What are some of the best techniques
for using our creative
faculties more effectively to
solve problems, make decisions,
achieve goals, and better fulfill our ultimate
human responsibility, which is to
think? Here are a few I have learned:
Think Combination. Everything you
see, hear, touch, taste, and smell during
the day offers you the opportunity
to consider new combinations. When
you brush your teeth, you might think
of a toothbrush that contains the toothpaste
in the handle. You might combine
your mirror with a motto reminding
you to start the day right. It might
read, "How can I increase my service
today?" or "Have no small dreams!"
That's thinking combination. A simple
pencil is a combination of wood, carbon,
rubber, paint, and metal. You can
come up with great ideas that can lead
to profits, patents, and even billiondollar
companies by finding new combinations
yourself. Here are a few
ways entrepreneurs have profited from
thinking combination.
A French company invented an
ordinary snorkel combined with a
radio — the first battery-powered
snorkel with an FM radio receiver
built in, and it doesn't even require an
earpiece. The product, AQUA FM,
uses unique bone conduction technology
to transmit sound through the
teeth and into the inner ear, providing
clear, amazing sound.
In another example, companies like
Vonage and Skype have revolutionized
telephone service by combining a telephone
and the Internet, and the big
telecom companies are clambering to
keep up. Telephone companies have
always charged by the minute for long
distance services, but the Internet is
different. Broadband is charged at a
standard monthly rate for unlimited
use. VOIP (Voice over IP) start-up companies
have used this to their advantage
and thought differently about telephone
service. Why pay by the minute
to send data via your telephone service
when you have a data tunnel you are
already paying for — your broadband
connection? Simply piggyback on that
by connecting your phone to your
broadband and talk to anyone in the
world for a fraction of the cost.
Think Adaptation. Velcro was created
through adaptation. In 1948, George de
Mestral, a Swiss engineer, returned
from a walk through a field of weeds
one day and found some cockleburs
[burrs] clinging to his cloth jacket. After
studying one of the cockleburs under a
microscope, he noticed it was a maze of
thin strands with burrs (or hooks) on
the ends that cling to fabrics or animal
fur. He then recognized the potential for
a practical new fastener. It took eight
years to experiment, develop, and perfect
the invention, but now Velcro is a
well-known, incredibly useful product.
Velcro has even been further adapted
for making all kinds of products better
— from shoes that use Velcro instead of
laces, to adjustable Velcro wrist straps
on boxing gloves.
In another example, designers took
tiny flexible optical fibers developed
for high-energy physics experiments
and wove them into ordinary fabric.
This adaptation created a new fabric
called Luminex that glows, literally.
It's not shiny and it's not glow in the
dark; it gives off its own light. Now
Luminex is being used in stage costumes,
handbags, and curtains as well
as clothing.*
During the next year you are going
to see the result of people thinking
adaptation and coming up with ideas
worth millions of dollars. Why couldn't
one of these people be you? The only
limit to what you can achieve by
adapting old products to new uses — old methods to new applications — is
the limit of your own creativity.
Think Substitution. When you think
substitution, ask yourself how you
might substitute a different idea, product,
or material for the one now used.
For example, soy burgers are the vegetarian's
substitute for meat products.
And plastic lumber is now used as a
substitute for concrete, wood, and
metals. Yes, recycled plastic lumber
(RPL) is a woodlike product made
from recovered plastic or recovered
plastic mixed with other materials.
This plastic lumber can then be transformed
by consumers and manufacturers
into a wide range of products,
including decks and docks, landscape
timbers, parking stops, picnic tables,
benches, trash receptacles, planters,
and numerous custom applications
(think adaptation!).
You can also take an existing product
and make it better through thinking
substitution. Take, for instance,
luggage with wheels. This was a wonderful
invention because it eliminated
the need to carry luggage. But, for
years the wheels were made of cheap
plastic, often only a step better than
dragging your luggage on the ground.
It wasn't until recently that someone
decided to replace these cheap plastic
wheels with the high-speed ball-bearing
efficient wheels from Rollerblade
skates. This substitution created a better
wheeled suitcase and made for
happier travelers.
