A penny for your thoughts: swapping the SWOT for a better idea

How much is a good idea worth to you if you are struggling with a thorny issue or problem?

We skirt around the issue, trying to avoid looking directly into its eyes for fear of - what exactly? We are a funny lot aren't we.

The truth of the matter is, we usually know what needs to be done, the trouble is we rarely like the advice we are given (even if it is to ourselves). But there are times when we don't know what the answers are, because we don't know how to frame the question.

I've said many times, when you are faced with an issue or problem and don't know what to do - pretend it is a colleague or a family member who is struggling, and then offer them the benefit of your thoughts (advice). Of course everyone will have a different set of "advice" to offer, so it is down to us to choose which of the ideas we are willing to take on board, and use, and which we will dismiss out of hand. Ooh good - more reasons to procrastinate, "well I have to evaluate each idea and ... "

But what if it is a group problem? Or you need to think abstractly, can anything be done then?

Well we all know about brainstorming, how many of us haven't sat around a table and thrown ideas around? We also know and have probably used the dreaded SWOT analysis - and for those who have been blessed not to have been subjected to this process, it stands for:

strengths
weaknesses
opportunities and
threats

Truthfully, we all know what words we need to put into these 4 categories, we recite them like the timestables back in junior school, then promptly forget about the "issue" until the next round of meetings and planning days.

But what if there was another way to get creative at work, and elsewhere? As Daniel Pink found out recently there is a wealth of creativity out there, we just have to find it ...

Daniel Pink | NYT and WSJ Bestselling Author of Drive

On the first floor of the (e)merge art fair, Washington DC, Athena Robles and Anna Stein, two Brooklyn artists, set up an installation called The Idea Store.

The premise was simple. People who visited a makeshift storefront – could fill out a card offering an idea and get paid a penny for it. Robles and Stein then placed the card on the kind of rack you might find at a Hallmark store. Then other visitors could select an idea from the rack and purchase it for two cents.

A penny for your thoughts?

Elle