Here, there are 5 more in my list (continued from the previous blog) that will help generate ideas...
-Attend seminars/workshops. I have seen that very often, attending such meetings, generate ideas. So, even if you don't see a visible benefit for the seminars/workshops, sign up for them, if you want to generate ideas.
-Take a break and come back. Very true. I've experienced it several times during my own work. As software professionals, we are so used to sitting long hours on a problem, that we run out of ideas soon. Time and again, looking at the same problem and our solution to it, won't help. I bet, most of us, face similar situations, but many are unaware. Try out what i just said, take a small break from what you are doing; when you come back, i'm sure you will have a solution, or at least a way to work around the original problem.
-Get them reviewed. Again, working in software has helped me gain this insight. In software, we use reviews by other people to catch the errors in what we do. Whether it is a peer review or a management review (in work-related scenario), reviews will often work wonders. Extending this a bit further to suit our scenario, another pair of eyes will help us generate many new ideas. Don't think, it is because of your inabilities that you missed these ideas, but it is basically because your eyes and mind get tuned to the issue, after spending a long time on it.
-Expert advice. Sometimes, whatever you do, you find yourself stuck. Even after applying all these tactics, we fail to generate more ideas. In such case, read/listen to experts. It is not necesary that the experts has to be from the same field of work, but maybe something related. Some other times, you may get ideas from a person, who is completely untouched by your area of work. But, that is rare, unless you are extremely observant. If that doesn't give you ideas that you can apply immediately to get over the problems, at least it will give you ideas which can generate the idea that will help achieve the solution. Experts can point you to the right locations, which you can tap to get to the final solution. These can be termed nested idea generators; and know that the nesting can go to any level. But, very often, people get tired after a few nestings, that they give up.
-Look around. In this world, everything is inter-related, including our own life and everything that happen in our lives. Facets of your own life are related to many others, most importantly your family, your colleagues, and many non-living things like your work, the society you live in etc. This also means that ideas are inter-related and co-exist with other similar or even widely differing ideas. One most important source of ideas are analogies. There are parallels in every industry to every other, some are evident, while others are not. Experts term these as metaphors. Metaphors often are found in two dissimilar industries, cultures or way of lives. Metaphors are such powerful objects, that there are examples throughout the history of mankind about many discoveries and inventions that happened likewise. So, if you happen to come across one, just look around and sure will you find similar metaphors, which can be shaped to ideas.
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