Idea Creation

When do meaningful ideas come to your mind? What activities are you engaging in at the time when ideas of worth pop up? Or maybe these gems come to your awareness while asleep?

I can think of a few circumstances that are conducive to idea generation – the kind that pop to mind seemingly unassisted.  Here are a few examples of that:

• Doing a boring routine over and over again; think of painting the house, a seemingly endless task with hours and hours spent on a long succession of days. There you are on a ladder dipping the damn paint brush into the damn paint can over and over again until your arm’s reach is exhausted; then down the ladder with the bucket and brush, move the ladder to a new reach, climb the ladder and dip the damn brush into the damn… You get the idea! What else are you to think about at a time like that? Useful ideas naturally come to mind then.
• Driving hundreds of miles in a day on an Interstate highway. Beautiful road way. Expanding vista passing by the windows. Endless trucks passing and being passed. Mile after mile. What’s an inquiring mind to do? Think! And then re-think! Until interesting ideas come to mind and provide hours of entertainment! Some of my best thinking happened behind the windshield.
• Middle of the night awakening. Usually between 1 and 3 am. Silence. Darkness. Body at rest. Mind kicks into gear. Simple ideas form. Basic ideas. The best kind. And then logic takes the bait and works it for another hour or so until sleep takes over. If I’m lucky I remember this mid-slumber episode and write about it in the morning. 

There are other circumstances in which ideas begin to pop. For me it usually happens in a group setting where several minds are at work attempting to define issues, interrelate those same issues, and then struggle to find a means to handle the issues so they don’t pose an operating problem. This is group problem solving. Mostly ideas are aired and tossed into the conversational pot. At times like these one person can make stunning discoveries by allowing all the comments and terms float through his consciousness until a phrase or defining moment occurs. With a scribbling on the white board the listener attracts attention, conversation calms then turns to silence.

As the group focuses on his scribbling they begin to see how their ideas have coalesced. Now there is order. Now a path forward becomes evident. And an action plan is written in the next few minutes.

Collaboration like this is broadly available if the right minds come together, discuss, expose their doubts and fears together, and then allow matters to settle into new relatedness. Ideas often pop to view at these times. And what fun!

Think tanks work to accomplish this process. It is not easily available. Some people have to put their feet on the table and lean back in their chair. Others have to crawl on top of the table with marker in hand to scribble on large paper pads. Still others write on the walls that have been outfitted with white board material from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. The room is a think room, an idea room. It is a place where minds are allowed to roam until they are snagged by something meaningful. All sorts of good things happen then.

None of this can happen without trust, cooperation and intentional collaboration. The group must want to work together. Don’t assign it a specific task; that might jinx the process! Allow the creative juices to have their own way and stand back and watch what happens.

This is fun. This is the joy of creativity. Cutting-edge organizations know this. They work at it. It is something that must be consciously allowed.

Think about that and then see how you can capture some of it in your own life. And family.

Wow!

July 22, 2015