FROM DILIP MUKERJEA'S ITINERANT TOOLBOX: BRAINSTORMING

[continue from the Last Post]

THE CHAIN REACTION:

PURPOSE:

Swift thought association leads to a rapid stream of insights that unravel the hidden facets of a situation. Incredibly simple, yet formidable in stimulating an explosion of creativity.

Method 1

Select a random word and spin off a series of associations, in effect, a chain reaction. Then select each word in turn, and link it literally or symbolically to the situation under scrutiny.

Example:

Let us say that the random word is kite. We now incite the chain reaction as follows:

kite • sky • sunshine • water • swimming • sharks • teeth • face • chicken • kangaroo • candle • lavender

So we started with kite and ended with lavender, a total of 12 words.

Now we array these words vertically, and associate each of them with our problem, which is, say:

How can we unite and focus our diverse ways of thinking so as to realise our vision for achieving breakthrough in organisational innovation?



[To be continued in the Next Post. Excerpted from 'Surfing the Intellect: Building Intellectual Capital in a Knowledge Economy', by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]