Creative Thinking Strategy 4: Making Novel Combinations

Often times when we are thinking about solutions to a problem we will keep coming up with the same old ideas. The obvious problem here is that if we keep coming up with the same solutions, we will keep having the same problems. Getting out of this unproductive mindset may require you to create new and novel combinations to refocus your attention to a different part of the problem. A Key Word Combo will help refocus this attention. This technique revolves around randomly selecting four things as mental stimuli, and then combining and recombining different ideas as they relate to the stimuli and the specific challenge.

Results, lessons learned, identified solutions

My Key Word Combo gave me some unique ideas. A few ideas revolved around making a unique go pro video that markets the different parts of CAPs. The video should include testimonials from past mentors, perhaps feature some of the fun social aspects of CAPs, and highlight some of the benefits of being a mentor (including pay, professional development, and networking). Cool CAP T-shirts that highlight recruitment, or perhaps don’t, would be awesome marketing tools. I definitely think giving out free t-shirts would be cool but I’m not sure if this is feasible because of expense. The CAP shirts should have a catch phrase that is unique and that draws attention. Maybe the shirts are the same theme as the overall recruitment theme for that year. I also think a forum would be a great idea for CAPs. This forum would show the video, have skits performed by CAPs, maybe a meet and greet session etc. Making novel combinations gave me some good twists on traditional ideas, as well as combinations of ideas that could work well together.