Are Your Financial Decisions Becoming Stale? Here Are 3 Fresh Tools to Help!
Bruce Hokin
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There are many tools advertised to assist managers make better decisions. One of the most efficient ways to make a positive impact on tired decisions is to develop more options. More options will definitely help you make better decisions since you have more choices available. The 3 tools listed belo 
w are some of the most popular and easy to use.
Are you ready? Let's do it.
Fresh Tool #1. Random Input
This is the simplest of all creative thinking techniques. It is widely used by advertising agencies, new product teams, rock groups, playwrights, IT developers and many others. This tool was developed by Dr. Edward De Bono in 1968 but has been plagiarized and borrowed since then, often by folks who don't really know how to use it.
One way to use this technique is to compile a list of 60 words (e.g. tiger, nose, hamburger, plane, molecule, rubbish, dog, shoes etc). When you need a random word glance at your watch and note the seconds reading. Use that number to get a word from your list. We then use one of these words that has no connection with the situation and hold them both together. The mind is very powerful at linking these seemingly unconnected ideas together.
In Dr. De Bono's book "Serious Creativity" he offers the following illustration:
"Cigarette" linked with "Traffic Light". "Within a few seconds this led to the idea of printing a red band around a cigarette some distance from the butt end. This band would serve as a 'danger zone'. If you stopped smoking before you reached the band, your smoking would be safer (because the last part of the cigarette is more harmful)."
This also led to the idea of putting seeds in the butt of the cigarette so that when it was thrown away in a garden or park, flowers would grow out of the butt end.
Do you feel that you have completely run out of ideas and your usual ways no longer work well? Does it seem impossible to get new ideas? Put in a random word and it will open up new lines of thought immediately.
Fresh Tool #2. Six Thinking Hats
Are you ready? Let's do it.
Fresh Tool #1. Random Input
This is the simplest of all creative thinking techniques. It is widely used by advertising agencies, new product teams, rock groups, playwrights, IT developers and many others. This tool was developed by Dr. Edward De Bono in 1968 but has been plagiarized and borrowed since then, often by folks who don't really know how to use it.
One way to use this technique is to compile a list of 60 words (e.g. tiger, nose, hamburger, plane, molecule, rubbish, dog, shoes etc). When you need a random word glance at your watch and note the seconds reading. Use that number to get a word from your list. We then use one of these words that has no connection with the situation and hold them both together. The mind is very powerful at linking these seemingly unconnected ideas together.
In Dr. De Bono's book "Serious Creativity" he offers the following illustration:
"Cigarette" linked with "Traffic Light". "Within a few seconds this led to the idea of printing a red band around a cigarette some distance from the butt end. This band would serve as a 'danger zone'. If you stopped smoking before you reached the band, your smoking would be safer (because the last part of the cigarette is more harmful)."
This also led to the idea of putting seeds in the butt of the cigarette so that when it was thrown away in a garden or park, flowers would grow out of the butt end.
Do you feel that you have completely run out of ideas and your usual ways no longer work well? Does it seem impossible to get new ideas? Put in a random word and it will open up new lines of thought immediately.
Fresh Tool #2. Six Thinking Hats