How to Get Ideas

Irrespective of the line of work we are in, we all want to get good ideas. Ideas to propel our careers, ideas for a new or existing business, ideas to market and sell products and services, or ideas for a scientific break through. Our civilization makes progress on the bedrock of great ideas.

But not all of us can pull ideas out of thin air. As a matter of fact, no body can.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a framework to generate ideas? A step-by-step approach that can enable effectively anyone to generate ideas? Well, as it turns out, such a framework exists.

I have been roughly using this technique for a long time myself to generate new ideas. But, quite unknowingly. So when I came across the book A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young, it was a déjà vu moment for me. This book is a short read. You can get through it in less than an hour.

James Webb Young was a driving force behind the creation of the modern advertising industry, and was one of advertising's most honored educators and practitioners.

Young’s framework for generating ideas is based on two foundational principles and a 5-step process.

Principle #1: An idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements.

Principle #2: The capacity to bring old elements into new combinations depends largely on the ability to see relationships.

Take a moment to digest that. When you’re done, move on to the 5-step process to generate ideas.

Step 1: Gather raw materials

Gather two kinds of materials: specific and general.

The specific materials are those related to the core topic such as the problem, the solution, the hypothesis, or the theory; and the people affected by the core topic. In marketing this can be related to the product and the consumer. Gather an intimate knowledge of the product and the consumer. If you go deep enough, or far enough, you will nearly always find that between every product and some consumers there is an individuality of relationship which may lead to an idea.

You can gather general material by being deeply interested in a wide variety of topics. Read, consume and reflect on anything that interests you: psychology, philosophy, religion, history, engineering, whatever you like.

Ideas will always result from a new combination of specific knowledge about products and people with general knowledge about life and events.

Step 2: Chew on the gathered materials

Take different bits of material which you have gathered and feel them all over with the tentacles of your mind. Take one fact, turn it different ways, look at it under different lights, and feel for the meaning of it. Bring two or more facts together and see how they fit, or don’t.

You’ll notice partial ideas coming to you. When you get tired of fitting the puzzle together, don’t give up. Keep going. When you feel jumbled up in your mind, when you feel hopelessly confused, you’re ready to move on to the next step.

Step 3: Drop the whole subject

Congratulations on gathering the materials and chewing on them over and over again! Now drop the whole subject.

Make absolute no direct effort. Put the problem out of your mind as completely as possible. By dropping the subject you’re turning over the problem to your unconscious mind and letting it work while you sleep.

Turn to whatever stimulates your imagination and emotions. Listen to music, watch a movie, read books, or go for a walk.

Step 4: The Idea appears out of nowhere

If you have done the first three steps well, the idea will come to you when you least expect it - in the shower, while doing dishes, or most often when you are half awake in the morning. It may also wake you up in the middle of the night.

Ideas come to you after you have stopped straining from them and have passed through a period of rest and relaxation from the search.

Step 5: Take your idea out in the world

Take your new-born idea out into the world of reality. And when you do, you usually find that it is not quite the marvelous child it seemed when you first gave birth to it. It requires a great deal of effort to make most ideas fit the exact conditions under which they must work.

Don’t hold your idea close to your chest. Submit it to the criticism of the judicious. When you do, a surprising thing will happen. You will find that a good idea has self-expanding qualities. It stimulates those who see it to add to it. Thus the possibilities in it which you have overlooked will come to light.

For  more inspiration on what to do when you come up with an idea you can read the children’s book What Do You Do With an Idea by Kobi Yamada. It is incredible how inspiring this book is even for adults. And if you have little ones at home like I do, read this book to them every once in a while.

I hope you come up with thousands of ideas!