Brainstorming results in innovative ideas

by Scot Herrick on November 14th, 2006

In the beginning, so to speak, there was brainstorming. And it was good.

It just didn’t work out very well in practice…

Brainstorming is critical to finding innovative ideas that will solve specific problems, both in your personal and business life.

The process is simple:

Focus on Quantity of ideas
No criticism
Unusual ideas are welcome
Combine and improve ideas

Kind of like Pimp Your Work, don’t you think?

It’s where the ideas meet the road that the trouble begins. The pitfalls in business are many:

A manager that doesn’t like ideas not invented here.
A department that says ideas are great, but never implements them.
A group that agrees with the ideas, agrees to implement the ideas, and then fails in the execution.

The result is the same: loss of ideas that will solve problems.

Don’t let this happen to you. Your company may not agree with your innovative ideas, but that doesn’t mean “You, Inc.” shouldn’t continue to brainstorm ideas that can be implemented to help out your career and life pursuits.

Brainstorm about your career and what makes you want to work. Brainstorm about your relationships to come up with ideas to make them even better. Brainstorm about how to achieve what you want in life to get you closer to your goals.

Just because your work group doesn’t believe in brainstorming doesn’t mean you shouldn’t come up with innovative ideas for yourself.

What innovative ideas would you like to read about here on Pimp Your Work? A brainstorming session is in order in the comments. Gives us your ideas!

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Sean Kelly
Nov 14, 2020 at 9:45 am

Just wanted to say congrats on the (re)launch of your site… from a fellow b5 blogger.

I’m looking forward to improving my pimping skills dramatically through frequent visits.

-Sean
Scot Herrick
Nov 14, 2020 at 11:40 am

Thanks for stopping by, Sean! There are a lot of ideas already up on the site and we’ve got a lot more things planned for the site. We’ll look forward to seeing you again…
Tris Hussey
Nov 14, 2020 at 12:00 pm

Scot, these tips are so true. When I brainstorm (it’s really helpful when trying to work through a new idea) I really try to focus on the no bad ideas concept. Just capture it all. Don’t worry about order or relatedness … just capture.
Des Walsh
Nov 15, 2020 at 7:03 am

V cool site, folks. Congratulations. RE brainstorming, don’t forget the coffee shop - i.e. away from the desk, brain a bit more relaxed, more room for creativity. A good lunch is even better - especially if you moderate or even decline the wine intake.
Scot Herrick
Nov 15, 2020 at 9:08 am

Hi Des,

Very true. If you are brainstorming for You, Inc., getting a little bit away from the day to day frazzle is important. I don’t know if I’d pass on the wine…heh!
Pimp Your Work - Brainstorming at Java Cafe
Nov 15, 2020 at 8:10 pm

[…] A couple of days ago, I posted a note about brainstorming resulting in innovative ideas. The purpose of the post was to show the base brainstorming process and then explain some of the traps associated with trying to implement the ideas from the session. […]
Pimp Your Work - Brainstorming doesn’t fix problems
Nov 20, 2020 at 10:15 am

[…] The brainstorming role, then, is to come up with innovative ideas. But brainstorming doesn’t fix problems; the brainstorming is used to look at a specific problem in different ways. […]

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