Think in new ways

Word connections are an idea generation method that will help you develop ideas that are out of the ordinary. Pick a word that describes the problem you are currently trying to solve. That word will be your object. For example, if the problem is that a village lacks clean water; your object word might be water.

Next, use either yourself or a dictionary to come up with list of random nouns not directly related to your object and these will be your response word. It is important there will not already a connection between the object and the response word. If water is your object word, fish would be an example of a bad response word. An example of good response words for water would be; bike, documentation and fashion. After you have your object and response words, it is time to start generating ideas. Try to connect your object word to your response word in terms of problem. Write your explanation or narration of your thought process for the connections.

Korankye Arthur, Rueben Griffith Bekoe and Joseph Russell Etroo have realized that they want to create a business idea that addresses the need to clean the trash in the community. They suggested trying the word connection method for generating ideas. They used ‘Trash’ as their object word and (Food, Car and Chair) as their response words. They then narrated how their response words connect to their object word.

FOOD: The consumption of food generates trash that will need to be collected. A trash collection company could target restaurants and market establishments as customers.

CARS: Cars are a large part of transportation to far away destinations. Often, much trash builds up in peoples cars. As a ways of promotion, the trash collection company could offer special deals for cleaning out cars to help get the name of the company out.

CHAIR: The trash collection company will need to consider how it will dispose of large items such as furniture including chairs. To better address this issue with as little trouble as possible throughout the year, they might choose to have a special day on a regular basis that is meant for picking up large items so that they can better manage the burden of transporting large items.

Through this exercise, they have come up with new ideas for their trash removal business just by thinking about these words that they thought had nothing to do with their idea. They may use these ideas or may not but this definitely got them thinking creatively about their business.

This principle can both be used by people starting a business and those already in business.

Think outside the box and figure out more ideas about your business venture.