www.1001TopWords.com |
The Elements of Creativity: Attributes Listing Method
Attribute listing is one of the best ways to generate ideas, whereby there any many parts to the problem/ challenge faced. If you are asked to generate ideas or solutions to a complex challenge, the first thing you can do is to list all the attributes of your problem. These may include:
By doing so, you can then concentrate on each attribute at a time. This will no doubt give you more peace of mind (and pulling of your hairs) when generating your ideas. The attribute listing technique is often used in a Research & Development (R&D) department of many companies, especially those who are constantly producing innovative products to have an advantage over their competitors. Let's go through this worked example to give you a better understanding of how attributes listing can be of help to you. For example, if your challenge is to design a new ladies' handbag, you could list the attributes as: the physical aspects which include- shape, length, colour, materials used and on the emotional aspects-the stress some women faced of misplacing their handbags. You might choose to first tackle the emotional stress of losing one's handbag by creating a new small gadget to be placed within the handbag to sound the owner that she is moving too far away (maybe one or two metre away) from her 'treasure chest'. After that, you could work on the other attributes, one by one, be it the shape or materials used for the handbag. Putting Your Elements to Work: Try to generate oodles of ideas using attributes listing with these sets of challenges: 1. Design a new toy for children under 6 years old to teach them simple arithmetic. Safety is an important attribute. 2. Create a campaign to encourage people to stop smoking. (Think through the attributes: Physical, Mental, Emotional and Social) 3. Set up an effective marketing plan (there are many parts to a good marketing plan: the 4 P's ? Product, Price, Place and Promotion) for your new products. Have Fun! About The Author Dr. Alvin Chan is a Senior Research Consultant at First Quatermain Centre of Collaborative Innovation (www.firstquatermain.com). Please contact heartware2002@yahoo.com as a courtesy when reprinting the article online and/or offline.
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Creative Memory Tricks What's the biggest problem with memory tricks? Remembering to use them, of course. There are many memory techniques that work well, but you'll forget them when you need them most - unless you make using them a habit. So when you take the time to learn a technique, use it until it becomes automatic. Here are some to try. Creative Thinking The Secret Key To Lasting Success What is creativity anyway? Well, let us look at the word. Creativity means the capability to build, create something. It does mean to build something new but not necessarily something unique. And here is the first trap many of us tap into. We tend to think about creativity as building something unique, something that has never been there before. Art of Creation with Attention Attention is the greatest creative power in the world. If you command your attention, you command your creation/life. But attention is not same as mind rut OR thinking but it constitutes pure awareness in the background. We invite problems as a result of restless with our own ideas about the state of reality. The greatest creative act is to stabilize in a environment where relaxed attitude takes over and everything is trusted for what is. Individual interpretation or evaluation of the things has no significance when what is accepted. I suggest you to practice the YOGA of being relaxed here and now and this itself will eliminate all your mental problems. 99% of the problems are your own mental creation with the background of fear. The antidote for this is tune to a state of being rather than doing. It is ground of creativity. How to be More Creative and Enhance Your Creativity efore thinking about how to be more creative, let me begin point out some real barriers that some people seem to have when wanting to enhance creativity, have a think if any of these things are applicable to you and your life; Creativity: The Key To Getting More Done In Less Time If your to-do list seems as long at the end of the day as it did at the start (or worse yet, longer!) then you could definitely use an injection of creativity in your work day. Tapping into Your Super Creative Power Do you consider yourself creative? How about super creative? Most people may not think of themselves as creative, but I believe that everyone has the potential for great creativity. They just need a little understanding and practice. Push The Right Button You can live a much more successful life than you think! Just push the right button and see how it opens the doors of success for you. Yes, its so simple and easy. Yet the great majority of people fail to achieve success. Why? Because they push the wrong buttons. How to Make Time for Art The key to making time for art is the ability to say "NO". I Want To Create... What would you like to create? A peaceful life, a successful life, a good life, a sculpture, a piece of art, a book? What is it that you would like to create? Whatever you want you can achieve it. All you have to do is follow your natural compass. Remove the rubbish that takes you off course and let the natural you come through. It is not the case of adding new behaviours to create what you want. No. It's a case of moving the obstacles out of the away and let the natural you come through. The Creativity Creed I believe that creativity is a natural order of life itselfand it provides my life with the purest of energies. Unleash Your Creativity and Think Your Way Out of the Box The brain is a strange organ. It works in ways we don't yet understand and manages to create everything we see. Working at odds with the rest of the body it performs best when we're not consciously trying and it is exactly this right-hemisphere activity that contributes to some of our most creative moments. Becoming More Creative -- What We Can Learn From Disney When you think about the legacies Walt Disney left us, do talking mice and a multigizillion dollar company come to mind? Actually, those are only the products of his prodigious and rich creativity - dig deeper and you start to realize one of the most intriguing heritages Disney left was his processes. How To Increase Creativity... Set Deadlines! Deadlines are something all of us face from time to time. We face deadlines whenever we set even a small goal and commit to accomplish it... that's when deadlines becomes important and valuable to us. Why Teach Thinking? Why Not ? The word 'creativity' has so many diverse meanings and interpretations. I remember telling an audience of teachers that creating a mess is also creative as long as new things and views are being conjured up. This led to much laughter and discussion about the meaning of 'creativity' (This notion of 'creative mess' was taken from master-thinker, Dr Edward de Bono). Courage and Creating Doing anything creative often brings up fears, anxieties, insecurities. Courage may be defined as going ahead in spite of fear. But many creators not only live with their fears, they welcome them. Improvisation in Life and the Arts: What I learned from Free Play by Stephen Nachmanovitch Can you be an artist while you're washing the dishes? Creating Reality ? Discovering the Magician Within We all create our own reality each and every day, whether we are aware of the power that we possess or not. We all have a built-in mechanism that runs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three-hundred-sixty-five days a year, non-stop. Creativity: Getting Out of the Box Leadership, especially in times of change, depends increasingly on the ability of managers, professionals and even front line workers to think and do things differently. In other words, to get out of the box! Creativity Management ? Collaboration NOT Competition Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. Creativity Management ? Finding Your Voice Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. |
© Athifea Distribution LLC - 2013 |