Coaching practices for How to Generate More Ideas
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Generate More Ideas, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I come up with three or four obvious options, one of them seems fine, and I just grab it
- I stop brainstorming the moment I have a few decent ideas, satisfied too early
- The second an idea pops up I’ve already told myself why it won’t work, so it dies before I’ve even finished thinking it
- I’ve hit a wall where every new idea is just a slight rewording of the last one
- I grab the first decent idea that shows up and run with it, because it seems good enough and I’m impatient
Practices that may help
- Go for quantity first
Aim for a high number of ideas; the best ones tend to come later in the list.
Divergent Thinking: Generating Many Ideas - Maximize quantity of ideas before evaluating
Set an explicit quantity target — generate at least 20 ideas before reviewing any of them.
The Medici Effect: Innovation at the Intersection - Defer judgment during generation
Generate ideas with no criticism, then evaluate in a separate pass.
Divergent Thinking: Generating Many Ideas - Use SCAMPER and other prompts to vary ideas
Apply structured prompts (substitute, combine, adapt, modify, etc.) to push ideas in new directions.
Divergent Thinking: Generating Many Ideas - Quantity first: generate the most ideas possible before evaluating any
The best way to have a good idea is to have many ideas — originality rises with volume, so generate recklessly before selecting.
The Beginner’s Mind in Creative Practice - The obvious veto: reject the first three ideas before keeping any
Force yourself to generate more by vetoing the first plausible ideas — they are almost always the most obvious ones.
Deliberate Constraints, Made Practical - Harvest and cluster ideas after the session
The generation phase is worthless without a systematic harvest: sort, name, and prioritize the output.
Osborn’s Brainstorming Rules, Made Practical - Go for quantity over quality
Set a raw count target — the goal is many ideas, not good ones.
Osborn’s Brainstorming Rules, Made Practical - Divergent Thinking: Generating Many Ideas
Divergent thinking is generating many varied ideas before judging any of them — the opposite of converging on one answer. The most reliable practical principle is to separate idea generation from evaluation. An honest caveat: traditional group brainstorming usually underperforms the same people working alone and pooling ideas, due to a documented productivity loss. - Separate divergence from convergence sessions
Keep idea generation and idea selection in separate sittings — never mix the modes.
Quantity Over Quality: How More Drafts Produce Better Work
Related concerns
- How To Generate Ideas
Aim for a high number of ideas; the best ones tend to come later in the list.
Go for quantity first
- How To Have More Ideas
Aim for a high number of ideas; the best ones tend to come later in the list.
- Divergent Thinking Generating Many Ideas When Starting Out
Divergent thinking is generating many varied ideas before judging any of them — the opposite of converging on one answer. The most reliable practical principle is to separate idea generation from evaluation. An honest caveat: traditional group brainstorming usually underperforms the same people working alone and pooling ideas, due to a documented productivity loss.
- Generative Fluency Original Ideas
Force yourself to generate more by vetoing the first plausible ideas — they are almost always the most obvious ones.
The obvious veto: reject the first three ideas before keeping any
- How To Generate Original Ideas
Set an explicit quantity target — generate at least 20 ideas before reviewing any of them.
Maximize quantity of ideas before evaluating
- How To Vary Ideas
Aim for a high number of ideas; the best ones tend to come later in the list.
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