Rather than taking the default approach, or thinking about what one should do, the researchers asked them to think about what they could do instead.

This simple shift made a big difference. People who thought about what they could do came up with much better solutions. They were higher quality and three times as creative. Rather than getting bogged down in which of two imperfect options was best, asking people to think

about what they could do encouraged them to bring a different mindset to the problem.

Stuck on a tough problem? Want to be more creative or encourage creativity in others? Foster a could mindset. Rather than thinking about what should be done, ask what could be done instead. Doing so encourages us and others to take agency, consider new paths, and turn roadblocks into opportunities.

The same holds when asking others for advice. When asking for help, we tend to do so in a specific way: we ask people what they think we should do.

Though this makes sense in some ways, it’s not always the best approach. Asking what they think we could do will encourage them to think more broadly and give us better, more creative direction.

And abstractness is the cause.

The more people learn more about something, the more they naturally start to think about it abstractly.

More generally, when trying to make language either more concrete or more abstract, one helpful approach is to focus on either the how or the why.

Want to be more concrete? Focus on the how. How does a product meet consumer needs? How does a proposed new initiative address an important problem? Thinking about how something is or will be done encourages concreteness. It focuses on the feasibility and helps generate concrete descriptions.

Want to be more abstract? Focus on the why. Why does a product meet consumer needs? Why does a proposed new initiative address an important problem? Thinking about why something is good or right encourages abstractness. It focuses on its desirability and helps generate abstract descriptions.

Quantity has a quality all its own. In life design, more is better, because more ideas equal access to better ideas, and better ideas lead to a better design. Expanding your thinking improves your ability to ideate and allows for more innovation. If you work through lots of ideas, your chances of hitting on some that can be really energizing for you go up, which increases your chance of creating something that can work and that you’ll love. More ideas also equal new insights.