1st There is no such thing as 'non-creatives'. Everyone is creative, it's how they are, not how much they are.
2nd Coming up with ideas without a problem is the biggest problem with startups, designers, and creatives everywhere. It's a big reason why they fail and aren't sure why, and it wastes time and energy. The reason you and others can't or have a hard time coming up with ideas is because YOU DONT HAVE A PROBLEM!
3rd There is a formula for creativity: C=fa(KIE) Creativity = the function of an Attitude x Knowledge x Imagination x ability to Evaluate.
4th The best problems come from experiences, so being curious (to increase your knowledge) and doing things you have never done, not like ping-pong (although I do enjoy it) nor walks on the beach, help you find new problems and actually feel and understand them.
5th Once you have these problems, ask why at least 5 times and make sure you have the real problem. The worst scenario is trying to solve the wrong problem, which also leads to lots of failed (and learned from) solutions.
6th Once you feel like you really have the right problem, begin solving it (now it's time for IDEAS). Write your problem down, and DIVERGE!!! This means that instead of coming up with an idea, talking about it, deciding on it, then moving onto the next one, you should DIVERGE and come up with as many possible solutions as you can, without thinking about whether they are good or bad. If you are by yourself, its called ideating, if you're with others it's brainstorming. Either way DEFER JUDGEMENT. Turn your filter off until later, on your own ideas, and others'. Write everything down. You can judge them all later (converging).
7th It helps to practice diverging and creativity, it's like working out. The parts in your brain that help you come up with solve problems/come up with ideas get better at it te more you do it. You can practice on problems like: what might be all the uses for a brick, or all the ways you might change a bathtub, or all of the uses for 10,000 left handed gloves.
8th Know that per problem, if you truly want to solve it, you will spend at least an hour just diverging. Understand that it (on average) takes over 30 minutes to get past those "low-hanging fruit" ideas and get to the good ones, thats the time where you're like "I can't come up with any more". If you keep pushing through you will!
A few tools/rules for diverging:
1. Defer Judgement (on your ideas, and others)
2. Build on Ideas (and let others build on you)
3. Wild and Crazy is OK (my favorite, GO CRAZY on solutions. It's always easier to take a crazy idea and make it more realistic, than it is a simple idea and make it crazier/better)
4. Quantity = Quality (the more ideas you have, the better ideas you will have after converging, ie 10 ideas you might have one good one, 100 ideas you will definitely have at least 10 good ones)
I'm new at this, and the people I have learned from and those they learned from do much crazier things than I do, and here's an example of something I have run and how these tools can help:
I've worked with people that had 7 ideas in an hour, and the next hour I helped them (just facilitated, no ideas from me) get them to 400 in the same time frame. Same people, same problem, just new insight on different ways to solve problems and brainstorm together.
These ideas have been studied and research for 60 years, have continued to get better, and are practiced all over the world. They always give badass results and change lives! Learn more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_problem_solving
Nathan Schwagler: Teaches Creativity and Innovation at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and is the creative-in-residence for the entrepreneurship major, he also has a masters in creative problem solving from Buffalo State (where these processes have been studied and taught since the beginning) http://www.linkedin.com/in/schwagler
ME! After commenting here I think I'm going to start my own blog, as much as I dislike writing, I hear it's the best way to get better :) http://reubenpressman.com