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Have you ever needed a quick and tangible way to illustrate that there may be more than one solution to a problem? This might just be the example you need.

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The illustration above shows 3 solutions, each following the rules but each having a very different outcome. One is a square, another a triangle, the third a rectangle.

This excercise is useful for two reasons. First, it helps an individual or a group physically experience an abstract concept; the concept being that there can be more than one acceptable solution to a problem.

Secondly, This example has a very good problem statement so it’s a great way to set up people’s thinking about defining problems before they tackle solutions.

I’ll cover problem statements in a the next post.

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I’ve been reading two books recently and picked up a theme from both that’s worth mentioning.

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In Edward De Bono’s “Thinking Course” he talks about the Intelligence Trap and two ways that it manifests it’s self. The first is that intelligent people take a position and use their intelligence to defend that point of view. Equally, the speed in which an intelligent person can dispose of another’s argument simply reinforces the original position. And there’s the trap!

Does this imply that creativity and innovations come from those who are less intelligent? Not really. What it does say is that you need to look out for embedded attitudes that might be inhibiting your creativity.

Have you ever listened to or read an interview of a successful person where they’ve said “If I’d known then what I know now I probably wouldn’t have done it.” What got them through the hard time and past the failures? Was it simply naivety, was it just guts and determination, or was it a grand vision. It was probably all of those things and more. They certainly broke out of the Intelligence Trap and shattered the Curse of Knowledge.

How did they break the trap and shatter the curse? I think it was Openness. They were able to look for and consider alternate view points. They did it by challenging assumptions about the current state. They did it with passion, not for their current position but for finding something new, something not yet discovered.

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Mind mapping has been around for years and it’s a terrific tool for expanding ideas. They are great for working through all the thinking associated with a specific idea and putting it into some sort of order.

What I’ve been looking for though is something that allows me to collect a bunch of related ideas and organise them. I’ve needed something that allows me to get the thoughts out of my head and on to something I can work with. For that task Mind Maps don’t quite work for me. In the past I’ve tended to use paper and pens or Post-its (nothing wrong with that), and sometimes PowerPoint.

I’ve recently discovered a great (free) tool that allows me to collect my ideas and organise my thinking into a concept map – a new term for me. From the concept map I can take the key concepts and expand and refine them as mind maps. The mind maps allow me to sort, categorise and expand sub-ordinate thoughts; I can document these into very specific outputs and actions.

The following is a concept map that shows the process and the relationships between Concept Maps and Mind Maps.

InnovationTools provides entrepreneurs and innovators with a focused, growing collection of the best resources on business innovation, creativity and brainstorming. Our goal is to help you to learn more about the tools, strategies and techniques you can use to be more creative in your business — and to help your company to increase its capacity for innovation and change.

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