NEW Ambulando ‘Jolt’ flashcards delivered by iPhone.

Digital ‘Jolt’ flashcards – to provoke lateral thinking using random imagery – are now being delivered during an Ambulando using Apple’s Mobile Me Gallery service for iPhone.

Jolt refers to the deliberate derailment of the brain’s thinking pattern – one of the foundation stones of lateral thinking.

This simple app gives us access to an unlimited supply of crisp, clear and unambiguous imagery without carrying cardboard while we walk. It also gives access to the gallery to anyone at any time if they have a smartphone – on the day – or via a desktop web browser at any time.

Idea Organizer iPhone app under trial with Ambulando.

When on the move doing an Ambulando, we need a neat way of capturing ideas. And it makes sense if this is digital, so that circulating ideas after the session is quick and easy.

So, firstly, we always try to do a voice recording. This allows us to have a record of not just what was said but the way it was said – which can be important sometimes. We also take a camera along so we can build a record of the event and the visual stimulus we’ve been using.

But we’re trialling other methods of capturing ideas, too. These won’t replace voice recording but may supplement it. It’s inevitable that the iPad will feature here somewhere but we’ve yet to trial the screen behaviour in strong lighting conditions.

Idea Organiser is an iPhone app that we quite like. Inputting information can be done in three ways – text, camera and voice – and the results can be easily organised and emailed after the Ambulando.

Typing text on a small device is slower than writing in a little notebook. And, apart from the fact it’s digital, is it better than a pencil and paper?

We’ll see. We don’t want to use technology for the sake of it.

New Ambulando flashcards developed.

On one of the most recent Ambulando tests, we walked through some beautiful countryside in South Cambridgeshire. Within six minutes, being initially close to a village, we developed some really good ideas. This was because, at the edge of the village, there were a number of visual stimuli – a phone box, a notice board, a seat and so on – that could be used as random input for lateral thinking.

However, later on along the track, it became apparent that we were surrounded by very few elements: sky, trees, field of corn, track. And there’s only so much you can do with those stimuli.

So, with this in mind, we’ve developed some flashcards to provide additional random input when required. Eventually, these may morph into images on an iPad. But, for now, they’re conventionally printed and carried in the pocket.

Ambulando – further trials at Tate Modern/Tate Britain.

28th June. Sunshine. The perfect conditions to do further trials of Ambulando, the mobile thinking workshop.

This Ambulando was to bench-test a new business idea hatched by a consultant from Suffolk. Without a bench.

The session began in Tate Britain, where Fiona Banner’s Sea Harrier and RAF Jaguar took centre stage. This provoked an amazing quantity of new thinking. As did the following exhibition – Rude Britannia.

The conversation on the 20 minute boat ride from Tate Britain to Tate Modern was also incredibly fruitful. How could stimulus flashcards compare to the wonderful backdrop of the Houses Of Parliament?

In three and a half hours more thinking was done than in the previous four weeks.

How walking can help Lateral Thinking.

Solvitur Ambulando is an old Latin expression that means ‘it can be solved by walking’. So making the connection between walking and problem solving is not new.

But we think we’ve found a way to use walking to improve Lateral Thinking.

Lateral Thinking is dependent on random input. Random input deliberately provokes the brain to de-rail itself from its normal, uncreative tracks. The input can be verbal or pictorial but it is usually a case of finding stimulus material.

In the middle of the countryside, in an art gallery, in a foreign environment, there is no need to find this stimulus material. It is there all around you.

Why show a picture of a tree to provoke your ideas when you can go up and touch one?

At times like these, all you can do is think differently.

When the rules go out the window and you can’t rely on the owner’s manual for answers, you have no option but to innovate.

There are two ways to innovate. You can either do what you do now in a different way. For example, you could revolutionise your supply chain or radically change the way you manage your relationships with customers.

Alternatively, you could start with a blank sheet of paper and think of something new. A new product. A new way of working.

This second type of innovation is what we can help you with. It needs a deliberate effort to innovate this way. And everyone has to want to innovate. Really want to.

We’d like to teach the world to think. Starting with China.

It’s Innovation Year in China. The Chinese authorities are placing a very high value on new ideas. They’re recognising that innovation is a killer economic weapon – over and above manufacturing capability. And we’re proud to say that we were there, in Shanghai, during April (Expo time) running workshops on Lateral Thinking with Nielsen, the international research company.