Page 122 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

Creativity on Demand 113

You can perform a Do-It-Yourself Lobotomy whenever you want.
Just lobotomize the place in your mind where you normally think
through a problem. You do that when you leave the known and go to
some galaxy of thought that has nothing to do with your issue. This
intergalactic mind travel disengages your rational mind—that pre-
dictable, boring thought maker that tosses around the same data over
and over again—thus leaving you open to many more possibilities.

7

A SUITCASE HISTORY OF
INTERGALACTIC THINKING

I was sitting down with a high-level executive at one of the major lug-
gage companies a few years ago. He asked me how Intergalactic
Thinking might work on product design in his company. I asked him
to go to the “farming” galaxy and name five things that had something
to do with a farm. He named “pig,” “fence,” “tractor,” “hoe,” and “silo.”
Since I knew the routine, as he said each word I simultaneously let the
concepts push me in different places relative to luggage design. I kept
the thought process to myself.
“Tractor”? How about big wheels on the back, small wheels on the
front of really large bags? Is that a good idea? I don’t know. Then
how about “pig”? Okay, maybe a corkscrew type of handle. That’s
stupid. (“Hey, don’t judge!”) Let’s try “silo.” A thought immediately
popped into my mind. (Of course, all this happened in about five sec-
onds. I do this kind of thinking all the time. It’s second nature. See
page 135.)
“That’s it! Silos are used to store grains for the winter, so the live-
stock doesn’t starve, right?” He looked at me strangely. “Do you make
big boxes for off-season storage of clothing?” I asked. “Why, no we
don’t,” was the luggage executive’s reply. “Then I think you should
consider getting into that business. People probably buy some no-
name boxes for off-season clothes storage. Put your highly recognized
name on that box, and it has instant brand equity, credibility, and
added value.”
The executive thought about it. He had the tooling, materials, sup-
pliers, and distribution network—everything it takes to be in the off-
season storage-container business. But he hadn’t had the idea until we
went looking in a foreign galaxy.
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