Creative Thinking Strategy 5: Connecting the Unconnected

Changing the way you inherently think about things is never easy, but creative thinking techniques such as Random Objects will help you make connections that you previously wouldn’t have made. Connecting the unconnected is about connecting your subject to something that is unrelated. Forcing these connections help generate a host of associations and connections to dissimilar ideas. The Random Objects technique has you select and examine 5 objects at random, and then draw connections based on the characteristics of those objects.

Results, lessons learned, identified solutions:

Here are some things I was thinking about when completing this technique.

• TVàBroadcasting/NewsàPut CAP recruitment video on the TVs in Heavener Hall
• Attention Grabbing Poster on TV in Heavener Hall (TVs in Academic Advising)
• SocceràCompetitionàCompetition among CAPs for recruiting (winner gets gift card, or ticket to travel or Disney, OR Gainesville Hot Air Ballooons!!)
• Reach out to study abroad department more in order to find students have completed study abroad and who are involved in other student organizations
• Free drinks and food at recruiting events
• Hot Air BalloonàTourismàTourism marketingàA lot of tourism is online which is how I thought of expanding online to have a completely separate CAP website where we have pictures, information on becoming a CAP, it would link to the current Heavener Website, the application would be on that page, and everything you need to know about recruitment dates and events would be there. Having this site would also be crucial to the marketing effort because now we could just send anyone who is interested to one website. Maybe we also have a QR code on our flyers which link to the website. We could also put QR codes on what we call handbills, which are essentially small slips of paper with our name, info, office hour times on it etc. (similar to a business card)