The Act of Generative Thinking

Q: What difference would a healthy dose of Generative Thinking make possible for you and your team?

Big money has been made over the last few decades in the American business world in a surprising manner: Bootlegging.

Bootlegging originally started in the 1920s during prohibition. No longer allowed to buy alcohol people started experimenting and making their own. It was off-the-grid and illegal but people made plenty of money and the cocktail culture was born.

Some of today's most successful products are the result of sanctioned bootlegging in business. That means team members are allowed to experiment with methods, products and new thinking outside their traditional process. It requires risk, guts, and trust. However, products like Post-It Notes, Scotch Tape, and Kevlar would never have been created otherwise.

Business bootlegging is just one example of Generative Thinking. Most of us accustomed to incremental thinking might find the generative version unsettling. New ideas always are. Incremental thinking may inch us forward but Generative Thinking will help us break though by leaps and bounds.

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