[BLANK_AUDIO] Hi, I'm Darryl. This is Jack and Catherine with me, and we're going to be discussing ideation methods. Catherine, if I could think of three things that were important for ideation methods, what might they be? >> You're talking about best practices? >> Best practices. >> Let me give you four. >> Okay. >> The first one I think would be to be open. Be open to ideas and what I mean there is, be open not just to the ideas that come most naturally to you, but focus and make sure you're open to ideas that maybe aren't so natural to you. >> Unfamiliar ideas. >> Unfamiliar, so. If you are a more structured thinker, then make sure you're staying open to the more tangential ideas. If you're a more tangential thinker, make sure you're staying open to the more structured ideas, so it goes all directions. Second, I would say, is to understand the problem and this comes in two ways. First of all, understand what kind of problem you're studying, what kinds of solutions you need. So if I'm trying to solve a problem for a five year old, I probably won't go looking for solutions from a particle physicist someplace. >> So you want something appropriate to the level of the problem. >> Something appropriate, exactly. And then I also want to keep track of where I am in the problem solving process. So, am I at the beginning, where normally the solutions I'm looking for are more conceptual, maybe more general. >> Divergent. >> Yeah, then towards the end, I may be looking for something more specific. So, let's say I'm designing something. Maybe I'm designing something new for, for my pet dog. And so, at the beginning, I may be thinking about idea generation for, what are all the kinds of things that dogs do? What are the kinds of things that, that involve dogs? But by the time I get to the end, now I may be generating ideas for, how do I actually produce something? Maybe make it or manufacture it. So. >> Yeah, the specifics. >> The specifics. So know where you are in the process. The third best practice has to do with, has to do with tools. Jack, do you have a hammer at your house? >> Yes. >> What do you use it for? >> Nails. >> Nails. Okay, do you ever use it for tying your shoes? >> No. >> Do you ever use it for combing your hair? >> Hopefully never. >> [LAUGH]. >> So, so you, you only use that hammer for certain things? >> Correct. >> And I'm guessing that you have a, a toolbox with other tools in it as well. Screwdrivers and things, and each tool has its purpose, and so idea generation techniques are the same way. Some of those techniques are designed to give us more, perhaps, revolutionary ideas. Ideas that. >> Yeah. >> Versus evolutionary techniques. >> Versus, exactly. >> Yeah. >> And I want to make sure that I'm using the right technique for the kind of idea I want, right? So I need, just like my toolbox in my garage, I want to have a toolbox of techniques. >> Yeah. >> And I want to make sure it's full of all different kinds. Not just the ones that I like and I think they're fun, but the ones that maybe I don't like. Maybe I don't think they're so much fun, but they need to be there, because they need to be there for doing a particular job. And so you know, sometimes people ask me, well how do I know which technique does what? >> Right. >> And the answer to that is the same answer to an, to an old joke about a concert hall in New York City. You, you probably know this one. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? >> That one I know. Practice, practice, practice. >> Exactly, and it's. >> So you practice the technique. >> You practice the techniques because you want to get a sense of, well gosh, when I use this technique, what kind of ideas do I get? >> Right. >> And when I use that technique, do I get something different or do I get the same? >> So when you're practicing these ideas, but let's say you don't have much experience with it. How do I get to Carnegie Hall if I don't necessarily know what to practice or I don't have much skill? >> Let's ask Jack, how would you get to Carnegie Hall? >> I'd take the back door, maybe one of them's open. [LAUGH]. >> So you would aim for luck, could you expand on that a bit? >> Yes, luck, serendipity. Let me give you an example. When I was young and casting about for a career, I tried chemical engineering, it didn't work, I tried the law, it didn't work either, and so I decided to look for a spiritual answer, and so I joined a commune, a vegetarian commune, and my job was to weed the garden. So I'm out there every morning. >> I've done that once or twice in my life. >> Weeding the garden, in the dirt, and one morning I'm there and idea coursed through my head, this dirt needs to be clean and pure to produce the vegetables and that's my career. >> So how did that, you said it's your career, how did that idea translate to your career? What did you do next? >> I went back to school. Got educated in Environmental Engineering. Master's, Ph.D. Became an Environmental Engineering Professor, and my whole career has been to teach students how to keep the air, land, the soil, the water pure. And it all came from that idea. >> So in that case, you were able to start from a somewhat menial task and expand it into where you were going to go to school and get your PhD and eventually your career. It was a string of luck. But this is, of course, on creativity. How do we master that luck? How do we control that luck? What are the barriers? >> Well the barriers are we tend to be focused, rather than what I'll call mindful, the Buddhist concept of mindfulness and be aware of our surroundings. >> Yeah. >> And be aware at anytime that ideas. >> Something might happen. >> And thoughts, something may happen and to grab those and go with them. >> Yeah. And I, I hear what you're saying about these menial tasks. I know I get the same thing that happens when I'm driving a car, or when I'm showering, or, you know, different people have different times when. >> I wash the floor. >> You wash the floor. So we have these times when we're doing menial tasks perhaps, and the ideas descend upon us, and the key is to really be aware during those times and, and we can make our own luck by getting involved with any number of things. Whether it's driving or some people go for a run, some people join a club, maybe a Rotary Club or a Kiwanis Club or some people will join a group with their church. So there are different ways to get involved and to master the luck, so to speak. >> Mm-hm. >> Well stated. That concludes our Ideation Methods lesson. Thank you for joining us. See you next time.
