Sometimes you have to switch perspectives to find new solutions- otherwise you can get stuck in your own box. This is a very simplified version of the ‘Crossing Borders‘ method that will help you to conquer fixed thinking patterns.
How does the 'Crossing Borders' method work?
• You can do this on your own or together with a colleague. Take a piece of paper and on the top you write your challenge or problem. Then write down 2 or 3 ideas how you could solve that challenge.
• Then you imagine that you are one of your colleagues and write down how that colleague would solve the challenge. Again you write down 2 or 3 other solutions.
• Then imagine that you were working in a different department of your company. Instead of being an … [your job title], you are now working in marketing or HR or finance and generate again 2 or 3 new ideas what they would do if they had a similar challenge.
• Next round is thinking about a competitor and write down a few ideas how they would tackle the challenge.
• Round 4: Imagine that you’re not working in your own industry anymore but you work in automotive or in government or you’re an employee in an amusement park; how would they cope with a similar challenge?
• And finally you take a totally ‘random’ person – your neighbor, a good friend, the president of the US, … and come up with 2 or 3 extra ideas.
It's important to keep up the speed and try to finish this exercise in max 6 minutes (so 1 minute / different perspective).
Then scan the list of 12-18 ideas and check if there’s one idea (or a part of an idea) that might be interesting to explore.
I’m quite sure you will find 1 or 2 ideas that jump out and those could be the start of a real breakthrough idea to solve your challenge.
Mission completed.