I've been thinking more about the tendency I've observed, of folks prematurely declaring victory when it comes to divergent thinking. One simple but effective tactic is to hold oneself to an idea quota. A somewhat-arbitrary quantity target that forces you to keep going, even after you think you've gotten the right answer…

I've observed that a divergent mindset is something that many folks like to get out of as quickly as possible. As soon as a reasonably good idea comes up, there's almost a collective sigh of relief which says, "Whew! We did it! Mission accomplished!" …

I've been thinking more about the challenge of "escaping the tyranny of reason," and was delighted to come across an example of a noteworthy innovator. Thomas Edison was credited with over 1,000 patents and is widely viewed as one of the most influential inventors of the last century. Twyla Tharp recounts an amazing anecdote about his idea generation process in "The Creative Habit"…

When seeking to generate ideas, the implicit desire to settle upon the right answer, or the best answer, as quickly as possible is incredibly powerful. In design, we often encourage folks to deliberately separate the task of idea generation from the process of idea evaluation, to protect themselves from critical thinking or from presumptuously settling on a sub-optimal idea too quickly…

When I was in business school, my wife studied fashion design at FIDM in San Francisco. While I was working spreadsheets and powerpoint, she was making patterns and building "inspo boards." I had no idea what they were for…

Someone tipped me off to David Lynch's "Catching the Big Fish," which deconstructs his creative process in a series of somewhat-chronologically-ordered vignettes and reflections. I'm glad they did - if …”

Someone tipped me off to David Lynch's "Catching the Big Fish," which deconstructs his creative process in a series of somewhat-chronologically-ordered vignettes and reflections. I'm glad they did - if only because it's an easy book to "get under your belt," so to speak. Lots of interesting tidbits for fans of his films, too, I'm sure (admission: I've never seen one)…

I have noticed that when the design-driven approach to innovation that we espouse at Stanford fails to unleash a flood of new ideas and fresh energy, the culprit is often a failure to stimulate curiosity on the part of those doing the work…