If you have tried brainstorming and have been disappointed with the results, you are not alone. Brainstorming has been shown in research to be a minimally effective approach for generating ideas.

Looking at his own experiences, the latest research in social psychology and how artists collaborate, Jeffrey has developed a new approach to creative problem solving called "anticonventional thinking" (learn more here). Unlike Brainstorming, anticonventional thinking does not aim to generate a large number of mundane ideas in hopes that there will be a few gems hidden among them. Rather, it aims to trick the mind into rejecting conventional thinking in favour of unconventional solutions.

From Baumgartner's "Anticonventional Thinking" article we have these quotes:

p.3 Anticonventional thinking is purposefully rejecting conventional ideas in favour of unconventional ideas in problem solving. It emulates the way artists, writers, scientists and other highly creative people think.

p.4 Ideas do not just rain down from the heavens and into the minds of creative thinkers. Rather they are generated to solve problems

p.6 Probably the most important element of an ACT cycle is the provocateur.

p.6 The first thing to do is to ask the five whys...  with the last why, we have come to the real problem... With this knowledge, we can construct a provocative challenge that addresses the real problem

p.6-7 In addition to the five whys, you can ask questions such as “why have  I/we not solved this problem already?”, “How would I like the situation to be in six months/a year/five years?”, “Have our competitors/enemies also faced this issue and if so, what have they done?”, “What limitations must we bear in mind with respect to potential solutions?”, “What are the consequences of doing nothing?” and “By what criteria will we judge potential solutions?”

p.7 In ACT, we want far more provocative challenges that will encourage provocative, anticonventional, creative ideas. Compare the above challenge with these:

• How might we make shopping with us the best experience in our customers’ lives?

• How might we make visiting our shops as pleasurable as eating Belgian chocolate/kissing your lover?

• How might we bring tears of joy to our customers?

• How might we make shopping with us as addictive as heroin?

• What might our chief competitor do that would ensure we’d never see another customer again?

p.8 Averagely creative people – the bulk of the world’s population – have to work at making their challenges more provocative... The reason for being provocative in your anticonventional thinking challenge is to force people, who will come up with ideas, to use different parts of their minds when suggesting ideas.

p.9 In an ACT cycle... The first rule is that no conventional ideas are allowed. None. They are to be squelched. Rather, you only want unconventional ideas. This results in far fewer ideas, but they will be more creative and better developed. The second rule is that criticism is allowed, welcome and to be encouraged. However, it must be respectful criticism... ideas which seem flawed for any reason may also be criticised... Criticism... will indicate precisely why an idea deserves criticism and will challenge the person who suggested the idea to solve the weakness implied in the criticism...  the person who suggested the idea... must be allowed... to defend the idea... It is important that ideas generated in an ACT cycle are documented, such as by writing them down... Once an idea looks promising, the facilitator of the cycle should suggest that participants make note of the concept and then move on to develop other ideas.

p.11 When dealing with unusual ideas, nothing beats a prototype for getting a true feel for the idea, its potential as well as its flaws. Moreover, selling an idea to management, a client or a partner is a lot easier if you can put a prototype in their hands.

p.11 Abstract ideas can be more challenging to prototype. Imagine you wish to test ideas for improving communications within your global company. An actual prototype may be difficult. But making a map that shows communication flow can be effective... making a model of the network... has proven effective.

p.12 Imagination Club Presentation

This is based on the Brussels Imagination Club, a non-profit activity my friend Andy Whittle and I set up some years ago, and continue to run today. The principle to this approach is to make a 60-90 minute presentation of your concept to a diverse group of people. In an organisation, this should include people from different divisions. The presentation should not be a series of PowerPoint slides. Rather it should be creative, for example:

1. Demonstration of a prototype, including presentation, advertisement and sales pitch.

2. A training exercise showing people how to perform a new service.

3. A series of role plays showing how a concept will work.

The workshop starts with an explanation of the issue, the solution and the logic behind it. This is followed by the activity and then a wrap up conclusion. Afterwards, all participants are asked for feedback... It is more challenging but more productive to find ways to improve upon weaknesses in order to make an idea with potential into a success.

p.12 It never ceases to amaze me how often groups and organisations put a lot of effort into idea generation activities, but fail to implement anything. If you have no intention of realising highly creative ideas, it is far better not to bother with anticonventional thinking and focus on being consistently boring instead.

p.13 If the idea will not work, kill it. Just kill it, communicate what went wrong and focus on the next creative idea. Killing a weak idea early on frees up resources and creativity to focus on the next idea which may be far more successful.

p.13 In organisations that do not have a history of innovation, the implementation of highly creative ideas can be challenging. Change tends to make people in such organisations uncomfortable and, as a result, people will try to dissuade you from implementing unconventional ideas and, in extreme cases, may even sabotage your idea.

p.14-15 Like the full ACT cycle, Q&DACT [Quick and Dirty ACT] starts with an issue which is transformed into a provocative challenge. However, unlike in the full cycle, the challenge can be dynamic, changing as you generate ideas. Indeed, by continuously looking at the issue from different perspectives, you effectively enhance the creativity you inject into the issue. As you generate and play with ideas, write them down. But when you get an intriguing idea, stop and spend some time with it. Think about potential weaknesses and how you might deal with them. Think about objections others might have and how you might respond. Think about making the idea crazier, bigger and more detailed. Make notes, draw pictures or record your ideas.

p.17 However, there are three things we can do to help averagely creative people better emulate highly creative people.

1. Move the Idea Zone to different parts of the brain when problem solving.

2. Trick the mind’s censor into stopping mediocre ideas and letting through unconventional ideas.

3. Debate ideas rather than list them.

p.18 if you have ever watched a team of very creative people working on a problem, you will notice... they spend some time thinking first. Then, when one person suggests an idea, everyone either explores the idea and builds it up, or criticises it. If the idea is criticised, the person who suggested it or even another participant will often defend the idea. This can result in a debate which either strengthens the idea, which makes it more viable, or results in the idea being rejected so that new ideas can be explored.

  The process is highly animated, argumentative and results in fewer ideas than in a brainstorm. However, those ideas tend to be a lot more creative than the best results of a brainstorming event. With this in mind, it seems silly not to emulate highly creative people when you want to generate creative ideas.

p.20 I would argue that ACT is best when you want to be very creative; when you want to generate unconventional solutions to problems; when you want to seek ideas for breakthrough innovation... when you really want to knock someone’s (or a group’s or the public’s) socks off with your creative solutions, you cannot beat ACT.