My experience was that solutions to problems often popped up after leaving
work and overnight when the day's pressures were off. I suggest having your
staff brain-storming sessions first thing in the morning when everyone is
fresh and rested (and never at the end of the day when they're tired and
just want to go home). Include the secretary and the floor sweeper;
sometimes these folks know a lot more about what's really going on than
they're given credit for.

There is a tendency in brain-storming sessions for the natural-born critics
to jump on every new idea and expound at length on why it won't work. Don't
allow this (at least not beyond the point where the identification of
legitimate considerations are being politely identified). Criticism and
censure stifle the expression of thoughts formed "outside the box".

David Merrill

"Tom Gardner" wrote in message
...
On one of my recent posts, you kind people pointed out that there are many
ways of doing something. Simple observations are often the most profound.
I'm not a master at being able to see a problem from different angles and
visualize different solutions. It seems that some parts of one idea
affect
another so the ideas are not independent, not "clean" and
compartmentalized.
I met with my guys today and discussed if we could figure out how to think
about different ways of doing things we are developing. I want multiple
solutions presented and thinking out of the box. It seems there is always
a
brute-force method of doing something yet the "other" idea, the one that
springs into existence at the odd hour, is often better, cheaper and more
elegant. How do you attract those "other" ideas?

Is there a method or exercises to develop creative thinking? Cutting
metal
and drilling holes is the easy part, how do you completely forget an idea
in
order to "see" a new idea? This may come easily for an intelligent person
but I struggle with my mental limitations.