Freaky Thinking is the rebellion your brain’s been waiting for
Because old thinking won’t protect your job or unlock your potential.
If you work in a large organization right now, chances are you’ve already felt the shift.
AI is coming.
Automation is growing.
And cost-saving measures – often dressed up as “strategic alignment” – are putting roles under more scrutiny than ever.
If you’re a mid-level professional, you might be asking yourself:
How do I stay relevant when the machines are getting smarter and the budgets are getting tighter?
It’s a fair question.
But there’s a better one you could be asking:
How do I make myself irreplaceable by thinking in ways that no AI or spreadsheet ever could?
That’s where Freaky Thinking comes in.
It’s not a gimmick.
It’s not a brainstorming session with beanbags and coloured sticky-notes.
Freaky Thinking is a structured, repeatable method for generating valuable new ideas on demand.
It helps individuals and teams answer the kind of questions that most people avoid because they seem too difficult.
Too messy.
Or too “impossible” even.
In a world increasingly driven by automation, Freaky Thinking is your human advantage.
The edge that helps you achieve what your organization previously considered to be impossible.
Why we need a different kind of thinking
Traditional business thinking has barely changed in the 70 years since brainstorming was launched.
We reward quick answers, prefer predictability, and shy away from unconventional questions.
But in times of uncertainty and volatility, 70-year-old methods don’t work.
Old answers won’t solve new problems.
Every organization today needs better ideas – and fast.
Not just from its innovation labs or strategy teams.
But from the people doing the real work.
The ones who know where the real pain points and possibilities lie.
And you can be that person.
The one who brings sharp, valuable ideas to the table.
Then you become essential.
But here’s a truth most people won’t admit.
Good thinking doesn’t happen in the meeting room.
It doesn’t happen under pressure, on-demand, when someone asks, “Any ideas?”
It happens in the quiet moments while walking the dog, washing the dishes, or cycling home.
When your brain is free to make new connections.
This is what Freaky Thinking harnesses.
A better process that works with the way your brain actually thinks.
The five stages of Freaky Thinking
Let’s walk through the method step by step.
1. Define the killer question
Everything starts here.
A Killer Question is bold, provocative, and slightly scary.
It’s the kind of question that lights a fire in your gut.
A question you haven’t been able to answer before – but you sense the answer is out there.
It might be:
How could we increase customer trust without increasing cost?
What would it take to make onboarding feel like a VIP experience?
How could we radically reduce friction in our approval process?
Or any other valuable issue…
A killer question matters because it directs your thinking energy towards a challenge worth solving.
Great questions drive great thinking.
But first, they must be clarified, validated, and shared.
Don’t hoard your killer question.
Ask others for input.
To shape it and strengthen it.
And it needs to be written down.
This is a simple yet critical step.
For if you don’t write it down, it will morph and drift – until you’re solving something else entirely.
If you’re ready for an extra step, place your killer question into querencia.
A period of overnight reflection.
To let your subconscious mind do some early heavy lifting.
2. Deconstruct the killer question
Once you have your killer question, it’s time to break it down.
Why?
Because most meaningful challenges are too large, too vague, or too risky to tackle in one go.
Freaky Thinking encourages you to dissect the question into sub-questions based on:
Target sector (Who or what is affected?)
This can be a large sector of customers or items; a specific segment of a group with its own specific characteristics; or a small group which is a highly targeted niche.
Scale of change (How bold is the proposed difference?)
This can be a modest change to test the waters; a more significant sizable change for assessment; or a radical change that might disrupt the status quo.
This gives you options you can aim for:
A modest change to a small group as a test case.
A radical change to a large sector for maximum disruption.
Or something in-between
Chunking the problem helps you start small, learn fast, and build confidence.
Yours and your stakeholders’.
3. Unleash your creativity
This is where many thinking processes fall apart.
They assume you’ll just “be creative”.
But creativity needs a spark.
There are many Freaky Thinking tools, but here are two examples.
a) PATHFINDERS
The world is full of people who’ve solved similar problems to yours, but in different contexts.
You just need to ask the right people in the right way.
The Pathfinder tool teaches you how to “abstract” your killer question depending on who you’re speaking to – from your immediate team to people in totally different industries.
Here’s an example.
Imagine you have a team of people who need to work exceptionally long hours to integrate two complex IT systems during a one-week shutdown. You’re looking for a good way to reward them for doing this.
Pathfinder level 1: Your own team
The original question: How can we reward the integration team at the end of the shutdown? (No abstraction is required for your team).Pathfinder level 2: Your department
Abstracting the question: What have we done well in the past to reward and recognize a team after a difficult shutdown?Pathfinder level 3: Your organization
Abstracting the question: What interesting ways do you know of to reward or recognize a team for a successful project?Pathfinder level 4: Your contacts in other organizations
Abstracting the question: How does your organization reward or recognize teams for exceptional effort at work?Pathfinder level 5: Your friends & family
Abstracting the question: What are some unusual ways in which you’d like to be rewarded when you’ve worked hard and done a difficult task really well?
