Break Free from Stale Ideas with this Simple Tool
What do we do when we hit a creative block? You know the feeling—when ideas won’t flow, or everything seems uninspired. In this article, I’m going to share a proven tool that I’ve used with top designers, artists, animators, directors, and engineers to get them thinking differently. This approach will help you break free from stale ideas and spark creativity & innovation again.
The Problem: “Rivers of Thinking”
Why do we get stuck with safe or stale ideas? One of the main reasons is something called “rivers of thinking”, a concept coined by Edward de Bono. It describes how we fall into familiar patterns of thought over time. The more experience we gain, the deeper these rivers of recognition become. This causes us to go to the same well or “river” over and over. While expertise is valuable, it also narrows our perspective and limits fresh innovative solutions.
Think of it like this: corporations often stick to tried-and-true formulas—why do you think movie studios love sequels so much? They thrive in these safe, predictable “rivers.” But to unlock creativity, we need to break free from these boundaries.
A Real Example: Disney Cruise Line
Let’s take a look at how Walt Disney Imagineers approached designing cruise ship cabins. They challenged assumed rules (or “rivers of thinking”) around the Cruiseline industry.
Cabins are small.
Exterior cabins with windows are more desirable.
Not everyone gets a window.
Guests spend more time outside their cabin than inside.
With these assumptions laid out, they began to provoke some of these “rules” with “what if” questions:
Not everyone gets a window: “What if everyone got a porthole, even in interior cabins?”
Guests spend more time outside their cabin than inside—“What if interior cabins were more desirable than exterior ones?”
These types of provocations led to the creation of digital portholes for interior cabins. These screens show real-time footage of the outside, making it feel as if guests had a real window. But Disney didn’t stop there. They plussed the magic: characters like Nemo and Ariel among others would occasionally appear in the porthole, interacting with the outside scene, adding a whimsical, immersive touch.
The result? Interior cabins with digital portholes became more popular than exterior ones—a complete flip of the traditional cruise cabin industry hierarchy. This is the power of breaking free from those “rivers of thinking.”
How You Can Do It: The Steps
Here’s how you can use this tool in your own creative process:
List the “rules”: Start by writing down all the perceived hard-and-fast rules of your project or challenge. These are your “rivers of thinking”—the assumptions holding you back.
Provoke with “What if?”: Take the strongest rules and ask “what if” questions. Challenge the ones that seem the most rigid. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable with ideas.
Explore & Play: Play around with the ideas that emerge. Don’t dismiss anything too quickly. Push through your initial discomfort and keep asking, “What else is possible?”
Test & Refine: Once you’ve settled on a promising idea, start testing and refining it, remember no one knows if an idea will work until you stop talking and start doing.
Conclusion: Spark Your Next Big Idea
Remember, breaking out of stale thinking is all about challenging the status quo. List out your assumptions and then provoke them with big, bold “what if” questions. Be playful, curious, and courageous in your approach, and you’ll be amazed at what you can invent.