"Can you make me be more creative?"

Yesterday, I was talking with a couple friends when one asked two of my favorite questions.  "What happens when someone can't think of any ideas? You can't force them to be more creative, right?"

I rubbed my hands together, thrilled at the challenge that was coming.  "Actually, I can."

Eyebrow raised now, my friend asked.  "Oh really? How?"

I gave them an example:

Ok, you're trying to think of ways to improve a car.  Are you thinking about making it faster, more powerful, more luxurious, bigger, safer, or with better fuel efficiency?

As expected, they were guilty as charged.

Then, I told them I was going to give them a completely Random Word that they were going to have to connect with their goal of improving a car. 

Their word was "Washing Machine."

One of them started out hesitantly "Well, you could put a washing machine in the car."

Then the other jumped in, "Or, what about a dryer?  Wouldn't that be more useful if clothes got wet?"

"Or what about making the inside of the car able to dry itself?  That would really be a great feature if you live in a wet climate and left the window open."

Three ideas in about 10 seconds.

And the interesting thing is that each of those ideas has potential if developed further:

• A washing machine in the car itself might not be feasible, but could they be combined in some other way? What if someone was able to turn on the washing machine at home from their car so that the clothes would be ready for the dryer when they got home?

• A dryer in the car could be pretty useful.  What about those days when you're in a rush and have to run out the door before your clothes are completely dry? 
  
  Or, what if you find out that the shirt you desperately wanted to wear was full of wrinkles?  Or what if you regularly cart around a bunch of swimmers?

• And check out how the last idea turns into a very valuable concept.  Not only does the idea of an car-interior dryer sound appealing to anyone who has ever had a convertible or got snow in the car, it also brings up the thought: ways of removing water from inside the car. 
  
  As another way of doing this, what about adding a dehumidifier function to the car's air system?  It's extremely dangerous to drive when the whole front is fogged up, and sometimes just breathing can be enough to cloud up the windshield.  Wouldn't it be nice to have an easier way to get rid of that?

So, that's the result of forcing two people to think creatively for about 10 seconds.  Not bad, huh?

Imagine what would come up if a bunch of people did creativity exercises like that for a decent amount of time...

The results can be pretty impressive. 

European idea factory Brainstore can get hundreds of ideas from their program participants in a hour. 

SolutionPeople in the US was able to inspire 500 Fast Company conference participants to come up with 5,000 ideas--in 10 minutes.

All from methods that force creativity.  Sounds like something worthwhile to learn, doesn't it?