]  Exhibiting empathy – understanding, appreciating, and respecting the experience and perspective of others

 Creating meaning – developing viable interpretation based on our observations, patterns, … expressing this meaning in our
own way

Applied New  Reflecting and assessing – looking back on our actions, learning, and thinking to identify additional challenges and
Imagination Creativity imagination
Innovation creations
questions
 Taking action – acting on what we have learned and interpreted

 Living with ambiguity – learning to accept uncertainty, complexity, and the volatility of experience both literal and virtual

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IMAGINATION QUOTIENT CULTIVATE SILENCEELIMINATE DISTRACTION
 How can we raise it?  The great inhibitors of imagination is busyness

 How can we increase our capacity for imaginative thinking?  Need to clear our heads and calendars just to hear ourselves think; so that
able to concentrate and focus
 The following practices are designed to stimulate imaginative thinking
 Give ourselves a chance to wonder and to imagine
 Cultivate SilenceEliminate Distraction
 Banish Your Fears  The need for quiet, private time
 Renew Your Narrative  Christian mystics, Zen Buddhists, Hindu yogis, and Trappist monks are just a
 Get to Yes! few who value the practice of silence in their lives
 Rewrite History
 Embrace Failure and Fail Well

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BANISH YOUR FEAR RENEW YOUR NARRATIVE

 We all have fears which prevent us from taking chances, from risk-taking  Our lives are guided by stories
ventures
 We are always telling and listening to stories
 Fears kill imagination so we need to conquer those fears  Stories inform and entertain us
 Lend coherence and meaning to our lives

 To think positive thoughts– to confront the fear directly and address it with a  Our identities are sharped by stories
counterattack of positive thinking
 But stories inhibit as well as free us
 A “stare-down” strategy: write down what scares you, and disciplines yourself
to confront those fears directly  We need positive stories, such as
 “When the chips are down, I come through.”
 “I have found my passion for learning X, and I am going to pursue it devotedly.”

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GET TO YES! (1/2) GET TO YES! (2/2)
 So much of our lives involve negotiation  Four obstacles (a failure of imagination) to achieving those positive outcomes
 Balancing time and commitments; arriving at decisions through reflection, discussion, and 1. Criticizing a novel approach prematurely
debate; bargaining in the marketplace and in various personal and professional arenas 2. Fixating on a single result
 We made trade-off compromises: happy or unhappy about outcomes 3. Assuming a fixed pie to be divided
4. Thinking that resolving the problem is the other side’s problem
 Much depends on how we conceptualize those transactions
 Whether as conflicts and battles with winners and losers or as discussion and collaborations
 Four remedies (not easy to overcome the obstacles)
1. Suspend negative judgement through splitting off inventing from deciding
 With more win-win than win-lose or lose-lose scenarios
2. Multiply outcomes by creating alternatives to an ideal “idea,” or varying the scope of that
 Four obstacles to achieving those positive outcomes deal
3. Seek differences that can dovetail
1. Criticizing a novel approach prematurely
4. Find ways to address the interests of the other side
2. Fixating on a single result
3. Assuming a fixed pie to be divided  The ability to reframe a problem using one to another of these strategies depends on
the capacity to imagine things otherwise
4. Thinking that resolving the problem is the other side’s problem 13 14

REWRITE HISTORY EMBRACE FAILURE AND FAIL WELL

 “What if something that happened in the past had turned out differently?”  True that we learn from success; also true that we learn from failure

 Counterfactual experiment / Thought experiment  Those discoveries of failed results were useful in ruling out certain
 To create a chain of speculative causal events possibilities – explore others
 A persuasive strategy  Failure is inextricably connected with success
 Tools that stimulate our critical and creative thinking; help us develop our imaginations
 Unmask assumptions and help identify both possibilities and goals we hope to reach
 Based on question: “what if?”

 Nothing is certain in human experience, therefore should not take anything

for granted– not even history

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 WHAT IS AN IDEA?
 “An idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination.”
IDEA  @A new combination of old elements@
“A wonderful harmony arises from the seemingly
unconnected”  Creative originality

 Something to think about and something to think with

 Ideas promote and provoke thought, as they themselves are products of

preexisting thought
 In fact, we call thinking is fundamentally an act of making connections, linking
ideas, facts, information, experiences together

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WHY IDEAS ARE IMPORTANT? HOW TO GET IDEAS

 People in many kinds of work are responsible for generating, developing, and A process for getting an idea that includes five steps
presenting ideas
 Teachers/engineers/doctors find a solution for their clients 1. Define the problem
 You design a group name; finding your group project’s topic, product/service/innovation
 Advertisers, marketers, politicians
2. Gather information
 Name the Giant Panda, …, etc. 3. Search for the idea
 Ideas drive progress, creativity and innovation
4. Forget about it
 We are increasingly being inundated with an overflow of information
 Need to be sifted and filtered, combined and synthesized to form ideas that can help solve 5. Enact the idea
problems
 Ideas that can improve processes and products
 Ideas that can inspire as well as enrich, enlighten and entertain

