FROM DILIP MUKERJEA'S ITINERANT TOOLBOX: BRAINSTORMING

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Method 2

This time, select a two-word expression for your problem, theme, or targeted idea. For example, you could use the words in this technique, chain and reaction as the starting and ending words respectively. Now create intermediate idea bouncers (stepping stones) say, five in number.

We could proceed as follows:

Chain-------------------------- Reaction

The intervening words can then be, for example: links, shirt, anger, relationship, and chemistry. That is, chain makes me think of links which reminds me of shirt (because of cuff links), and so on, when finally, chemistry reminds me of reaction.

Let us now apply this technique to a problem, using an institution’s initials as the starting ‘word’:


Once the intervening words have been supplied, we take each word in the verbal chain and associate it with our problem, that is, for ITE to make a breakthrough.

The example shown above is by no means all that can be spun off; the associations are limitless. Now you try it with a real life situation that needs attention.

For example, you could get going with:

Marital................................................ Relationship or

Office...................................................Politics or

Power...................................................Vacuum etc.

[Excerpted from 'Surfing the Intellect: Building Intellectual Capital for a Knowledge Economy', by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]