One of the biggest creativity killers that I come across in organisations is “assumptions”, those nasty things that sit around in the back of your head and stop your thinking going anywhere interesting.

Chances are, if you have a problem you are trying to crack, you hold a whole lot of assumptions or pre-conceived notions that are boxing in your thinking.

Assumptions are rife in most organisations given the people who work in these roles are typically faced with the same types of problems over and over again. For example, “How can we get more people acting in environmentally-responsible ways?”, “How can we increase awareness for carbon offsetting?” and “How can we get more people to purchase green products?” are just some of the problems that may consume you.

And with any one of those problems comes a whole set of assumptions. The problem with assumptions is that for most people it limits their thinking to what is obvious to the detriment of discovering new ways of doing things. So something I always emphasise to people is to actively challenge and crush any assumptions that they can identify.

We recently did some work with Australian carbon-offsetting company Positive Carbon (www.positivecarbon.com.au). They were interested in getting more people to offset their purchasing behaviour. The assumption they had in their mind was that people generally offset past behaviour (eg. the electricity they have used in the past quarter). They flipped this assumption on its head and asked themselves “What if people could offset the future pollution of products they purchased?”

The solution that came out of this crushed assumption was to partner with online retailer The Storehouse (www.thestorehouse.com.au) and at point of purchase, provide consumers with the option to offset the electronic goods they purchased, such as mobile phones, televisions and fridges.

This idea has led to more consumers choosing to offset their purchases and also provided The Storehouse with a key point of difference from other online retailers.

So what are some assumptions you hold onto in relation to problems you are tackling for your business? What are the things that you take for granted and would never think of challenging? I guarantee that if you start challenging the answers to these questions, you will come up with some very unexpected and effective solutions. 

Dr Amantha Imber is the founder of Inventium (www.inventium.com.au) and author of The Creativity Formula: 50 scientifically-proven creativity boosters for work and for life (www.thecreativityformula.com).

More great articles on Celsias:

Carbon Credits 101

Focus on Innovators, Not Polluters, for Climate Solutions

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