thinkinghow.com

All thinkers, creators and innovators need to be able to share their ideas with others in order to give them value and life.

As the saying goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Yes, mostly true. Here are ways of communicating complex ideas that have caught my eye recently.

• Complex concepts explained in a few words. NEW MATH by Craig Damrauer

• Telling one story well (though this may be a case of using statistics to suit a purpose…).

• And finally, explaining REALLY big things such as the US Stimulus package. See the full series of illustrations at Life of HOK

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In my last post a suggested some ways to innovate in a down economy. Two suggestions I made was to Observe and to Collect Ideas, but I should’ve  also added Share.

In that spirit I’d invite you to take a look at the following article which presents 10 actions for better (sustainable) design.

Allan Chochinov, editor-in-chief at Core 77, was a speaker at Compostmodern on Saturday, and presented some great steps for designers. He calls them “Denting an Impossible Design Problem in 10 Sustainable Steps.”

While these are intended to apply to sustainable design I think that they are equally applicable to any project requiring creative thinking. Allan’s steps were:

1. Acknowledge the privilege you have as a designer.
2. Use the word “consequence”.
3. Question authority.
4. Surround yourself with the awesomest people you can.
5. Don’t play fair.
6. Be intentionally dumb.
7. Redistribute – then reduce, reuse, and recycle.
8. Broaden your market.
9. Indulge in discursive design.
10. Talk to anyone who will listen.

For an expanded commentary of the ten steps take a look at the TreeHugger article.

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There are two words that can help us achieve more creative and innovative thinking. Those two words are “What if”.

“What if” takes us from our current state directly to an imagined future state. It is an instant leap across a creative chasm. The chasm could be narrow and shallow, wide and deep, or any combination in between.

Standard Podcast [ 1:26 ] Play Now | Play in Popup

• What  if … was bigger / smaller?
• What if … went this way instead of that way?
• What if … we do it / don’t do it on a Saturday?
• What if we added / left out …?
• What if…
• What if…

The hard part of course is getting from the here and now to the imagined “What if”. It does need receptive and open minds ready to consider the imagined state.

Every “What if” won’t be a winner, infact very few will have any “legs” at all. But, to get to that gem of an idea, that break-through thought, that innovative seed - start with “What if”.




I’d love your feedback. Please leave a comment or contact me directly through the “Contact Me” button under my photo.

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