Achieving world peace. Getting Congress to agree on anything! Improving traffic in New York City. You can generate ideas to solve these and other seemingly impossible challenges with a simple technique called Opportunity Redefinition, and it's easy to learn:

1. Start with an opportunity statement, or creative challenge. Write it in sentence form.

2. Next comes the redefinition. To redefine the opportunity, pick three of the more interesting words in the sentence and generate creative alternatives (8 to 10) for each choice. Hint: You might think of choosing words that represent a who, what, when, where, and/or how.

3. These crazy combination sentences are then used as starting points/brainstorming triggers to generate new selling ideas.

Many of these re-definitions may not get you any new or exciting ideas. But some certainly will. And you only need a few big ideas—or maybe even just one—to dramatically impact your business.

For more information on solving creative and strategic challenges, read Bryan Mattimore's IDEA STORMERS: How to Lead and Inspire Creative Breakthroughs (published by Jossey-Bass, an imprint of Wiley) or contact The Growth Engine at (203) 857-4494. You can also find us on the web at http://www.growth-engine.com/