Brutethink Archives

Massively increase your creative options for finding novel ways forward – Use Brutethink to give your brain a real workout in making new connections

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Why take this challenge?

Move outside the invisible confines of our current thinking patterns

Develop techniques and skills to introduce radical new ideas to your work

Build a culture of more innovative working patterns and processes

Graphic image reflecting different pathways to take the adventure

Our brains are immensely powerful organs. But they are also correspondingly lazy. They like spending time in what they know and where they feel confident and comfortable. As a result they tend to get themselves into ruts, and to justify that by being very competent and confident in that rut.

Creativity, by its very nature, is about stepping out of the rut.

I caught a clip for a reality TV programme recently, with one of the judges expounding that ‘You can’t teach creativity’. The phrase and the tone annoyed me – it conveyed a sort of ‘you’ve either got it, like me, or you never will!’ arrogance. But, in a way, what she said is technically correct. You can’t teach it! And ‘you can’t teach it’ because we all have it. Even if statements like the example above make us believe we don’t. What we need to teach is the confidence to access it.

Developing that confidence can benefit immensely from creative tools. Our brains may be reluctant to find ways to climb out of their comfortable ruts. But if, by means of a simple tool, you place them a distance away from that rut, you will be surprised at the speed and pace they can make connections to get back into it. The thing is, that any way in is also a way out. And once seen, it cannot be unseen.

This is the premise behind the Brutethink technique which Michael Michalko describes on page 157 of his delightful Thinkertoys book. Take a word at random, and make connections between it and the means to resolve your current issue.

+ Green track - taking it in your stride

Personal Brutethink

So the green track for this week’s adventure is to simply take Brutethink out for a spin. Take a problem where you feel it might be good to find an new, creative, innovative solution to help you move forward.

Now, to save you creating your own, I offer you the random word ‘pimple’ (generated from the tool you will find in the ‘Pack’ section). And for 5 minutes (please use a timer) I would ask you to think about the following questions:

What are all the things you might associate with a pimple that might spur new ideas?
Are there any characteristics of a pimple’ that stimulate new possibilities?
Is there anything in your experiences of a pimple that offer clues on a way forward?
Supposing you combined ‘pimple’ with ‘binding’ – does that suggest anything?

My hope is that there will have been something that you hadn’t thought of before. Something with possibilities worth considering further. Please write them down.

And that is it. If you want to repeat the exercise, leave it until tomorrow. Then use the Brutethink random word generator (in the ‘Pack’) for your next word. In the meantime, you may find your brain is still making connections that could come out later in the day.

+ Blue track - a bit of a workout (click to open)

Team based Brutethink

Brutethink is a great tool to use with your team, and so that is your blue track adventure.

Organisations are mostly not sufficiently innovative because, by and large, they don’t actually make time for creative activity. Not for the rank and file in respect of routine activities. And yet there is plenty of potential for innovation therein. So, for your next meeting, identify something on the agenda that would benefit from some creative possibilities, and schedule the time to use Brutethink on it. Then use the Brutethink random word generator (in the pack) to suggest a perspective.

Brutethink in teams has a different dynamic. You typically get more humour, people banter off each other, the energy lifts. And the inclusion of ‘stupid’ ideas is perfectly valid. All thoughts provide new possibilities for peoples minds to find an interesting way back into the problem. You may get a bit of resistance if they don’t like the word, or if they feel 5 minutes is too long. But please stick with it. Often the most unlikely and hard fought connections can provide the greatest insight

In teams, you might like to run the exercise more than once consecutively, but I would suggest no more than three.

+ Red track - stepping up to bat (click to open)

Using TRIZ to fish in better stocked ponds

The red track for this adventure is very advanced and concerns the use of a tool called TRIZ as a replacement for the random words in Brutethink.

There is not time or space here to go into detail on TRIZ (which is amazing, and well worth a read) except to say that analysis of all patents ever generated shows that there are basically only 40 inventive concepts. And that these inventive concepts are continually reinterpreted for each new field of study. Furthermore, each invention is a means to resolve two conflicting needs that would otherwise require a compromise. And once you can see this, each conflict has at most 5 concepts that typically pertain (and usually less).

The point about TRIZ is, that once you have articulated the conflict, you can identify in generic terms the most relevant concepts. And then brainstorming around these concepts has a much higher yield rate in truly creative options.

TRIZ is entirely open source. It is predominantly applied in technology. However, the use of metaphor can help its insights extent to the procedural, behavioural and cultural. The red-track, if you choose to take it, is to understand more about TRIZ and its potential – beginning with the resources you will find in the Pack.

You may find the following resources helpful in tackling your challenge or in gaining further benefits from the skills and insights you develop

To catch up on past adventures you may have missed, feel free to browse our Adventures Library

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Useful links:

Introduction to Leading by Adventure  |  What we mean by spirituality?  |  Why Adventure
Adventures to date   |  I did it, but it didn’t work very well   |  How do I know if it is working
Bringing this thinking into your meetings   |  Adventure & Mental Health
Leading by Adventure community   |  Explore Strategic Support options