The trick is translation.
You don’t need them to solve your exact problem.
You need them to show you how they solved something similar.
That’s often where the gold is found.
b) RICOCHET THINKING
Sometimes, your brain needs a jolt into a new direction.
Ricochet thinking gives you that jolt by exposing you to something completely unrelated.
A strange scientific fact.
An obscure analogy.
A historical event.
You then “bounce” your thinking off it.
Let’s take the same example issue as in the Pathfinder tool above, where you want to reward your team for a difficult shutdown that was well done.
You come across a ricochet trigger on the difference in breathing between humans and insects:
In humans, the lungs exchange gases with the bloodstream when oxygen transfers into the blood while carbon dioxide is transferred out of the blood. Respiratory systems in insects don’t connect with their circulatory system at all. They have a network of tubes that delivers oxygen directly to every cell in the insects' body – and similarly removes the carbon dioxide too.
This one ricochet trigger contains several elements that can deflect your thinking in different directions.
For example:
“…the lungs exchange gases with the bloodstream…”
What if you could reward them continually over a period? What might you do for them during the week’s shutdown – or in the week after it?
“…carbon dioxide is transferred out of the blood…”
What could you take away for the week after the shutdown to make life better for them?
“…a network of tubes that delivers oxygen…”
How might you energize and power up the team by providing something directly to them when they feel they need it – either during the shutdown or after it for a period?
“…directly to every cell…”
This makes you think around not rewarding the entire team with the same thing, but how you might reward them individually with something they would each value more-highly.
Taking a random biological fact – like how insects breathe without lungs – can redirect your perspectives.
It sounds bizarre – but it works!
Your brain loves patterns and analogies.
Ricochet thinking lets it play.
Location. Location. Location.
However, the key to Freaky Thinking is to consider each of these thinking tool elements when you’re in your best thinking place.
Take it for a walk.
Go to the gym with it.
Let it percolate overnight.
To give your subconscious time to work on it in the background.
While you think about it in your own best personal thinking times and places.
4. Select the best ideas
Once you’ve got your pile of ideas, some may seem strange.
Some exciting, some half-formed.
But that’s fine, as it’s time to curate them.
Here’s how:
Look for the Win Quicklies
Forget “quick wins”.
A Win Quickly is more than just low-hanging fruit.
It’s a small test case with high strategic value.
It proves that your idea can work – and fast.
This gives you credibility, momentum, and cover to go bigger later.
Score your ideas by:
How easily they can be implemented.
How clearly they validate part of your overall solution.
Then prioritise the ones that score highest on both.
Combine and upgrade
Some ideas will be too weak to stand on their own.
But combine two or three, and you might unlock something powerful.
Treat your ideas like Lego bricks.
Mix, match, and iterate.
Great concepts rarely arrive fully formed.
They’re built.
5. Boost into great concepts
Finally, you take your promising ideas and shape them into shareable, adaptable concepts.
But here’s the key: don’t pitch a final solution.
Pitch a strong starting point that invites collaboration.
Involve others in improving it.
Let them challenge it.
Listen to feedback, not defensively, but curiously.
Why?
Because people support what they help create.
And because your initial idea (no matter how brilliant) is probably missing something.
A ‘something’ that someone else sees more clearly.
Your goal isn’t perfection.
It’s progress.
And traction – where others form an interest in your thinking.
What makes Freaky Thinking different?
Freaky Thinking doesn’t rely on luck.
It isn’t confined to “creative” roles.
It works for strategy, operations, HR, finance, or any area where better thinking creates better outcomes.
It recognises:
That asking the right question is more important than having the immediate answer.
That real creativity often comes from recombination, not invention.
That individual thinking time is more powerful than group brainstorming.
That small-scale experiments lead to large-scale change.
And most of all, it empowers you to think on your own terms.
In your own time.
About problems that matter.
Why this matters for you
You might be worried about AI taking your job.
Or management restructuring your department.
Or being told that “efficiency savings” are coming.
You’re not alone.
But you don’t have to be passive.
By learning to think differently, and demonstrating that thinking, you become someone who:
Spots opportunity before others.
Frames problems more clearly.
Generates options when others feel stuck.
Creates momentum in meetings that stall.
Gets noticed for the right reasons.
That’s what being relevant, resilient and remarkable looks like.
It’s what The Thinking Edge is here to help you do.
Ready to Try?
You can start Freaky Thinking today:
1. Choose a challenge you haven’t been able to crack.
2. Frame a bold Killer Question.
3. Deconstruct it into smaller parts.
4. Talk to a Pathfinder.
5. Try a Ricochet.
6. Capture every idea. Then mix them up.
7. Pick a Win Quickly. Then test it.
And remember: the workplace rewards results.
And results start with better questions.
Let’s get to work. Let’s find your first killer question…