Idea Generation
Parallel worlds
Overview
Parallel Worlds is a simple lateral thinking technique that moves the participant into a different world in order to allow the participant to solve their current problem in a more creative way. A key feature of this alternative, parallel world is that it should be less constrained that the current problem domain, in order to offer more opportunities for creative idea generation in that world, before transferring the new ideas back to the current problem domain to explore which of the new ideas are still valid.
It is also important that ensure that all of the participants are sufficiently familiar with the selected parallel world, so that they do not need to research the world, and are able to start creative idea generation straight away. For example, if you use restaurants as the parallel world, you must choose a specific restaurant or type that the participants are familiar with. Because the technique is simple to use, participants are often able to explore a number of different parallel worlds in a single problem solving session.
What to do
The Parallel Worlds technique can be applied in the following 5 basic steps:
- Develop a simple definition of the current problem to be solved, to ensure that all of the participants have a shared understanding of that problem;
- Select one or more possible parallel worlds to transfer the problem to. You can use simple prepared checklists in order to do this, in order to help you discover and select between parallel worlds. Some examples of these checklists are architecture projects, playing football, a comic world, a style of dancing, visiting different parts of England or some geographical area, being in a period of history, visiting a mythological world, touring the oceans, visiting a different planets, going to a certain restaurant, skiing, and being in a television programme;
- For each selected parallel world, provide the participants with some rationale for why moving the problem to that selected parallel world might be useful – what sorts of ideas could be generated there, and use or more simple examples to demonstrate use of the technique;
- For each selected parallel world, encourage the participants to generate ideas to solve the current problem if it was occurring in the parallel world. Do this for between 5 and 10 minutes, and write the ideas down on post-it notes as the ideas are generated;
- After the idea generation phase, review each new idea to validate it for its usefulness in the original problem domain. Can it solve the problem in that domain, or does it need some modification to be useful? If necessary, modify the idea to fit the constraints of the problem domain.
People
The technique can be effective for both large and small groups of people, although larger groups will probably need to be broken up into smaller groups, to work with different parallel worlds at their own pace.
Problem solving characteristics
The technique is particularly useful for exploring the boundaries of a problem to solve, and to discover new ideas at these boundaries. It can help to discover ideas that are more unusual and novel that ideas that could be generated using other creative problem solving techniques.
Creative phases
Use the Parallel Worlds technique earlier in the creative problem solving process, to generate new ideas and to explore the boundaries of the problem to be solved. It can be used more effectively after other techniques have been used, in order to discover more novel ideas.
Location
You can use this technique anywhere, in any location. Of course, on the rare occasions that it is possible, the participants could try to visit a form of the parallel world, in order to stimulate idea generation in that world.
Equipment
The Parallel Worlds technique can be used with minimum equipment. You will need pens, paper or post-its to record the results of idea generation in each parallel world. You might also need Internet access if participants need to be made familiar with a particular parallel world.