Why is your child not getting the right ideas? How can you apply idea-generation techniques to a gifted child? If you believe your child has no good ideas, the most likely reason is that he is not putting effort into making them happen. Successful people do not wait for ideas to fall into their laps. There is a process to follow when generating new ideas. Every parent should learn and train their children’s minds with these techniques.
Can you remember the last time you needed an idea? How does the idea come to your mind? Whatever your problem is, you can fix it by generating ideas.
When you start putting time and effort into generating ideas, they will show up in the long run. Likewise, when you train your children to generate ideas, you will see them solving problems and achieving bigger goals. When a child lacks ideas, he or she is not taught how to generate ideas or apply techniques.
After reading this article, you can teach your child how to use idea-generation techniques.
18 idea generation techniques besides brainstorming
Here’s a list of alternative brainstorming techniques:
Reverse brainstorming
In brainstorming, people brainstorm ideas to find ways to solve a problem. In reverse brainstorming, people start by thinking about what caused the problem. Focusing on the cause of the problem is sometimes more efficient than focusing on the solution. By figuring out what could be causing the problem, you can take steps to fix or prevent it. Often, teams use reverse brainstorming to improve products and services.
Brainwriting
Brainstorming is one of the idea-generation techniques that is typically most effective in a group setting. Start by writing a topic on a piece of paper. Then, pass the form around the group so that everyone has a turn to write on it and contribute their ideas to the central topic or question. One group member’s views can inspire another’s thoughts, or someone may choose to improve upon an existing one.
Brain netting
Brain netting involves using cloud-based documents or programs for groups to share and collaborate. This form of brainstorming can be interactive by adding links, videos, and images to provide visual representations and context. Using an online program also works when working with a team, either live or remotely, which could benefit those collaborating within different time zones.
Forced relationships
The forced relationships method introduces two random and seemingly unrelated items and forces you to create a connection between them. This technique encourages innovative thinking to build those relationships and develop a new product. You can conduct forced relationship activities in group settings or individually.
Role-storming
Role-storming is brainstorming with the added element of role-playing. To bring out new perspectives and ideas, participants could imagine they were in a different role concerning the brainstorming goal. They could pretend they’re clients or managers assessing the same purpose and ask themselves what improvements to implement.
Storyboarding
Storyboarding is an idea-generation technique that involves finding pictures, quotes, and other visual information associated with the focus of your brainstorming. Then, you could arrange these items to create a narrative and add notes to help explain the progression of the ideas. Storyboarding can be more interactive when searching for physical objects to add to the board. Seeking and building can help your brain process what it sees faster because you have to move your body.
Five whys
This method often begins with a natural or hypothetical problem you could address with your team. You would ask them why a crisis happens or is happening. After the initial round of responses and forming an answer, a facilitator asks again and again until the fifth time. The reason for asking the same question five times is to find more profound answers, as the first response is typically more shallow. When you start putting time and effort into generating ideas, they will show up in the long run.
Six thinking hats
You can use this technique with groups of at least six people. Each participant represents a “thinking hat” or a different focus, such as benefits, emotions, facts, ideas, judgment, and planning. With these mindsets, each person addresses the topic or problem from that standpoint.
S.C.A.M.P.E.R.
S.C.A.M.P.E.R. stands for substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another use, eliminate and reverse. This acronym is a question checklist to prompt your ideas. It asks you to consider factors like substituting a variable for another, combining one with another, or adapting a variable to a different context. This method helps you think critically and consider creative approaches from several angles.
S.W.O.T. analysis
S.W.O.T. is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You can usually use this method individually or with a team to assess the worth of proposed projects. You could ask what the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are for a particular project to help decide if you should proceed.
Group sketching
In this method, each group member passes around a piece of paper to sketch something related to a central concept or related to another sketch on the paper. Once the entire group has completed sketching, discuss the images and form connections between them. Visually thinking and creating can give form to the group’s ideas so that they can interpret a plan or design.
Word banking
Word banking is similar to other word association activities but conducted on a larger scale with the volume of words and phrases involved. While word association relates one gossip to another, you can form more extensive word sets with word banking. You can associate more than one word with another and group those words to identify patterns and connections. This method can help solidify abstract ideas by finding a common objective or purpose that can initiate the beginning of a project.
Wishing
This method asks participants to wish for solutions to a given problem. These solutions can be impractical or unattainable, but your team can still discuss potential ways to make them happen. You could develop the key to the problem by analyzing what aspects of each wish they can use or integrate into the answer.
Gap filling
Gap filling begins with your starting point for a project or problem. Then you’d state your ultimate goal and start thinking about bridging the gap between the start and endpoints. Initial answers are often more general, but you can find specific solutions by filling in the gaps differently.
Rapid ideation
This technique involves the generation of ideas individually within a given time constraint. They would all write as many pictures as possible on their paper. Once the time is over, they can share their ideas aloud, or the group leader can collect them. When reviewing the responses, the group may have some common beliefs that can provide further insight into the thoughts they can develop.
Trigger storming
Trigger storming provides specific prompts for a group to discuss. These prompts can be open-ended sentences for the group to finish or evocative or abstract statements that inspire or provoke new thoughts. You can implement this method aloud and jot your ideas on paper.
“What if”
The “what if” method introduces scenarios to encourage creative thinking. When facing a problem, you could reframe it using “what if” questions to analyze it from a different perspective. Some examples of these questions could be:
“What if we gave this problem to an artist rather than an engineer to solve?”
“What if this problem happened at the end of the fiscal year?”
Zero draft
Writers often use zero drafting as a variation of free writing. Starting with a topic, you’d write everything you know about it, what you want or need to know, and why the issue is essential. You could then add other ideas that come to mind while writing. This method can also be beneficial for those with writer’s block to develop thoughts freely, but with a few prompts to guide them.
Conclusion
Idea generation is the building block for all innovation. Finding that idea is the first step in starting anything new. We must use the different tools and techniques available to develop quality ideas.
Several techniques were recommended in this article for idea generation. Each one needs a place to work and various ways to keep track of what was done: a whiteboard and markers, butcher paper, or another way to write down what was done and how.
Idea generation should be considered a new challenge and approached like you’d approach any problem you face. It needs to be undertaken with energy and enthusiasm in an ego-free environment. As a leader, your responsibility is to create the space for your crew to invent freely.
You hear a famous person talking about how a small idea became a massive success. Little do you know that such people had hundreds of poor, average ideas that they decided not to pursue. Seeking and building an idea can help your brain process what it sees faster because you have to move your body.
Techniques for the generation of ideas aren’t just for the bright and intelligent. Even you can come up with powerful ideas if you put in the effort and patiently wait. If you wait for ideas to show themselves, you’ll end up waiting for a long time. So you can either start coming up with ideas, no matter how good they are, or you can wait for a great one to come to you on its own, which may never happen. The choice is yours.
Read more of our articles here: https://abundanceandkiddies.com/
Shop for Children’s winter clothes and sweaters here
Children’s bikes and bicycles here