Have you ever found yourself banging you head against the wall to try to solve a problem – sure we all have.

Well the answer may be to get out of the office, or wherever you are.  The key is to take a break from where you are to seek some new connections.

This is an approach we have been using ourselves and with clients for years.
Some of you may remember our first offices, where we set each room up as a different theme.  We had Dilbert Hollow, de Bono Drive, Buzan Central, the Bored Room (pun intended), and the idea Factory.

Each room was set-up with different posters, items of interest and provocations to spark thinking.  When we were looking for new ideas we could wander into a different room, flop on a couch or make a coffee and consider issues from a different angle.
This is similar to an approach used by Dr Nakamatsu, famous for his underwater ideation and more than 4000 patents.  Dr Nakamatsu has different real and virtual rooms in which he directs different types of thinking.

Recently we ran a workshop with a client at Museum Victoria’s Science Works, and the after lunch activity was for each participant to consider an issue they currently faced and then, armed with an understanding of concept extraction, we sent them out into the museum to look for connections and ideas to address some of their challenges.  It was great to see some of the ideas they came back with.
So if you want to find some new ideas, solve some old problems, or just have some fun – get out and about, and see what happens.