10 Deadly BrainStorming Ruts That Kill Innovation

By John Storm, BrainStorm Network

Are you stuck in a “brainstorming” rut?

Most people think they know how to brainstorm. Yet, few realize there is more to brainstorming than the one traditional method that Alex Osborn created in the 1950’s (yes, LAST century). A multitude of new methods, tools, and techniques have been developed in recent years. Here are 10 of the most deadly brainstorming ruts that kill innovation.

1. “KIA” – It’s the military acronym for “Killed In Action”. Yet, KIA is also my term for the surest way to “kill” innovation… Know It Alls. These are the folks that act as if there’s no room to grow or learn. Arrogance in all forms (a lack of openness to new ideas, current reality, or outside input) is a “killer”. Being a lifelong learner is essential to staying innovative. Don’t get KIA by being a Know It All.

2. “Been There, Done That” - Almost everyone puts brainstorming in a “box”. They don’t realize there are over 25 different brainstorming tools and techniques. Some work better with certain groups, projects or topics. Often the best tools are the ones YOU create for your needs. S-T-R-E-T-C-H!

3. “MIA” - Most people have participated in brainstorming sessions where a TON of ideas were generated. Then, everybody got up, walked out and… NOTHING HAPPENED! This is what I call “Missing In Action”. It’s critical to quickly move to key Evaluation and Implementation techniques that capitalize on team ownership, yet assign individual action steps. Don’t forget the Action!

4. “Failure Freeze” – Much of the traditional management and educational environment is geared toward the ‘one right answer’ philosophy. People are scared to make a mistake, yet the ability to “engage” risk that includes the possibility of failure is a vital component to innovation. Failure is an essential element of success! If you want more success, increase your failure rate!

5. “Blabbermouths Rule!” - Without a trained facilitator, brainstorming sessions tend to be dominated by the loudest or most outgoing participants. Quieter team members can get run over, thus stifling some really great ideas. Due to social inhibitions, it’s usually not the best idea to let the boss facilitate. This is why new methods of brainstorming can be more effective.

6. “We Got Lost!” - A clear direction, purpose, or goal for the session is ESSENTIAL! Tangents are the norm and it takes critical pre-session planning and a skilled facilitator to guide the discussion back to the goal without squelching genuinely useful ideas. Knowing what’s a rabbit trail and when to chase it is an important skill.

7. “Rear-View Living” – Spending too much time focusing on the past in “Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda- Thinking” is dangerous. Hindsight can offer great insight into problems, failure, crisis, and disasters. Yet, “rear view living”, especially if it turns into a blame game, is unproductive. Focus on the Future!

8. “Meeting Nausea” – ‘We’re SICK of meetings’ is often the unspoken attitude… and justifiably so. A GREAT brainstorming session is totally different than a normal ‘meeting’. Make it an “experience” with amazing results by thorough preparation including: a clear purpose, strategic pre-planning, a spirit of experimentation, a ‘grace-filled’ environment, and yes, even a good bit of fun and laughter.

9. “Bad Experience” – If you’ve ever had food poisoning, you usually avoid the culprit food for quite some time. Yet, you don’t give up on food altogether! If you’ve experienced a toxic brainstorming session in the past (perhaps led by an untrained facilitator or inhibiting boss), take some mental Pepto, get over it and try a new approach.

10. “The Fear Factor” – “I’m scared… What if we can’t solve the problem? What if someone else comes up with a better idea than mine? What if someone suggests an idea that means I might have to change?” Fear is still a driving force in stifling innovation, whether it means personal or organizational growth. Acknowledge your fear and then face it with renewed confidence.

Brainstorming, in multiple forms, is one of the quickest ways to help you create an Invironment of Innovation™ in your organization. Differently Think!

© 2003 John Storm

John Storm is The Idea Expert™ whose mission is to bring Your ideas to LIFE!™ His expertise focuses on helping people discover, evaluate and implement their ideas. You can find other resources at www.brainstormnetwork.org

Rule The World With Your Ideas

By Adedayo Olanrewaju Benson

"Lack of money is not as bad as lack of ideas"

Before creation, this whole world and the people in it were just an impression in God's mind. Everything was sleeping quietly in an idea.

 A great future awaits us all but I want to tell you that this future is waiting for the thoughts that God wants to transfer into our minds. Some of us have caught some ideas, some have not, but our future is sleeping quietly inside these ideas. However they are more powerful than we may understand. It may also encourage us to know that God did not finish creation, but only started it. The day an idea is introduced into your mind is the day creation begins with you. Creation begins with an idea. Everything visible today first of all existed in the form of an idea in someone's mind e.g. Cars, Microphones, Clothes, Aircrafts, and so on.

"Ideas are simply thoughts or plans or mental impression in our minds"

Every human being is potentially wealthy and prosperous. The poor people are the ones who do not have ideas because ideas are the seeds that guarantee a future harvest. The Soul does not eat physical food but handles intangible things, which are IDEAS. So the prosperity of our Souls is determined by the prosperity of ideas in our minds. (3 John 2).

