How 'Associational Thinking' Turns Odd Ideas Into Breakthroughs

Associational thinking is the secret weapon beneath many major innovations. It’s not about inventing from thin air but spotting connections others miss. This is what happened when Marc Benioff combined his experience in enterprise software with observations from e-commerce sites like Amazon, eventually creating Salesforce.com—a new business model as groundbreaking as it was simple.

Walt Disney famously described himself as a bee, flitting from team to team and gathering creative 'pollen.' This act of mixing ideas led to innovations like animation in full-length films and theme-park design rooted in storytelling. In education, the 'Medici effect'—named after Renaissance Florence—shows how creative explosions come from merging disciplines: poets sharing with scientists, artists collaborating with mathematicians.

Modern innovators build “TED in their head” by fostering cross-pollination in their daily lives. They don’t wait for a big conference; instead, they intentionally collect objects, study other industries, and synthesize lessons from surprising places. The science is clear: the more diverse your building blocks, the more novel ideas you can recombine. Associational thinking is a mental muscle, strengthened each time you stretch for connections that seem unrelated at first glance.

First, identify a challenge you want to address, then pick something random—a coffee cup, a comic strip, whatever’s at hand. Let your mind roam and write down every odd way your problem might connect with the features or uses of that new object. Don’t censor your ideas; humor and weirdness are welcome. Look back at your brainstorm, highlight what stands out, and give yourself one chance to prototype or test a version of your favorite idea, no matter how imperfect. You’ll train your brain to connect the dots in new ways by doing this regularly—even once can open new doors.