getFreshMinds.com | Ideas so fresh--they should be slapped!

Where and when the best ideas happen.

Idea Champions just put out the results of a poll they did asking people where they get their best ideas.  The answers are interesting - ranging from getting ideas while "mowing the lawn" to "using a creativity exercise".

It's a very good survey, and they do a good job analyzing the different states of being that people find themselves in when they're at their creative best.  You should go read it here.  (It's only 15 pages.)

What really amazed me is how many people come up with their best ideas when they're doing something completely different.

Many people said they come up with ideas best while:

Daydreaming Driving Commuting to and from work Doing something that feeds your soul When you least expect it Walking Being in nature Late at night Surfing the internet Traveling Vacationing Showering Having fun Relaxing Working with your hands Reading books outside your field Early in the morning Dreaming (at night) Taking a break Laying awake in bed Just before sleep Just upon waking Exercising On a plane

Waking up in the middle of the night Hanging out with friends Doing nothing Meditating Doing anything mindless Joking with friends Taking a bath Any repetitive physical activity In the bathroom In the kitchen On a train Gardening Jogging or running Just after exercising At a concert On the toilet Riding a bicycle Swimming Brushing your teeth Drinking anything with alcohol Playing a sport Mowing the lawn Shaving In a bar Organizing things

There are two ways to look at those results.

Either in horror.  ("Eeek!  That means that I can forget about trying to think of ideas... it's obviously not the best way!")

OR, by realizing that those ideas don't come from totally stopping your thinking - they come from putting your brain in a different situation with different stimuli.

Let's face it, it's tough trying to think of great ideas while sitting at the same desk day after day. New ideas come from combining new information in new ways, and doing something completely different is a good way to start your brain in a different spot.

So, this survey doesn't mean the death of deliberate creative thinking.  (Phew!)  It just shows that our brains need variety to function at their best.

(Hat tip to Innovation Tool Weblog for the link to the Idea Champion survey results.  Thanks Chuck!  You were right about the survey being a good read!)

Connect with people farther away!

When you're around someone, buying them a beer is a quick and simple way to connect.  It doesn't cost much, but it always make the other person feel happy and appreciated.

But, it's not so easy to do that from far away.  Which is why I really think YouGotBeer.com is a great idea.

It's a really simple service.  You go online, enter the name and email of the person you want to buy a beer for, pay with Paypal, and hit submit. 

Then, YouGotBeer.com sends that person an email with a gift certificate for a beer at a bunch of locations close to them.

No, this isn't the next eBay, or Facebook, or Google.  But it's fun!  It effectively and creatively solves the problem of wanting to buy a beer for someone who isn't in the same city.

And there is definitely something to be said for a service that is a cheap and easy way to put a smile on someone's face when they're on the other side of the country or the world!

Just remember, creative ideas don't always have to be earth-shattering and unique.  Sometimes, great ideas help people do simple things in a new way.

And, stop thinking that ideas have to always be serious.  Have some fun! Give YouGotBeer.com a try!

 

(Hat tip to Drew, who already got a beer from someone.  He thinks it's a great idea too!)

Why you need a whack on the side of the head!

I absolutely love books on how to be more creative, especially when they're quirky and fun.  So, I'm really excited that today getFreshMinds is the first stop on the A Whack on the Side of the Head virtual book tour.

But wait, Katie... hasn't that book been out for a while?  Of course!  This is the 25th anniversary addition - that has been updated and packed full of great new information!

So, what do I think?  Flat-out, this is a great book for learning to be creative.  It's full of exercises (which makes it easy to learn from), but it's also written in a light-hearted, engaging manner (which makes it a lot more fun that you'd expect from a book that's supposed to teach you something!) 

Basically, A Whack on the Side of the Head challenges us to look at the way we do things in a different way - while sympathizing that it can be tough! 

