Point of View

One way to be more creative is to come at something from a different perspective. Imagine what you would see if you were experiencing something for the first time.

Fresh Eye Perspective - Imagine that you are in an emergency room after having been involved in an accident. You are laying flat on your back and have been immobilized to prevent further injury.

How would you feel? Frightened, hurt, anxious and apprehensive?

What smells would you be experiencing? Antiseptic? Pleasant?

What sounds would you be hearing? Beeps? Urgent voices? Unusual words?

What would you be staring at if your eyes were open? The ceiling, with an occasional glimpse of scary machinery and nurses and doctors.

How could this be a better experience for the client (ie patient)?

One Idea - In hospital emergency rooms, have a TV monitor mounted to the ceiling directly over the patient showing tranquil scenes so patients have something soothing to look at other than ceiling tiles. (A similar screen could be mounted in the ambulance to flash pictures that would calm the patient during the stressful and scary ride).

In addition to soothing scenes, subliminal messages could be flashed onto the screen to further reassure and calm the patient.

How to use this idea? When we do something over and over again, we tend to come at it from the same perspective. To come up with a fresh idea using fresh eyes, try role playing. That's right. Pretend you are the client and seeing everything for the first time.

One way to do this is to hold a video camera at your eye level and go through the steps you would go through as a client. Then, watch the video with others and see if you don't "see" something you missed while going through the experience yourself. You have just experienced "Fresh Eyes"...