Creativity Tool: Unlikely Restriction

"Necessity is the mother of invention" as the famous saying goes. Impossible situations often bring out creative ideas and solutions, as it turns out.

The reason for this is that when you are thinking in normal circumstances, you are satisfied with making small changes and adjustments that offer a partial solution to the situation.

However, when a major restriction is involved you are pushed to question your basic assumptions, as you realize that something very different from what you know is required.

Following are a few steps you can follow for using "Unlikely Restriction" as a creative tool. I include two detailed examples to make the steps clearer:

1. After a regular goal or problem is chosen, write it down in it's "normal form":
• Example 1: I want to have more time for myself in the evenings.
• Example 2: The company needs to cut costs by 10%.
  
  
2. Make the goal or problem outrageously more difficult to achieve, and add a restriction to it:
• Example 1: I want to have 4 days a week absolutely free, without giving up my standard of living.
• Example 2: The company has to cut costs by 75%, without firing any employees.
3. Work on ideas to reach the redefined outrageous goal: This may require some time to get going, but you can make things even more "stressful" and restricted by setting a time limit for coming up with suggestions.
4. Do one of the following:
• Use the creative solutions you have reached to achieve the outrageous goal.
• Implement a "softer" version of the radical solution to achieve your original, normal goal

Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com

Amir Elion is a management and innovation consultant and facilitator. His Practical Creativity website on www.best100ideas.com includes numerous creativity and innovation tools. The tools and ideas on this article as well as other creative ideas in many fields and creativity tools, may be found on the free monthly Creative Ideas Newsletter: www.best100ideas.com/newsletter.shtml

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