Practice your creativity with these 3 hybridization techniques

Did it happen to you and your team, that you needed to come up with a lot of new ideas for the project, but at the third time you tried you were stuck? No, the problem is not that you are not creative people. Creativity is something intrinsic to every human being to a greater or lesser extent and, like all skills, it can be trained. For this, we bring you the tools of hybridization, a simple technique to generate a greater number of original ideas.

Hybridization techniques are based on taking two or more concepts and uniting them, thus creating a different concept. There are several types of hybridization and they differ, to a greater extent, by the method of the union that we use of the two original concepts. Let’s see which ones we use the most in Thinkers Co.

1. Hybridization by Translation

It consists of extracting the main functionality of an object or service and taking it (moving it) to a different object or service. What is done here is to decontextualize a specific functionality and take it to another very different field . This type of hybridization is very common in the field of biomimetics, which focuses on observing patterns of nature and transferring them to different areas such as medicine, architecture or robotics. 

A famous example is that of Velcro. This fastening system was devised by the Swiss engineer George de Mestral in 1941, after seeing how small balls of alpine thistle adhere to the coat of his dog. He analyzed these flowers and discovered the characteristic shape of the end of their spikes (in the shape of a hook), which he transferred to the nylon to create what in his time was an innovation.

2. Hybridization by Aggregation

This technique is applied by merging two very different products. We will obtain better results if the created unions come from two very different entities, that is to say, the further away from the field of knowledge of the elements, the more innovative the solution will be. 

One case of success is the company Brain-Dynamics, launched in 2008, which works developing neurological solutions based on the combination of cerebral knowledge with powerful computational tools.

3. Hybridization by Synthesis

In this last method of hybridization, we must first cut and disintegrate the characteristics of two entities from very different fields and unite their essences, thus creating fresh concepts. An example could be Linkmirror, a digital shower enclosure with which to make video calls. The idea arose from the need to innovate in an inflexible sector and was achieved by combining the concepts of “shower enclosure” and “personal relationships”.

Now, if you have a creative block again, you know more resources to turn to continue giving free rein to your ideas. In addition, apart from these tools, you have many more available in our Community that will help you boost your innovation projects.