You now have one clearly defined problem and a goal you want to reach. Your natural impulse may be to act on the most obvious solution, which is probably the idea you already had before you began writing.

This step asks you to wait before choosing.

The reason is not simply to encourage creativity. When you can see only one way forward, the situation can feel closed and leave you feeling helpless. When several options are available, “we tend to feel more in control, safe, and full of hope.”

Creating a list does more than help you find a better option. It can also make the problem itself feel more manageable.

This step has three rules. Each one helps you postpone judgement for a few minutes.

• Focus on quantity. “Generate as many ideas or solution options as possible.” Increasing the number of options gives you a better chance of finding a useful one.
• Delay judgement. “Record every idea that comes to mind” because “prematurely rejecting ideas can limit productive and creative thinking.” Write down ideas even if they initially seem unrealistic or silly. One of them may lead to a practical option two lines later.
• Create variety. “The greater the range or variety of solution alternatives generated, the more good quality ideas will be made available.” Try to generate different types of responses, not several versions of one response.

The variety rule is especially important, but it is also easy to misunderstand. Many lists contain one idea expressed in six slightly different ways.

It helps to understand the difference between strategies and tactics. Strategies are “general courses of action,” while tactics are “specific steps involved in putting a strategy into action.”

Consider a problem involving too much work. Ask for the deadline to be moved is one strategy.

You could send an email, raise the issue during a one-to-one meeting, or add it to the team agenda. These are three different tactics for using the same strategy. They are not three separate options.

Meanwhile, other strategies may never reach the list. You could delegate part of the work, reduce the scope, agree on what finished needs to mean, or make a possible delay visible instead of trying to hide it. One of these could be more useful than the original idea.

If your list begins to stall, change the question.

Instead of asking what else could I say?, ask what else could I do?

A useful list contains genuinely different types of action. It might include something you can do alone, something that requires a conversation, something that changes the situation, something that changes what you have agreed to, and at least one option you would not normally choose.

Why include options you do not expect to choose? Because generating ideas and evaluating them are two different tasks. Trying to do both at the same time makes each one more difficult.

As soon as you begin analysing an idea, the flow of new options can stop. You may spend all your time examining the second option, which means options five through nine never appear.

If you get stuck after three or four ideas, that is normal. It usually does not mean that you lack imagination. More often, the obvious solution is taking up all your attention.

One helpful approach is to ask yourself what you would suggest to a colleague facing exactly the same problem. Looking at the situation from that perspective can help new options appear.

You do not need to choose an option yet. Choosing is the focus of the next lesson, where you will use four questions to evaluate the alternatives you have created.