How I discovered Speed Thinking
After I completed my PhD in Organizational Creativity in 2001 I set up a business called IdeaSpace, an innovation consulting business which helped business leaders to develop new ideas and solutions.
In my workshops I would give participants a task and one of my creative thinking tools (these tools are all captured in my first book The Idea Generator, 2007 (Allen & Unwin) and ask them to work in groups and come back in say 50 minutes with some new ideas.
In an effort to address a greater number of challenges I slowly reduced the time available from 50 to 40 minutes, to 30 minutes and so on. I was surprised to find that the quality of the ideas and the quantity of the ideas not only was maintained but often became better. Like a new-world discoverer, I kept reducing the time limit until I reached a point of no return. Through trial and error I discovered that if I gave people an everyday challenge, with a two minute time frame and a target of achieving nine responses then often an amazing range of ideas and energy was released. I call this the Ultimate Speed Thinking Challenge.
To experience this challenge yourself click through to our latest Speed Thinking Quiz. I have become so amazed at the power of this new way of thinking that I have dedicated my entire business to it—hence the birth of The Speed Thinking Zone and have developed a new range of tools which are all in my second book, The Idea Accelerator—How to solve problems faster using Speed Thinking.