Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here.

Most people struggle to do what innovators excel at: connecting the unconnected.

Here are three ways to get in the habit of making new associations:

1. Just do it. Force associations across different ideas when they don’t come naturally. Ask yourself: What else could this idea be connected to?

2. Shake it up. When associations don’t emerge, try forcing them to surface. Put seemingly unrelated ideas or words together and see what comes to mind. The creative combinations may spark a new idea.

3.Repeat. Research shows that if you practice associational thinking long enough, the task will energize you rather than exhaust you.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “Learn How to Think Different(ly)” by Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen.

To read that article and join the discussion, please click here.

Also, you may wish to check out the new book Management Tips from Harvard Business Review, based on HBR’s Management Tip of the Day by clicking here.