In short, don't assume because a
particular thing has always been used
in the past, that you have to use it now.
Perhaps there's a substitution that will
work better or last longer, or cost less,
or be lighter, or more colorful, and so
forth. Think substitution.
Think magnification.
Think big!
Examples include skyscrapers, the
Pentagon, king-size soft drinks, and
the IMAX theatre. IMAX was started
by Canadian filmmakers/entrepreneurs
who wanted bigger and better
theaters. Now IMAX is the ultimate
movie experience, helping people see
more, feel more, and hear more.
Vehicles are getting bigger too.
We've had trucks and vans for many
years. But in recent years soccer dads
and carpool moms have demanded a
different large vehicle — the SUV. The
Hummer, Lincoln Navigator, Cadillac
Escalade, and Suburban are just a few
of the behemoths that safely courier
our children to and from their daily
activities.
Yet, while most car companies are
going larger, BMW went the opposite
way, which takes us to our next thinking
strategy…
Think Minification. Think small! In
the midst of the SUV explosion, BMW
was thinking small and acquired the
rights to the Mini Cooper. This just
proves that magnification and minification
can succeed in the same market
concurrently.
And beyond the car industry, we find
technology striving for minification.
The iPod is a small portable digital
audio player designed and marketed by
Apple Computer. And even though it's
already a small product, Apple continues
to release smaller and smaller versions
of the popular iPod with larger
and larger hard drives (thinking minification
and magnification!).
Clothing designers are thinking
small too. There are entrepreneurs who
specialize in baby clothes and small
dog clothes, such as the Baby Ultimate
Child Clothing and Baby Clothes
Boutique (www.babyultimate.com) and
the Pure Country Pet Boutique
(www.purecountry.net).
Think rearrangement. Turn things
around, backward, upside down or
inside out. James Dyson, founder of
Dyson vacuum cleaners, was tired of
buying vacuums that lost suction as
they filled up. Rather than improve on
the existing designs, he started from
scratch and rearranged the entire vacuum
in a new and different, and ultimately
highly successful, way. Dyson's
new arrangement used cyclonic separation
instead of a bag. Eight cylindrical
cyclones whirl dirt and air at
speeds up to 600 m.p.h. The machine
uses centrifugal force to trap the dirt
and expel the air. And, there is no filter
to clog, which means the Dyson
stays powerful. How successful has it
been? In the past few years, he has
sold over $10 billion worldwide. I'd
say his rearrangement was a success!
How about turning something
upside down? What's the problem
with typical ketchup, mustard, and
salad dressing bottles? It's hard to get
the contents out, especially when the
contents are running low. The solution?
Manufacturers are now creating
the bottles to stand upside down so
the contents are always easy to get out.
What do you work with that can benefit
from this kind of thinking? What
can you turn around … revolutionize?
Rearrange things, change pace, alter
sequence, start from scratch. This type
of thinking works for everyone. For
instance, salespeople can use these creative
techniques to discover new applications
for products or services, new
ways to emphasize customer benefits,
new ideas or product combinations to
solve customer problems, better ways
to organize their time and effort.
If you want to spur your mind to
new action, think combination, adaptation,
substitution, magnification,
minification, and rearrangement.
You'll be amazed with the ideas you'll
develop. Before long, you'll be thinking
in each of these ways as a matter of
daily course. This kind of thinking
increases the scope of your mind
power and enables you to achieve
fuller use of your mental capabilities.
Let your mind work for you. Take
nothing for granted. Everything can be
changed, improved. The only thing
you can count on for certain is change.
Don't wait for it — be an agent of
change. Help bring change about.
6 Techniques for Creative Revolutions:- Think Combination
- Think adaptation
- Think substitution
- Think Magnification
- Think Minification
- Think Rearrangement
Learn more about Earl Nightingale and his all-time bestselling programs The Strangest Secret and Lead the Field. Edited and updated by Catherine Cairns.
*Source Time magazine Coolest Inventions of 2003.