With the rapid pace of today’s technological change, even industry-leading companies need to constantly evolve and innovate to stay on top or even compete.

In a world where a company like WhatsApp can be purchased for $19 billion, and Netflix can turn the cable industry on its head, many of your key competitors tomorrow, may not even exist today.

To stay ahead of the curve, successful companies need to create a culture of innovation and consistently support new ways for their teams to tackle problems and pounce on opportunities through a creative and innovative lens.

The secret to fuelling a culture of innovation, isn’t simply having more ideas, but in having new ideas that lead to different ways of solving problems. And the secret to having new ideas is to train your mind to think differently and embrace techniques that allow you to let go of what you already know and not be influenced by certain boundaries that limit our ability to defy conventional wisdom.

Now there are many tried and true techniques that industry-leading innovation firms use to help their minds defy conventional wisdom. For example, one technique that Delvinia uses to solve different business challenges is called 180? Thinking.  This is a simple process that involves doing the exact opposite of where conventional wisdom will typically lead you.

To put this into context, take the simple task of brainstorming new ideas to improve a bed. In this case, conventional wisdom would lead you to say things like soft, warm, made of wood and rectangular shaped. When you apply 180? Thinking you challenge yourself to think of ideas where the bed must be hard, cold, plastic and triangular shaped; anything that is the exact opposite of what you already know.

For example, could the bed be hard for your legs, but soft for your body and head? How about a bed that gets increasingly firmer in the moments before waking in replace of an alarm clock, or perhaps its triangular design is the perfect solution to accommodate a 500-square-foot condo?

True innovators constantly ask questions that challenge common wisdom and this type of thinking is an easy way to get your mind out of predictable and rational patterns and into new places. When you ask yourself to imagine a completely different alternative you get truly original insights.

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