The Little Blue Reasoning Book - Brandon Royal [14]
Advertising and Promotion
How many ways can you think of to promote our company’s business? (At this stage, let your imagination go wild: wacky, impractical ideas are as welcome as practical ones. Quantity over quality: the list can be whittled down later.)
REFRAMING PROBLEMS
Tip #9: Consider whether a problem is really the problem. Think in terms of redefining the problem.
Ponder the following problem: “A restaurant is losing customers because customers are annoyed at how long it takes to line up outside in order to get a seat inside the restaurant.”
If you were hired as a consultant, reporting to the headquarters of the restaurant chain, what would you suggest?
Typical solutions to be anticipated include:
⇒ Enlarging the restaurant facilities in order to serve more customers
⇒ Streamlining the menu in order to make ordering and delivery of food faster
⇒ Refusing to let customers occupy tables if not ordering food; no “drinking-only” tables
These are all potential solutions. Nevertheless, they address only one of a number of possible general objectives: to speed up the process of getting customers through the dining process. An alternative goal is to find ways to keep people from getting annoyed at lining up. This suggests a host of potential strategies, such as installing televisions that customers could watch while they wait for a table, giving them free snacks while they wait in line, conducting market research while they wait in line, or having live entertainment (e.g., magicians) to amuse persons in the line.
Still another objective is to keep the restaurant from having too many customers at one particular time of day. One idea/strategy would be to get more of the regular restaurant customers to come at non-peak hours. This might be accomplished by giving special dinner or drink discounts during certain hours of the day or holding special promotional events, such as corporate cocktail parties, speaking engagements, book signings, guitar solos, or birthday parties for the elderly.
It is rare for people to step back and try to define alternative goals. Instead, most people read or hear of a problem and almost immediately begin generating strategies. One way to become more creative is by explicitly defining a minimum of two or three different goals for each problem situation.
Consider another example:
An agricultural importer’s association was attempting to seek a way to reduce the number of bruised pears which occurred when these fruits were transported.
The importers initially defined their goal as “decreasing the rate with which pears became bruised or damaged when shipped.” This led to various strategies for modifying distribution systems and packing procedures, such as including more padding around the pears and using smaller packing boxes. Although all of these strategies provided partial solutions, none was considered a breakthrough.
Reframing the problem led to a new goal: “creating a pear that is less likely to be bruised!”
This entailed hiring individuals to look into the process of breeding pears. By exploring strategies to modify the pear, a portion of the problem was eventually solved. An “apple-pear” was born — a fruit with some of a pear’s taste but with an apple’s sturdiness Now grocery stores could be supplied with large quantities of unblemished pear hybrids.
Get into the habit of asking if the problem really is the problem. Is the goal really the goal?
SELLING CREATIVE IDEAS
Tip #10: In selling creative ideas, most people are moved more by the depth of a person’s conviction and commitment than they are by the details of a logical presentation.
To turn any creative idea into an innovative reality, an individual must obtain the support of key persons in an organization. In reality, the acceptance of a creative idea will have as much or more to do with company politics as with technical considerations. First,