I have found out that money flows in direction of ideas. Whatever stops you from getting ideas has practically stopped you from getting money. Ideas magnetize resources from the environment. Our quality of life can only be changed by the quality of ideas that flow through our mind.

Ideas are more powerful than the brain that produces them because they usually outlive those brains

IDEAS FOLLOW DECISION.

The brain has been designed to produce an idea that suits our decision. The moment you decide, the brain goes to work and supplies the ideas of how to get what you have decided to get and when to get it.

Many years ago, in a small town in United States, a doctor climbed his horse and rode to a chemist's shop. He went in through the back door (somethings that change our lives come secretly). He carried in his hand an old fashioned kettle and a wooden paddle. He brought these items to the shop clerk with a sheet of paper on which was written the formula for a drink. Both of them began to bargain and eventually the clerk gave the doctor five hundred dollars for the items that he had come to sell. What the doctor sold to the clerk was worth a fortune to the young clerk but not to the doctor who gave away the items for just five hundred dollars.

To the surprise of the clerk, the content of the kettle which has since become a household name in the world, began to pour forth gold. The content of the kettle has been heard of in more places on the earth than the gospel of our lord Jesus Christ.

Somehow, the young clerk added something to the kettle, the paddle, and the formula. That thing, I believe is an IDEA. Today, the content of that kettle is the greatest consumer of sugar in the world. It is sustaining sugar plantations, the worker and their families around the world. It is one of the world's greatest consumers of glass and has turned fortune of many men around. The name of the drink is Coca-Cola, and the name of the clerk is Asa Candler.

The same thing that doctor placed a value of five hundred dollars on has today assumed a value that is difficult to estimate. But the difference between the doctor and the clerk was just ONE idea. The doctor did not realize that all the while he was holding the kettle, the paddle and the formula, billions of dollars were potentially lying in his hands. Unfortunately he did not find the idea so he could not get the billions of dollars. But one young man caught the idea and was able to release the potential for the billion.

HOW TO GENERATE IDEAS.
You can never rise above the level of your ideas. The quality of ideas that flow through your mind determines the quality of your life. How do we get ideas? I classified the means into two- the ordinary and the extraordinary process.



A. NATURAL PROCESS

1. Identify a need. Find a need and fill it. For example, people need to wear clothes, make clothes. The problem with the average person is that our inner eyes are closed. "One man's problem is another man's opportunity"
2. Build on someone's experience /product. Simplify an existing process or product. For example, cables have being use for telephone but now we do not need cables. Someone got ideas for wireless phone systems. Sit down and think of how you can improve on the current methods and equipment employed in your field.
3. Create a need. Before, man used water to entertain visitors, but now we use soft drinks. Man is not born with innate desire for soft drinks. Its general acceptance by the populace has made it a standard requirement for entertainment. Man created the need for soft drink.
4. Exposure. Reading, traveling and asking questions help to arrange and rearrange thoughts in our mind.


B. SUPERNATURAL PROCESS.

The greatest ideas that man will ever know are the ones coming from the invisible realm. We must cultivate our minds and faculties to be able to receive from that realm. Some have called it the Sixth Sense. Some call it Intuition. In the church, we call it the Voice of the Spirit. It is the ability to receive what the five senses cannot know. How do we condition our mind to receive supernatural ideas?

1. Prayer Dr. Robert Schuller says: "sow a prayer reap an idea"

"Call to me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3

2. Meditation in the Bible The greatest idea resource book in the whole world is the bible. It puts God's creativity on display. It demonstrates how God resolved so many seemingly impossible situations. Meditating on the word of God prepares our minds to receive inspired ideas from God.
Along with meditation in the Bible, there is the need for general meditation. Take some time out to think. Great works are product of great thoughts.

"Ten minutes of thinking can be worth more than ten hours of misdirected efforts"

It is mental work expressed through physical work that guarantees quality results. That is Smart work and Work smart yields better returns than mere hard work. "And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening.''

3. Giving. It is clearly established in the Bible that giving provokes a flow of ideas from God. 1st Kings 3: 4 - 5

"Weak minds discuss people, Lazy minds discuss events but Great minds discuss Ideas."

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Adedayo_Olanrewaju_Benson

Ideas Rule the World (2)

By Ola Olabimpe 

A very witty phrase, if you ask me. Going by the definition by Wikipedia: "an idea is a concept or abstraction formed and existing in the mind. Human capability to contemplate ideas is associated with the ability of reasoning, self-reflection, and the ability to acquire and apply intellect. Further, ideas give rise to actual concepts, or mind generalizations, which are the basis for any kind of knowledge whether science or philosophy."

So why do we say they rule the world?

"Everything you see and touch was once an invisible idea until someone chose to bring into being."

- Richard Bach.

