Friday, February 4, 2011

Alex Osborn

The author of the book called Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Problem Solving; in which brainstorming, a group creativity technique designed to generate a large number of ideas for the solution of a problem was popularized:


Alex Faickney Osborn (1888-1966)

[source: 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving, VanGundy, Arthur B., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005]
Brainstorming pioneer Alex Osborn was a master at using perspective changes to suggest new ideas. He developed a list of seventy-three idea-spurring questions designed to create new perspectives. His list included such questions as:

• What other product (problem) is like this one (adapt)?

• How could I change this product (modify)?

• How could I add to this product (magnify)?

• What could I take away from this product (minify)?

• What could I use instead of this product or a portion of it (substitute)?

• How could I alter this product’s composition (rearrange)?

• How could I turn this problem around (reverse)?

• What could I put together to make a new product (combine)?

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