Certainly you’ve heard already stories about bright ideas that have generated huge savings or additional revenues to some company! These stories are inspiring but don’t reveal the secret HOW people managed to have such original yet simple ideas? We collected for you 3 of them and will try to explain how you could do the same and maybe become a millionaire one day .

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It was in 1950s when one guy approached large toothpaste manufacturer. He claimed to have simple solution that would increase immediately the sales of toothpaste by 40%. He offered to sell to the manufacturer exclusive rights to this idea for cheque of 100 000$, which was a significant amount of money at that time.

The executive board of the company refused to pay him and called a big meeting with chief engineers and marketing executives. They asked them to come up with ideas how to increase immediately toothpaste sales by 40% or more for very low cost. Few weeks later, there were still no relevant proposals and the board has finally decided to purchase the exclusive rights of the idea presented by the guy. When they handed him cheque for requested amount, he gave them an envelope with one paper inside. There were only 4 words written on that paper: Make the hole bigger! Bigger hole would cause faster consumption of the toothpaste and therefore would result in the bigger customer demand.…

Second story is from Japan where one of the major cosmetic companies got a customer complaint because he received empty soap box. They have launched huge investigation and learned that the defect came from the packaging department. The plan was to develop a robust and reliable system ensuring zero defects in the process of product packaging and company had invested important amount of money in the design and implementation of this complex solution. Few weeks later, similar problem occurred in the small soap manufacturing company in India. This time the approach was very different! Manufacturer bought a big industrial fan and placed it against the chain with soap boxes. Boxes that were empty simply flew away and the rest moved ahead to the storage house…

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Last example comes from unknown company having its offices on the top floor of the historical building in the city downtown. This building was built in 19^th century and had old style elevator that was small and very slow. The management of the company started receiving complaints from their employees because they were spending significant time waiting in front of the elevator each morning. The management called for a big meeting to discuss how to enlarge the elevator and make it faster. Several ideas were presented but each of them required significant financial contribution. Then one manager raised his hand and said: “what if we put big mirror in front of the elevator? This would entertain people while waiting!” Some found it absurd, but as this idea did not cost much, CEO decided to try it out. And since the mirror was placed in the waiting hall, no more complaints were addressed to the management of the company!

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All these stories have one thing in common… tiny idea making a huge impact. The most shocking is the fact that these ideas are so simple that even five years old kid could bring them up! This means that anybody can generate brilliant solutions. The question is HOW? Here in our previous article we spoke already about the art of questioning. We explained how to develop the habit of asking questions… asking many questions.  Now we will go a bit further and show you one simple and specific questioning method helping innovators to have original ideas.

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The truth is that if you ask the same questions, you find always the same answers. We don’t realize how much we can restrain the scope of possible answers by asking specific question. In the elevator story, initially the objective of the management meeting was to discuss ‘How they can enlarge the elevator and make it faster?’ But who said that changing technical performance of the elevator is the best option to take?

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Asking different questions is again habit that you can develop. Let’s take the example of the problem with elevator. Before attacking the answer and trying to find solution, the managers should first make a list of various questions they could ask:

How can we enlarge the space of the elevator?

How can we make it faster?

How can we avoid using the elevator?

How can we modify the time of arrivals to avoid morning ‘traffic jams’?

How can we entertain people while waiting for the elevator?

How can we benefit from this waiting time?

How can we refinance the modernization of the elevator?

Is there any other way to bring people to the top floor?

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In order to ask different questions, you need to see the problem from different perspectives. There are few techniques how you can do that:

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Break down the problem into parts: in our case we list down all components, objects, individuals involved in this problem  – building, elevator, employees, time, money, etc.

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Break it again: we need to dig more in the detail of each component

-          building (number of floors, number of elevators, stairs leading to the offices, etc.)

-          elevator (size, speed, weight, year of construction, etc.)

-          employees (number of employees, general physical condition, etc.)

-          time (duration of getting to the top floor, hour of arrival, departure of people, etc.)

-          money (cost of the new elevator, number of companies sharing elevator costs, etc.)

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Negate it: sometimes we need to think of what we should NOT do in order to find the solution

-          using elevator vs. NOT using elevator

-          having office on the top floor vs. NOT having office on the top floor

-          all people arriving at the same hour vs. all people NOT arriving at the same hour

-          taking the elevator vs. NOT taking the elevator

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Enlarge the scope: it is necessary to step outside of the box = outside of the described issue

Initial problem – How to enlarge the elevator and make it faster

Enlarged problem – How to ensure employees satisfaction and stop their complaints

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Turn it up side down:

Initial question – How to decrease the time wasting when waiting?

Turned question – How to use the time spent for waiting?

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Once you face a problem, you can use few or all of these techniques that will help you to make a long list of original questions. You can be assured that this will be the beginning of having original answers.