I am a fan of Isaac Asimov, so I got very interested when a previously unknown text was published in late 2014. It is a short essay on creativity, thinking out of the box and generating new ideas. According to Asimov, to come up with new ideas with a group, it requires elements such as relaxation, small numbers (no greater than five), a willingness to defy common sense, and even an arbiter.
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/531911/isaac-asimov-asks-how-do-people-get-new-ideas/
The essay is very interesting in itself, and I couldn't help but thinking on how well it applies to role-playing games (even more so than to other kinds of games), including the need for joviality, joking around and letting everyone speak, the best place for such events (”meeting in someone’s home or over a dinner table at some restaurant is perhaps more useful than one in a conference room”), and the usefulness of having a guide to “ask the right questions” and bring people back to the point.
Of course, his ideas are easily applied to many different fields, and I bet you will find it useful even if it doesn't make you think about your games. Take a look and tell me what you think!
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