 Learning to get ideas is at the heart of creative thinking

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HOW TO GET IDEAS?
10 strategies to prepare yourself for ideas
1.
2.
Have fun
Be more like a child
GENERATING IDEA
3. Become idea-prone
4. Visualize success
5. Rejoice in failure
6. Get more inputs
7. Screw up your courage
8. Team up with energy
9. Rethink your thinking
10. Learn how to combine
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DEVELOPING AND SCREENING (BUSINESS) IDEAS TO START WITH

 Three most common sources of new (business) ideas  The first step in creating an effective business plan, a start-up, a product, a
service, or an innovation, or … is selecting an idea that fills a need and
 Techniques for generating ideas provides unique value to the customer
 First screen  It is difficult to get people to change habits and behaviors to try a new
product even if the new product is better or less expensive

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TRENDS THREE SOURCES OF NEW (BUSINESS) IDEAS
 The start of a trend that lasts for a considerable period of time provides one
of the greatest opportunities for starting a new venture
 Trends that will provide opportunities include: green trend, clean-energy
Changing
trend, organic-orientation trend, economic trend, social trend, health trend, Unsolved
Environmental
and Web trend. Problems
Trends

Gaps in the
Marketplace

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THREE MOST COMMON SOURCES OF (BUSINESS)

IDEAS CHANGING ENVIRONMENTAL TRENDS
 Changing environmental trends Economic trends
 Economic trends  When the economy is strong, customers are more willing to purchase
 Social trends discretionary products and services
 Technological advances  Need to evaluate who has the money to spend
 Political and Regulatory changes
 Identify areas to avoid

 Unsolved problems

 Gaps in the marketplace

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CHANGING ENVIRONMENTAL TRENDS CHANGING ENVIRONMENTAL TRENDS
Social trends Technological advances
 Impact the way people live their lives and the products and services they need  Ongoing source of new business ideas
 Products often do more to satisfy a social need than the actual need the product fills  Technologies can be used to satisfy basic or changing human needs
 Once a technology is created, products emerge to advance it

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CHANGING ENVIRONMENTAL TRENDS UNSOLVED PROBLEMS

Political and regulatory changes  Many companies have been started by people who by trying to
 New laws create opportunities for entrepreneurs solve a problem create a business idea
 Changes in government regulations motivate entrepreneurs to differentiate  Entrepreneurs can capitalize by modifying products created by
themselves by exceeding the regulation advances in technology
 Political change can encourage the emergence of new business ideas

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GAPS IN THE MARKETPLACE TECHNIQUES FOR GENERATING IDEAS
 Key large retailers compete on price and target the mainstream customer,  Casual observation, intuition, serendipity, or luck
leaving gaps in the marketplace
 New business ideas can be formed by taking an existing product and targeting
 Brainstorming
a new market or geographic area
 Focus groups

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BRAINSTORMING REVERSE BRAINSTORMING

 A brainstorming session is targeted to a specific topic about which a  A group method that focuses on the negative aspects of a product, service, or
group of people are instructed to come up with ideas idea as well as ways to overcome these problems
 Care must be taken to maintain group morale
 Participants share their ideas and react to others in a lively,
freewheeling manner

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FOCUS GROUPS FOCUS GROUPS

A focus group is a gathering a 5 to 10 people who are selected because  Focus groups usually work best as a follow-up to
of their relationship to the issues being discussed brainstorming, when the general idea for a business has
been formulated, like opening a fitness center for the 50+
demographic, but further refinement of the idea is needed.
 Usually, focus groups are conducted by trained moderators.

 The moderator’s primary goals are to keep the group

“focused” and to generate lively discussion.
 Much of the effectiveness of a focus group session depends
on the moderator’s ability to ask questions and keep the
discussion on track.

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STRENGTH OF THE IDEA

HOW TO SELECT The strength of the business idea is based on

 Its timeliness in market introduction
In terms of a feasibility study  An open window of opportunity
 The added value for the buyer
 The successfulness of replacing an existing product
that consumers are satisfied with
 The likelihood that product will cause consumers
to make meaningful changes in behavior

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KEY AREAS FOR ASSESSING THE FEASIBILITY OF A
NEW VENTURE IDEA TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY
 Technical Requirements for Products and Services:
 Functional design and attractiveness in appearance
 Flexibility, permitting ready modification of the external features of the product to meet
customer demands or technological and competitive changes
 Durability of the materials from which the product is made
 Reliability, ensuring performance as expected under normal operating conditions
 Product safety, posing no potential dangers under normal operating conditions
 Reasonable utility, an acceptable rate of obsolescence
 Ease and low cost of maintenance

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GROUP ACTIVITY
MARKET FEASIBILITY (MARKETABILITY)
Range of prices for the same,
complementary, and substitute
products; base prices; and
discount structures
Pricing
Customers, customer demand data
patterns in seasonal variations
in demand, and governmental
regulations affecting demand

Market
data

General
economic
Various economic indicators trends
such as new orders, housing 44
starts, inventories, and
consumer spending
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GIANT PANDA NAMING
 For fun / competition

 To illustrate how to do creative thinking in generating idea

 Your group project topic
 The Giant Panda Naming activity/competition

 Which approach your group would like to use?

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