Chapter 1: Ideation
Have you ever believed that creativity is something you either have or you don't? I used to. For years, I told myself I wasn't the creative type, and I'd blame my "lack of creativity" whenever I couldn't come up with a good idea. When I first learned about design thinking, I dismissed it as something that didn’t apply to me. But I was wrong. I discovered that I could learn to be creative and that using specific strategies could unlock ideas I never knew I had.
In the design thinking process, we ideate on potential solutions after we’ve empathized with key stakeholders about a particular challenge. Ideation is the process of brainstorming as many ideas as possible without thinking about feasibility, viability or desirability. When we brainstorm, we're often just told to come up with ideas. This unstructured approach can prevent us from reaching our full potential. To make sure we're getting the most out of ideation, we can follow these five guiding principles:
Withhold judgment: Focus on generating ideas without evaluating them.
Don’t limit yourself: It’s important to go for volume here, come up with as many ideas as you possibly can.
Consider missing voices: Who’s not part of the ideation process? What ideas might they have?
+1 Mentality: The ideation process is best done with a team. We encourage you to build off of each other’s ideas.
Don’t think about feasibility, viability or desirability: During ideation, don't worry about whether an idea is practical or can actually be implemented. Just get the ideas out there.
By shifting your mindset from "I'm not creative" to "I can learn to be creative," you can unlock new ideas and innovation. It’s crucial that we model this for students from a young age so they never count themselves out. What's one way you'll apply these strategies in your own work, or how will you guide your students to think differently about their own creative potential? Join the conversation on IYCInside.orgIYCInside.org.