Remember the last time you showed someone from out of town around your city? You start seeing things through their eyes. You notice the little things – the state of the pavements, the state of the general population, the quality of the public transport system, the smells in the air…

We humans are good at taking things for granted – ignoring the things around us that don’t change much …

“I could succeed in many things, fail in many more, but as long as I have petted the cat I’ve done everything that really matters.” The Doctor, in Doctor Who: Vampire Science by Jonathan Blum & Kate Orman.

What really, truly, deeply matters to you? Can you achieve that this year?

The following points were inspired by Bruce Mau Design’s An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth. They provide a good foundation to present my thoughts on the conditions necessary to maximise the creative return from an ideas-generation session.

3. Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we’ve already been.

The journey is the point. Pick …

Looking back on my previous work with decision-makers in situations where we were coming up with possibilities to meet a challenge, I note that one of the most often asked questions was: “Are you saying we should do that?”

This question inevitably comes up when a promising idea surfaces during the course of our conversation. It is interesting that there such an immediate need for the simple, absolute, one, …

Don one or more of the following today!

Do a cartwheel.
Sing into your hairbrush.
Walk barefoot in wet grass.
Play a song you like really loud, over and over.
Dot all your “i”’s with smiley faces.
Read the funnies. Throw the rest of the paper away.
Dunk your cookies.
Play a game where you make up the rules as you go along.
Step carefully over sidewalk cracks.
Change …

This is a follow on post from A Technique for Producing Ideas.

Is the computer merely an execution tool? Is it a hindrance or a help in the idea generation process?

In my work, I use both a paper notepad and a laptop computer. Increasingly, more and more of my idea generation is done on my laptop. I estimate only 10-15% of my ideas now originate on paper. The …

An oldie but a goodie - written in 1965 by James Young. Read Kirby Ferguson’s summary: Book summary: A Technique for Producing Ideas

My paraphrasing:

Gather input
Let it stew
Walk away from it for a while
Listen for the “ding” that says the idea is ready
Serve it up, share it, make it real

The “collect words” advice is quite topical for me. I have always liked words (the latest addition being …

While shopping for a new television, I discovered that some retailers are putting actual facsimiles of their paper catalogues online (as opposed to other retailers who have searchable, database driven web catalogues).

While I can understand the cost-saving and ease of repurposing paper-based content with a scanner, the Internet and paper are two completely different media and requires different approaches to ensure usability and legibility.

Legibility is first and foremost my concern. With paper, you get much higher “resolution”; with type remaining legible at down to 4 points in size. By way of comparison, Word’s default font size is 12 points. You can also see the entire page on paper, whereas you will likely need to scroll to see the same amount of info on a screen.

If there is only one lesson I am grateful for learning this year, it would have to be this.

Most of the personality conflicts I see come from the parties not feeling heard or acknowledged. Most of the time it simply took a third party (with no vested interests) to sit quietly and let all the parties vent their points to de-fuse a conflict to the point where progress can proceed.

They bring you down to their level and they beat you with experience.

I found this amongst my notes today. I can’t remember who said this to me. If you are that person, email me.