Generative Thinking
A simple method for combining contrasting ideas to generate new possibilities.
Generative Thinking: 1 + 1 = 3
In analytical thinking we often look for logical consistency between ideas. This is fine except when we are seeking new thinking — because analysis tends to lead to:
Conflict of ideas — which one is “correct” or “best”?
Addition of ideas — putting them together without creating anything new.
In generative thinking, we aim to spark one idea off another and create something new. This is why we call it 1 + 1 = 3 — the result is more than the sum of its parts.
A useful analogy is the difference between an association of cells that make up an organ in the body, and sexual reproduction, where a new creature comes into being with characteristics beyond either parent.
As in sexual reproduction, generative thinking requires contrasting ideas that challenge one another, allowing something new to emerge while still incorporating the starting ideas.
Exercise Instructions
Write a key idea related to your chosen problem in the left blue hexagon.
Write a second idea that contrasts with the first in the yellow hexagon.
Hold both ideas together and list any new, generated ideas that occur to you — ideas that take both into account and go beyond them. Allow yourself to be creative.
Select your most generative idea from the list and place it in the green hexagon.
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