Brainstorming Alone, Part II

Now that you’ve chosen what to work on — or what we at Thinkx call the itch — take a piece of paper and write at the top of the page your challenge as an - “In what ways might I...” statement. For example let’s say you hated cold calling and wanted to come up with some way to increase sales without ever having to make another cold call. You would phrase this challenge as: “In what ways might I never make another cold call and still increase my sales?” Another way to phrase this might be: “In what ways can I get new clients to call me?” Or, “In what ways might all my sales calls be warm calls?”

OK, you’ve got a fresh piece of paper with your question at the top. Now start making a list of all the possible ideas that might answer the question. No judging while you are making this list! Give your internal critic and praiser their coffer break. Just write down anything that comes to mind. Also, please don’t forget what I said earlier about your first 5 or 10 ideas. So don’t get discouraged if these first several ideas look familiar. Remember, you need to get these first-third ideas out to make room for the new ones.

So how you do you get to those new ideas? First, push back against the things you feel are holding you back. If it’s money what ideas would you have if money were no object, same with time, people or any other resources you feel you need but do not have. Imagine you have them. 

Once you feel yourself running out of ideas — nothing new is coming to mind — stop and imagine you are somebody else. For example, what ideas would your mother or father come up with, a favorite author, a well-known industry leader like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Warren Buffett? You can even get a little silly and ask yourself what ideas would Superman, Batman or any other super hero come up with. It doesn’t much matter who you use. I just want you to get out of your own head for a bit.

Once you feel you are slowing down again, take a break and go on a mini excursion. Go look out the window, grab something to eat or drink. While on this break, remember what you saw, what you smelled and what you tasted. Now write down the things you saw, smelled or tasted. Do any ideas spring from this list? If this isn’t working for you (and it may not — when it comes to idea generating tools, as in anything else, there are different strokes for different folks), look at something on your desk, pick it up, and write down all it attributes. I keep a bunch of stuff on my desk, Legos, a cloth ball, rubber bands and pipe cleaners just to name a bit of the clutter. It really doesn’t matter what you pick up. It could be as simple as a pencil or a pen. Just look at it, examine it closely, and then make a list of all it’s attributes. Is it smooth, rough, soft hard, what its color? Now look at this list of attributes and see if any ideas spring from these. Finally, think of some wild and crazy ideas, the ideas that if you worked for somebody else would possibly get you fired, your significant other or a friend might have you committed. The nuttier and wilder the better.

My whole purpose here is to get you to what we call the third third of ideas, The ideas that you really had to dig down to get. In this third third is where the true gems usually lie. The ideas that are going to be different, unique and break through.

Now that you have this long list of ideas, you are going to need to choose the one you want to use.

The simplest thing to do is just look at your list and start circling the ideas that jump off the page, he ones that make you say wow to yourself. Try to circle 5 or so, and don’t forget the wild and crazy ones. Don’t be afraid of them. Look at them with an eye towards taming them. Once you are down to five, find the one that just really grabs you as a new and breakthrough approach.

I could go on here about strengthening your idea and coming up with an action plan, but then what would my next article be about?