My absolute favorite story in the book is where Roger is at dinner with his family, and gets a very abrupt reminder that it's easy to assume things have to be done a certain way:  (I'll share his words with you, because this is absolutely priceless!)

On my son's seventh birthday, our family went out to dinner.  Alex ordered salmon.  When our dinners arrived, he looked at his plate. Next to the salmon lay a wedge of lemon.  "What's this for?" he asked.

I explained to him that it was used to season the fish.  "But you better taste it first," I warned.

A moment later, I heard him exclaim "Yow!  That's the sourest lemon I've ever tasted." 

That's such a great example of how we get stuck in a certain way of thinking, and never even consider that there might be some other way.  (I know I never would have thought, in my wildest dreams, that someone would taste the lemon!)

The book has a ton of great example like that, and a bunch of really good techniques for getting whacked out of your normal thinking.  My favorites are when Roger challenges us to look for the "second right answer" and to ask "what if" questions.

I also love the section where he wrote about how metaphors can help people see a situation in a completely new light simply by changing the way they're looking at it, and then gave a ton of fantastic metaphors to describe "life". 

So, when I was told I could ask Roger some questions, I challenged him to demonstrate how to use metaphors to take a new perspective on a subject.

My question: How is creative thinking like competitive swimming?

Here are two of Roger's answers:

It's good to try a different swimming event away from your specialty; doing this will stretch you. Similarly, taking on a project outside your own "comfort zone" will help you learn some new things.

If you don't train, you get out of shape. If you don't using your creative thinking skills and try new things, they will atrophy and get out of shape as well!

(I'll share the rest in a later post... because I'm planning on using them for a contest.)

In A Whack on the Side of the Head, Roger also says that it's important to look for the opportunities in failures.  So, I asked him to prove it... by telling us a failure of his and how it lead him to something new.

Roger says:

My third book, "Expect the Unexpected or You Won't Find It" was published several days before September 11, 2001. (This book is about the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus whom I consider to be the world's first "creativity teacher.") As a result of 9/11, most of the media and promotional stuff for the book got washed away. The few interviews I did do had questions such as: "How does your book relate to Al Qaeda?" and "What should we be doing about anthrax terrorist attacks?"

Post 9/11 was a very strange time. And of course, the world didn't feel like hearing about 2,500 year old creativity ideas. I learned that you can have the greatest idea in the world, but if the timing's not right, there's very little you can do.

So, I picked up the pieces in 2002. I found a new publisher for a soft cover version of the book. In 2003, I created a new card deck with some of Heraclitus' basic ideas (this became the "Innovative Whack Pack").

And I was able to incorporate some of my favorite Heraclitus' ideas and stories in the new 25th Anniversary Edition of "Whack." Things worked out okay, just not the way I had expected. Which is fitting considering the title of the book ("Expect the Unexpected").

Then, finally, I had to ask Roger what whack on the head inspired him to write A Whack on the Side of the Head for the first time?

Roger says:

Back in the early 1980s, most creativity books were pretty straight-forward and didactic. I saw a need in the marketplace for a creative thinking book that was fun, informative, and interactive.

I feel you improve your ability to be creative by doing not by being preached at. Thus, I wanted my book to have a lot of exercises. I also wanted the book to be off-beat and be filled with unusual illustrations. Fortunately, I had a very good relationship with George Willett and he came through with a lot of wonderful drawings.

In addition, when I was writing the first edition back in 1982 I already had five years experience doing creative seminars with companies such as IBM, DuPont, Hewlett-Packard, and Apple. These sessions gave me a pretty good sense of what ideas would work in a book. Also, the seminar participants provided me with many fun and useful anecdotes and stories.

Roger also told me that he hopes this book reaches a new generation of creative thinkers... and I completely agree with him.  I read a lot about creativity, and this book is one of my favorites.  It's a lot of fun to read, it can be absorbed easily in chunks or as a whole, and it give people a lot of ways to improve their creative thinking.  It is definitely worth reading!