Coaching practices for How to Generate Original Ideas
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Generate Original Ideas, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I stop brainstorming the moment I have a few decent ideas, satisfied too early
- I grab the first decent idea that shows up and run with it, because it seems good enough and I’m impatient
- I come up with three or four obvious options, one of them seems fine, and I just grab it
- The first decent idea shows up and I grab it and call it done
- I sit down expecting something original to just arrive out of nowhere, and when the blank page stays blank I decide I’m not creative
Practices that may help
- 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - Steal, steal, then remix
Collect the best examples you can find, then combine and mutate them into something new.
Quantity Over Quality: How More Drafts Produce Better Work - Defer judgment during generation
Generate ideas with no criticism, then evaluate in a separate pass.
Divergent Thinking: Generating Many Ideas - Treat creativity as combination
Make new work by joining two existing things that haven’t been joined before.
Steal Like an Artist, in Practice - 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 - Cross-pollinate from distant domains
Pull ideas and analogies from fields unrelated to your problem.
Divergent Thinking: Generating Many Ideas - 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.
Related concerns
- 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
- 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.
- 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 Generate More Ideas
Aim for a high number of ideas; the best ones tend to come later in the list.
- 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 As A Parent
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.
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