Grasping the Sensation of Idea Birth Through Your Body ~ Planning Somatics

Dentsu Inc.'s cross-functional creative organization, the Future Creative Center (FCC), supports future-building domains with creativity beyond the realm of advertising. This series introduces actual initiatives under the theme "Future × Creativity."

Dentsu Inc. conducted its 2018 "Dentsu Internship" at its Tokyo headquarters, Kansai branch, and Nagoya branch. Participating students broadly learned idea generation methods that move people's hearts through lectures and exercises led by Dentsu Inc.'s creators and planners active on the front lines.

This article introduces "Planning Somatics," a framework for developing idea-generation skills, presented by Creative Solutions Director Noritaka Obuse.

Planning is like a sport

I've compiled a framework for developing idea-generating skills called "Planning Somatics" and have had the opportunity to lecture young creators on it. So, I'd like to share its contents here.

First, the background behind "Planning Kogyo": I started thinking about it because I felt that planning is somewhat similar to sports.

You see, during my student days, I belonged to the athletic baseball club. I prided myself on practicing harder than anyone else, but sadly, I didn't improve at all. This made me strongly realize that simply putting in blind effort doesn't lead to improvement. To get better, you need something like a sense or instinct, and you must practice with an understanding of how to grasp that sense.

Later, after joining Dentsu Inc. and working on planning, I kept wondering how to produce good ideas. I realized that simply accumulating knowledge doesn't guarantee hit ideas. You still need that kind of innate sense to become good at planning. I felt that just grinding through volume without knowing how to sharpen that sense wouldn't really build your ability to generate ideas.

So, how could I enhance that sense? In baseball, I believe you gradually develop the ability to hit by internalizing the sensation of hitting a hit. If that's the case, I wondered what would happen if I applied that concept. In other words, by storing within myself the sensation of coming up with a good idea and the way my brain circuits worked at that moment, wouldn't I develop the ability to consistently generate good ideas?

So, I researched how people who consistently produce hit ideas activate their brain circuits, and why I was able to come up with good ideas when I did. I compiled these findings into "Project Physiology." It's a guide for those who want to learn idea generation methods and develop their planning skills.

Detailed Explanation of "Project Physiology"!

"Project Physiology" broadly explains methods for generating ideas and key points for conceptualizing projects. Here are a few highlights from its content.

● Experiences that open the pores of curiosity

To generate ideas that others find interesting, the most crucial step is to immerse yourself in playful experiences, opening the pores of your curiosity and absorbing as many stimulating sensations as possible.

Nowadays, simply reading reviews can make you feel like you've been there or experienced something, which is why actually going to the place and feeling it with your own skin is incredibly important. Therefore, I believe the first step toward developing a planning mindset is to enjoy things without deciding, "This is what I like," but rather thinking, "I might be interested in this," or "I might like that too."

● Installing the Initial Response Brain

When given a prompt, I call the initial reflexive way your mind starts processing—that first step of where to begin thinking—the "Initial Response Brain," and I place great importance on it. To develop this "Initial Response Brain," simply cramming your head full of case studies as knowledge isn't enough. You need to build muscle through "re-experiencing"—actually putting it through your own body.

When you encounter a case with an idea you find compelling, imagine what the original prompt was that sparked that idea. Then, if that prompt were given to you, simulate through your own body several times how you would move your brain to arrive at that same idea you like—that moment when the idea pops into your head. By doing this, you build muscles you didn't have before. I recognize that muscle training is more important than knowledge input for developing an idea-generating mindset.

● The Fermentation Time for Ideas in Your Gut

The latest theories suggest that the gut isn't just the "second brain"—it might actually be the "first brain." This theory posits that we think with our gut, not our brain, and those thoughts are sent as signals to the brain. Reflecting on my own experience, ideas rarely come immediately when I think about them. More often, they suddenly pop into my head out of nowhere. Maybe it's just that my gut bacteria are working hard, and my brain is catching the interesting bits they come up with (laugh).

But if you think about it that way, you need time for your gut bacteria to think—time for ideas to ferment. To create that, it's crucial to mix everything you can think of into a chaotic state inside your body: the task at hand, the given conditions, target insights, things you found interesting recently, trending news—just throw it all in. Because ideas only emerge after a period of "fermentation from chaos." Ideas aren't found along the extension of logic, so the key is not to think logically from the start.

● A Guidepost for Lost Thinkers

Since you're intentionally creating chaos, you'll inevitably reach a point where you lose track of what you should be thinking about or what you were thinking in the first place. With experience, you'll recognize this state as a sign the goal is near. But regardless, you're lost in thought, so having a guide to break out of this situation is useful.

Fundamentally, any project in any field can be organized using the four-step framework: "Current State → Challenges → Core Idea → Execution." Keeping this single thread in mind at all times is key.

Ideas don't spring from neat, logical reasoning. Instead, they follow a process: first, you intentionally create a state of chaos. Then, after a period of fermenting in that murky state, an idea suddenly emerges. However, the ideas born in this state feel intuitively good, yet we often can't articulate why. The final step involves using the left brain to meticulously organize and refine them, determining what single thread can be drawn to articulate them as a four-step framework anyone can understand. This process is crucial, which is why I emphasize it as a key point to our interns.

●Creating an Environment That Invites Serendipity

Ideas are said to emerge more readily when the stimuli received by the five senses change. For example, we often hear stories like, "I turned down the lights before bed and an idea popped into my head." This happens because the physical sensations change. Creating an environment that alters the stimuli to your senses—listening to music, taking a shower, walking around town—becomes a trigger for ideas to surface spontaneously. So, it might be good to experiment with how you introduce external stimuli in your own way.

On the other hand, and this is the opposite perspective, I also believe "intentionally entering the zone" is crucial. In sports, this state of hyper-focus is often called "the zone." That state where you suddenly realize two or three hours have passed is precisely what sharpens ideas, stripping away all waste to create razor-sharp insights. These days, with emails and messages constantly flying in, I think being able to carve out time to enter the zone without any distractions is key to boosting productivity. The point is figuring out how to secure the times and spaces where you naturally enter the zone.

●Finding Your Launch Pad for Idea Leaps