Getting a big idea isn't easy, but there is an easy technique to help you. It's called the wish technique, and it works well in seemingly impossible challenges.

The Wishing Technique begins with the assumption that anything is possible. Money, energy, time are no object. You can even violate laws of nature. If you can dare to imagine it, you can have it with wishing. And because anything is possible in the world of wishing, going there helps a person or a team challenge perceived limitations around any creative challenge or opportunity.

The Wishing Technique is simple: You start by wishing for the impossible and then figure out a way to make the impossible—a reality. Three easy steps:

1. The facilitating leader has his team generate 20 to 30 wishes.

2. The team works through several of the more fantastic or impossible wishes.

3. The team uses the wishes as creative stimuli to generate novel but realistic ideas.

As futurist and 2001: A Space Odyssey author Arthur C. Clarke was fond of saying, "We cannot know what's possible without first considering the impossible." So it is with wishing.

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/