While I was away on holiday I took the book “How To Have Creative Ideas” by Edward de Bono which I heard a lot about. For those of you that haven’t heard of Edward de Bono (I hadn’t a few month ago) he is a leading figure in the field of creative thinking and has worked with people from children to large corporations. De Bono believes that the brain and your creativity needs to be exercised. As with anything you become more creative with practice, he also believes that anyone can learn to be more creative.
The book “How to Have Creative Ideas,” consists of a series of exercises designed to flex your creative muscles using random words for inspiration. For example one of the exercises is to take a random word (these are selected from tables at the back of the book randomly by rolling a dice) and come up with new ideas to make a bank more attractive to its customers. I randomly drew the word curry mmm… makes you think doesn’t it. How can you use the word curry to come up with ideas to promote a bank? Maybe the bank could have a snack bar so customers can grab lunch while sorting their finances, could the bank be themed different Countries different months India/curry to promote its travel currency services and travel insurance, maybe on opening a new student account the student is given a voucher for a curry at a local curry house. Ok maybe they are not the best ideas but you can see the concept. Once you are confident at using the random words with de Bono’s exercises you can then apply the random words to your own problems.
Another exercise I enjoyed was to randomly pick to words to create a potential profit making company. I picked Ant and Hotel, so maybe there could be a hotel with very small rooms, I have seen on TV hotels in Japan where your “hotel room” is literally a shelf with a bed and curtains round it, perhaps this could be introduced for pub goers as a cheaper alternative to a taxi (ok, if you are laughing, you think of some 
)
What I really like about the whole random word idea, is it can throw up concepts that you wouldn’t have thought of in a million years. I can see that this way of thinking could be especially useful for conceptual design work and advertising, I think I will give it a try on the next project I am stuck on.
I think this book is well worth a look for anyone interested in expanding their way of thinking. If you are looking for a random word generator to have a quick try of some creative thinking check out the random word generator. This site also suggests exercises similar to Edward de Bono’s ideas.
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20 Comments
The book seems like a good read there, thanks for the tip!
Yeah de Bono definitely writes some good books on the thinking process.
You should also check out de Bono’s:
“Lateral Thinking”
and if you are into business
“Six Thinking Hats”
Hi Pawel, its definately worth a look, its more a set of creative exercises rather thank reading material though.
Hi Joel, I was looking at Lateral thinking book this morning and wondering if it would be worth buying (another one for the wish list)
Guess what, I saw this book selling on streets where i stay (Bangalore,India), Yeh! there are almost no rules for piracy.. this book had a awesome print and was Rs40/- thats exactly 1$.
So did you buy it then Santosh? What did you think?
I dont want to answer… I would be hated, burnt, raided if I answer
Interesting post, will check for the book at my local borders on my way home, anything to improve the creative process
So tara how is it over all?
Hi Tolumi, yes its definitely worth a look, let me know what you think if you decide to buy it.
Santosh you know what its like, you bought it really didn’t you
!
Basically its a set of exercises using random word techniques. If you take a look at the random word generator site, it gives you an idea of the sort of thing to expect.
Sounds fascinating! I’ve stuck it on my Amazon wishlist – which seems to grow by the day!
Tell me about it, mine too
How can I resist it, but fewer times its better to keep quite than to be a Bad boy…. I did not read it.. I bought coz you bought it, and the title really impressed me..
As of now I am yet to finish “What they dont teach in Havrd business School” and lots of Logos to design..
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any suggestions how should a “CLUB WILD” logo look like, its for a local party circuit..
Is the “What they don’t teach in Harvard business School” any good?
No thoughts on the Club Wild at the moment
Yup, put it on my Amazon wish list, too! Excellent! I think Aaron was the first person I saw mention de Bono and that wasn’t too long ago. Now I hear this guy’s name everywhere!
You linked to a random word generator and it reminded me of something I found the other day, Word Mixer (if I found this on someone’s blog, please forgive me, I can’t remember!). It’s helpful when coming up for names for something… like a blog. Teehee!
Hi Lauren,
I like that word mixer, its a bit of fun and you’re right it could help with coming up with an unusual company name. I had to name a fire extinguisher once (strange I know) that would have been handy.
Amazing, Thanks a lot lauren and tara.. at last your word mixer allowed me to force my client to get rid of his so called coined “CLUB WILD” which was getting on my nerves to design a logo..everytime I came up with a new logo it looked somewhere linked to PETA or animal activists..
moreover its delivers an amazing mix of words..
Tara..”The what they don’t teach in hav….” is a nice book, depends what you like in life for me running a business, and having a responsibility is more interesting than designing.. So I love books which are more into entrepreneurship, startups… yeh ofcourse creativity is needed everywhere..
I remember my first post which was for my friend, and a biz partner now..quoting it again..
“Success in business is not about having a brilliant idea. Bright ideas
are a dime a dozen. Business is about taking a bright idea and
assembling a team that can turn that idea into a product and bring that product to customers who want to buy it. It’s that simple. And that complicated.”
adding to my previous comment..
Read ”BLINK” this book truly changes the way you think.. You see positive in every negative thing..
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sorry for the commenting again..just merge it with my previous comment
Oh yeh ur previous plugin which enabled to edit comments for a limited time was helpful
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No problem with the extra comment, I will check out the blink book, thanks for the suggestion.
I had to remove the edit comments as it clashed with some stuff on the new theme. I will have a go at installing the new version when I get a minute to see if that works.
De Bono is totally correct in saying you can learn to become more creative. I used to be a very mathematical kid, and didn’t even bother with creative exploits such as drawing or music.
So for the past few years I’ve made a concerted effort to be more imaginative and am starting to notice a real difference. Everyone should try expanding their minds a little!
Well I have my friends who were lucky enough to read it, well they feel it has inspired them a lot and they are working to put it on their projects too.