Like a dream, an idea sprouts up in the mind, flies around in our brains till it is used or naturally fades out. The uniqueness and power that set apart any successful businesses or individual, starts with the kind of ideas they come up with (usually influenced by their state of mind, environ and situations).

It is not enough to have an idea, but it is a good start. To create a business, you need to come up with an idea. Then once you're in business, you need more ideas for design, engineering, capacity building, marketing, creative problem solving, customer retention, etc. Day in day out, you would need to think and generate new creative ideas to sustain the existing ideas. The accelerated pace of change and current ease of new entrants to new markets due to technological advances leaves no time to be sloppy in encouraging and nurturing ideas.

The success or failure of a business could be could depend on just one idea or the timing. Most companies are not short on new ideas, but they are short on ways to assess, prioritize, and execute those new ideas. For example, IBM existed when Dell took advantage of the internet and started online computer sales. Dell Computers had "an idea" IBM lacked and developing that single idea at that time, made Dell MONEY and a strong brand name. Ideas don't just bring you out of your shell, they possess the power to creatively stand you out.

Find great ideas? Basically, ideas are born by combining existing ideas to form an invention

(e.g. "car" and "kitchen," = "mobile restaurant,").

Firms must enthusiastically welcome new ideas and suggestions. If an idea is given proper attention, it may become the hero in town, the next great marketing campaign, or even the perfect incubator for your next innovative product or service.

There are several instances in history where great ideas were born and have made success:
Finding solutions to a need gave birth to Crayola brand crayons which started as a need for a child friendly school instrument.

To improve its business Garment Care (another laundry shop or better still a "glorified wash-man"), accepted Alder 's concept of "branding" and the success, we can tell.

The famous Mark and Spencer wanted to be different from other retail stores in UK; today, miles away the Igbo*-boy in Tejuosho* market, sells with lines like "this one is original stuff, like Mark and Spencer".

Post It Notes was created from the "failures" in a series of experiments in trying to create a heavy adhesive.

Adapting to change has helped Madonna (the world known singer and business woman) keep a firm grip on her legion of fans. Despite all the critics surrounding her career, by incorporating the latest dance ,music and trends into her own style, she has managed to retain her stage space in the entertainment industry, for decades.

I remember banking in Nigeria was also very boring before Bond Bank(then)* and GTBank* changed the game thanks to Alder consulting. The lists goes on and on.

To build a strong brand out of businesses or individuals you need to have a unique story to tell. The Einsteins, Gates, Dangotes*, Bruces*, Modelas*, had all made it because,

 Ideas Rules The World!

(*Note: this article was written from the Nigeria perspective and languages.)

This article is brought to you by Ola Olabimpe. A creative motivational writer for a FREE motivational self improvement ezine. She is a lover of quotes and would find lots of it in her writings.You can read and enjoy our weekly ezine on [http://www.mindjuicezine.com] Mind juice is sent via email and the site is regularly updated with absolutely free stuff and just about anything that has to do with self development! SO kick start every week with a handful of inspiration visit [http://www.mindjuicezine.com] Now! Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Ola_Olabimpe

IDEAS RULE THE WORLD

By OLU MIKE OMOASEGUN

Everything that we see in this physical world was first conceived in the formless world of thoughts and ideas. All the things we are using in the world today (clocks, cars, radios, TVs, computers, airplanes, ships, etc) are products of some people created through thoughts and ideas. Your idea is your product, and your product will produce your wealth. Moreover, your ideas that become a product remain the name that people remember you for in history.
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary defined idea as "a picture or an impression in your mind of what something or somebody is like".
An idea is creating in the mind through thoughts. Positive thoughts will result in positive ideas while negative thoughts will result in negative or bad ideas. The mind is a place where you can reason, understand, and think. What you feed your mind is what it takes; what it takes is what it produces. It accepts totally anything you feed it.
It is impossible to keep down a man or woman with a desire to use his/her ideas. No matter the opposition you face, if you have a strong desire, your idea will lift you up and make you overcome.
Your idea remains dormant until you desire to stir it up and utilize it to solve people's problems in your world. Your desire will also help you to develop the ideas within you. When you develop your idea into a product, you will begin to make extra-ordinary progress in life and you will rise to the level of top of achievers. Ideas rule the world.
Readiness to invest time, energy and resources to develop and deliver your idea will transform you, transform your world and bring you wealth.
Discover your idea today and develop it in order that it becomes a product that will be useful for you and your world as whole.
Mike Omoasegun (Pastor)
omoasegungloballinks@yahoo.com
 

OLU MIKE OMOASEGUN, a Nigerian is Assembly Pastor of CAC Hqrs Hill of Li Jos Nigeria. He is a teacher, writer, motivator. Loves reading and writing. Contact:
P. O. BOX 13523 JOS, NIGERIA
http://idealofsuccess.wordpress.com/
E-Mail:
mikoasmikoas@gmail.com
Article Source: http://articles.faithwriters.com/reprint-article-details.php?id=11021