{"id":1192,"date":"2014-09-23T10:00:08","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T08:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hatrabbits.com\/?p=1192"},"modified":"2023-11-21T15:32:04","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T14:32:04","slug":"your-5-step-recipe-for-creative-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hatrabbits.com\/en\/your-5-step-recipe-for-creative-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Metaphor – Your 5-step recipe for creative solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes it can be difficult to find new ideas to tackle a challenge. Perhaps you have been working on the subject for a long time, or maybe other people in the past have already thought long & hard about your issue. It’s not easy to find novel approaches when most of the territory has already been explored. Fortunately, there is a solution to this dilemma. <\/em><\/p>\n

When you change your perspective<\/a><\/span>, it becomes easy to spot new insights and to generate original ideas. One way to change your point of view is by using a metaphor.<\/p>\n

Metaphors appeal to our imagination. That\u2019s why they are widely used to simplify stories. Metaphors help to bring your message across and they make examples less confrontational.<\/p>\n

Besides using metaphors to tell a rich and entertaining story, you can also utilize them to generate creative ideas. By altering the context of a challenge it becomes easier to see new possibilities.<\/p>\n

Rephrasing your challenge into a metaphor can help you look at it in a different way. Using a metaphor is a powerful technique to help you escape existing thinking patterns and to generate alternative solutions.<\/p>\n

It takes 5 steps to use a metaphor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Define your challenge.<\/li>\n
  2. Choose a metaphor<\/li>\n
  3. Reformulate your challenge<\/li>\n
  4. Use your new challenge to generate ideas<\/li>\n
  5. Modify the ideas into useful solutions<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Let\u2019s explore this method step by step. We will look at an example which is not uncommon in large organizations.<\/p>\n

    One department – let\u2019s say the innovation unit<\/a><\/span> – develops ideas and technologies that are not used by the division for whom they have been developed. The ideas and tools themselves are novel and useful but they solve the wrong problem or are developed for the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n

    Because of the absence of clear communication and collaboration, the new ideas are often misunderstood or don’t survive\u00a0the not invented here syndrome<\/a><\/span>. They will rarely lead to successful implementation.<\/p>\n

    If we were to use a metaphor to tackle this challenge, it would look something like this.<\/p>\n

    Step 1. Define your challenge.<\/h3>\n

    What is your goal? What do you want to achieve? What is your desired outcome? Before you start, redefine your objective into a creative question<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

    We could describe this particular challenge as:<\/p>\n

    How can we make sure that the ideas that we develop fill a need within our company?
    \n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    Step 2. Choose a metaphor<\/h3>\n

    Now that we have defined our challenge, we can choose a metaphor. We can pick one randomly or we can deliberately make one up.<\/p>\n

    Connect your challenge with an unrelated field. Make a comparison with something that is distant from your challenge. One that is rich and sparks your imagination.<\/p>\n

    Some examples:<\/p>\n

    Finding ideas that fill a need within our company…<\/p>\n

    … is like directing a movie
    \n… is like building a house
    \n… is like cooking dinner for friends.
    \n… is like driving a taxi
    \n… is like playing in a rock band
    \n… is like writing a novel
    \n… is like keeping a pet<\/p>\n

    Let’s use ‘cooking dinner for friends’ as our metaphor. A weird but compelling comparison.<\/p>\n

    Finding ideas that fill a need within our company<\/em>
    \n …is like cooking dinner for friends. <\/em><\/p>\n

    Step 3. Reformulate your challenge into a new objective<\/h3>\n

    Use your metaphor to define a new challenge.<\/p>\n

    How can we make sure that the ideas that we develop fill a need within our company?<\/em><\/p>\n

    becomes<\/p>\n

    How can we make sure that all our friends enjoy our dinner? <\/em><\/p>\n

    Step 4. Use the new objective to generate ideas<\/h3>\n

    How would you tackle this new challenge? What kind of ideas come to mind?<\/p>\n

    We can make our friends enjoy the dinner in several ways.<\/p>\n