Ever feel like your thinking is going round in circles and you’re not really generating any new ideas? If you can’t even think of new ways of behaving how will you ever do things differently?

Here’s a quick exercise you can do when faced with situations where you need to generate new possibilities and think outside the box.

You take a problem statement, your outcome or a difficult situation and apply these four algorithms that play with the possibilities open to you. It’s best explained by giving examples.

Outcome: I want to give presentations with confidence.

Question: What would it be like if you did give presentations with confidence? (+/+)

Answers (Courses of action, useful states, new ideas, towards motivation): I would feel happy, proud, like I’ve achieved something, I’ll be able to do better at work, progress in my career more quickly.

Question: What wouldn’t it be like if you did give presentations with confidence? (-/+)

Answers (Away from motivation): I would not feel like I’m living up to my potential, I would not feel nervous before presentations.

Question: What would it be like if you didn’t give presentations with confidence? (+/-)

Answers: I would feel sad, uninspired, feel like I’m not progressing.

Question: What wouldn’t it be like if you didn’t give presentations with confidence? (-/-)

Answers: I would feel really good about myself, feel confident and in control, know what I have to do to progress.

The questions may seem a bit confusing so read them slowly. I find that they are helpful for putting me in that zen / no-mind state which is a really good creative state to be in. The last question especially makes me a bit dizzy!

You can apply the algorithms to a lot of things. Say you’re brainstorming around some ideas, you could ask: ‘What would we do if we were to build a new website to market this product?’ Or: ‘What would we do if we didn’t build a new website?’