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Article:
The Elements of Creativity: Attributes Listing Method by: Dr. Alvin Chan Attribute listing is one of the best ways to generate ideas, whereby there any many parts to the problem/ challenge faced. If you are asked to generate ideas or solutions to a complex challenge, the first thing you can do is to list all the attributes of your problem. These may include: Physical Mental Emotional Social and more (depending on the complexity of the challenge) By doing so, you can then concentrate on each attribute at a time. This will no doubt give you more peace of mind (and pulling of your hairs) when generating your ideas. The attribute listing technique is often used in a Research & Development (R&D) department of many companies, especially those who are constantly producing innovative products to have an advantage over their competitors. Let's go through this worked example to give you a better understanding of how attributes listing can be of help to you. For example, if your challenge is to design a new ladies' handbag, you could list the attributes as: the physical aspects which include- shape, length, colour, materials used and on the emotional aspects-the stress some women faced of misplacing their handbags. You might choose to first tackle the emotional stress of losing one's handbag by creating a new small gadget to be placed within the handbag to sound the owner that she is moving too far away (maybe one or two metre away) from her '˜treasure chest'. After that, you could work on the other attributes, one by one, be it the shape or materials used for the handbag. Putting Your Elements to Work: Try to generate oodles of ideas using attributes listing with these sets of challenges: 1. Design a new toy for children under 6 years old to teach them simple arithmetic. Safety is an important attribute. 2. Create a campaign to encourage people to stop smoking. (Think through the attributes: Physical, Mental, Emotional and Social) 3. Set up an effective marketing plan (there are many parts to a good marketing plan: the 4 P's '“ Product, Price, Place and Promotion) for your new products. Have Fun! About The Author Dr. Alvin Chan is a Senior Research Consultant at First Quatermain Centre of Collaborative Innovation (www.firstquatermain.com). Please contact heartware2002@yahoo.com as a courtesy when reprinting the article online and/or offline. bizguru88@hotmail.com This article was posted on November '15
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