There is More Than One Right Answer

One of the major roadblocks to creative thinking is the assumption that there's only one right answer to any problem or opportunity that you're having. We all know that there are hundreds or even thousands of ideas that are better than the first idea that you came up with. Unfortunately, most people stop thinking when they come across the first idea that has any merit at all.

A better approach is to come up with a lot of ideas first. Come up with one hundred ideas before you actually pick one. Why?

Because the best way to get a great idea is to get a lot of ideas to choose from.

A student in my class once asked, "Why would I come up with a bunch of answers if I already have a solution that will work?"

I explained it to him this way. "If you were looking for a date, would your rather have three girls to choose from or three hundred?"

Then the light bulb went off in his head. The best way to get a good idea is to get a bunch of ideas first.

In grade school we had to build homemade barometers in our garages. A barometer is a tool to measure pressure. Our homemade devices were just a simple design with plastic tubing filled with colored water. You can also use a barometer to determine altitude. The higher you go in altitude, the less pressure you have.

As part of the barometer project, we had to present our barometers to the class and answer questions from the teacher. The teacher asked one student how he would use his barometer to measure the height of a building. Of course, the teacher wanted him to say that he would go measure the atmospheric pressure at the bottom of the building, go measure it at the top of the building, and then use the pressure differential to determine the height of the building.

Instead, the student said, "Ok. I know how I can measure it. I would just go to the stairwell of the building and take my barometer with me. The barometer is twenty inches tall, so I can just mark off twenty-inch sections and then count them all the way to the top of the building."
"No, that's not really the answer I was looking for. How else could you use your barometer to measure the height of the building?"

"Well, I guess I could tie a string to my barometer, go to the roof of the building, lower the instrument down until it touches the ground, and then pull the string back up and see how long it is. Oh! And I know from my physics class that the equation for a falling object is ½ x gravity x times squared. So I guess I could just throw the barometer off the roof, time how long it takes to smash to the ground, and then solve the equation for the height of the building."

At this point the teacher was steaming. "You're driving me crazy! You know exactly what the barometer is used for. What is the simplest and easiest way to use that instrument to measure the height of the building?"

Well, I don't know about you but I'd knock on the superintendent's office door and say, "Hey! Look at this cool barometer I built. I'll give it to you if you tell me how tall this place is."

Just remember, one big roadblock to creative thinking is assuming there's only one right answer. The best way to find a great answer or idea is to generate a large selection of possibilities to choose from first.

Go for the unexpected. Don't limit yourself with logic and specificity. Ask yourself, how else can this be interpreted? By allowing yourself to be ambiguous, by allowing yourself to think about something in a new way, you'll gain an entirely new perspective - and discover a multitude of solutions to your problem.

Mark L. Fox http://www.davinciandthe40answers.com