Introduction

• General
  • Introduction
  • Definition

Topics

• Resources
• General

• Techniques
  • The bigger view
  • Change your character
  • Challenge current thinking
  • Confine the problem
  • Change the scene
  • Combining known ideas
  • Reverse thinking
  • Circumvent the issue
  • Lateral thinking
  • Logical approach
  • Aim for less
  • Multiple tools

• General principles
• Personnel and the meeting
• Prepare properly
• The meeting process
• The brainstorm process
• Simple example
• Managing the meeting process
• Assessing ideas
• Implementing ideas

Combining known ideas

Old ideas put together

The easiest approach to any problem is to use information and experiences that you already possess.
Many solutions are just old ideas combined in a different way to achieve what you want.
It is about applying the skills gained from different areas in the right combination to complete the desired task.

Human beings we are very good at taking multiple ideas and putting them together in differing patterns to achieve what we want.
The ultimate recombination of similar items in a different way are the life forms we see everyday.
Human beings, for example, have different shapes, heights, colour and many other attributes but are formed of the same basic atoms.

It is clearly harder to generate ideas from nothing when some of the potential solutions may well be already out there.

Brainstorm ideas for combination

So, why not brainstorm ideas that contain elements that already exist.
It doesn’t really matter how many of these ideas that you combine provided that the new combination is useful to the problem in hand.
Is this solution simple to understand and easy to implement?
Does it generate new issues that you do not want?
Have you, in fact, not moved forward at all?

Review their relevance

This technique is very good at coming up with products that seem very interesting but may be not much use if nobody wants them.
Make sure you check that the finished solution really is something that solves the problem – not just for you but the customer.

The advantage of combining existing ideas is that the result will often seem more palatable.
Known ideas appear to represent less risk and make them more acceptable.

When conducting this process look for ideas outside of what you currently know that would usefully add to the situation.
Are you looking for ideas from a wide enough circle? Consider different disciplines.

When moving from your current issue to the new, resolved solution what does this add?
Identifying this may help you think about which existing skills can make this happen.