Page 132 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

Foreign Genius Is Best 123

you pick a high-achieving individual and write down 5 to 10 things that
you know about that person. Here’s how it works:

7

COLLABORATION WITH GENIUS EXAMPLE

Let’s say you wanted to have inspiration from Abe Lincoln to help you
solve a problem. First, you write down some traits of Abe Lincoln and
go from there. For Honest Abe, you might write down the following
list of traits:
Fair
Honest
Practical
Midwesterner
Tall
Now practical and tall are two very diverse things to write down. I
remember a program in which I was asking people to improve passen-
ger comfort in the coach section of an airplane and someone using
“tall” came up with the idea of more headroom. It didn’t seem practical
because of all the lights and vents and buttons overhead. But what
about lowering the seat? (Ask a Better Question can be used here as
well.) Wouldn’t that give us more headroom? Can we do this without
reducing underseat storage space for the person behind? Do we need
to rethink how the seat works? The material used? The cushioning
system? The concept of “tall” led us to all these avenues of exploration
and more. And isn’t a seat-lowering mechanism already used in our
cars?
It wasn’t Abraham Lincoln’s ideology or accomplishments, but
rather his tallness, that led to an interesting solution. More typically,
we’re guided by philosophical issues, beliefs, or character traits.

❖

"Hey, does that parking
space have my name on it?"

Timeline of a great idea (continued)

Timeline of a lousy idea (continued)
Next time don't stop at
your first idea.