What is the ‘box’?

Where do new ideas normally

come from?

Luck!

There is a better way…

Provocation!

The Octopus & The Wedding

“OCTOPUS”

“8 Tentacles”

• Wedding Gown with 8 Ribbons (of 8 different colors) representing 8 Virtues of the Beloved

• 8 Ribbons to be wrapped around Bride & Groom as the 8 Virtues are read

HOW CAN WE IMPROVE WEDDING GOWNS??

The Tortoise & the Souvenir

“TORTOISE”

“Fortune”

• Small & Shiny Fortune-Telling ‘Sticks’ as Souvenir

• Each Stick = Discount Voucher

• Contributing organizations (e.g. Restaurants) can contribute to each stick

WHAT SOUVENIR CAN HONGKONG GIVE TO 25,000

PARTICIPANTS AT AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE?

Some lateral thinking techniques

#1 Practice random stimulation

Random Words

CoinZebraPianoPacific

Apply the random word to…

• Improving your department (marketing your product, yourself, etc.)

• Building a relationship

• Fresh learning / studying methods

• Helping the environment

#2 Produce as many options as possible

Other techniques

• Generation of alternatives

• Idnetify the concept

“Creativity begins with the generation of

alternatives”

Edward de Bono

Never stop at one or two ideas!

Invent. Reinvent. Invent. Reinvent. Repeat.Repeat.

Jot down ideas when they come

#3 Identify the concept

Don’t throw away ideas you don’t like!

#4 Challenge assumptions

A man worked in a tall office building. Each morning he got in he lift on the ground floor, pressed the lift button to the 10th floor, got out of the lift and walked up to the 15th floor. At night he would get into the lift at the 15th floor and get out again on the ground floor. What was the man up to?

#5 Suspend judgment

Be careful of conclusions!

“The need to be right all the

time is the biggest bar to new ideas. It is better to

have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong than to

be always right by having no ideas at

all ”

Edward de Bono

#6 Perform fractionation and reversal

Why?

• To break up solid unity of entity or item

• To relook and restructure ‘fixed’ sequences or divisions

• To force a different way of seeing things

Examples

• Education

• Holiday

• Workout Out

• Eating

• Facebooking / Web-surfing

Start or join new projects

Change your surroundings