Stimulate Your Brain

You can stimulate your own brainstorms in a hundred ways. A toy manufacturer brainstorms by parking his car beside a playground and watching children at play. A production boss walks along an assembly line, notebook in hand, noting down every idea that occurs to him.

Thumbing through magazines, the indices of technical journals, a catalogue of parts can be stimulating if it bears a relationship to your problem. For example, a chemist might ignite ideas by glancing through a list of chemicals offered by a supply house. While he did it his subconscious might hook up combinations of chemicals he would never have thought of logically.

A writer I know gets ideas by wandering through a library, haphazardly walking from section to section, looking at titles, idly flipping open books, hitting on ideas almost by chance.

A sales manager can brainstorm by strolling through a busy supermarket or department store; an architect by driving slowly past many homes; a city planner by flying over his home town in a helicopter.

One way to brainstorm drugstore displays, for example, is to drop into a dozen drugstores, chat with the owners about what displays they use and why-and then sit in the car and note down any ideas you get, either from talking with the druggist, from seeing competitors’ displays, or just by seeing a drugstore in a new light.