Jolt! by Phil Cooke (whitelam books .TXT) 📕

no criticism. If someone tosses out an idea and you call it stupid or unworkable, chances are, it will be the last idea you get from that person. And who knows? His or her next idea may have been the big one that saved the company. Don’t let anyone criticize an idea or a person. Criticism is probably the biggest idea killer than can infect a brainstorming session.

Keep it to an hour or so.

Someone once asked film director Alfred Hitchcock, “What’s the perfect length for a movie?” His response: “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.”

The same holds true for brainstorming sessions. I’ve noticed that after an hour, people start getting restless and off track. Keep the sessions to an hour and you’ll get the best out of people. In special brainstorming sessions, you can go longer, but I would provide long breaks at the top of each hour. Brainstorming is mental, but our minds are also connected to our bodies, and our bodies scream for breaks. Get up, walk around, get some coffee, or go outside.

The fact is, if you’re having brainstorming sessions on a regular basis, an hour is all you need. Get into a regular habit of brainstorming with your key people and you’ll find that you become a finely tuned idea machine. Speaking of fine tuning—

Fine-tune the ideas.

At some point, it’s time to take the hopefully huge list of ideas and edit them to the best idea. This isn’t easy, but it is necessary. Start with the obvious ideas that can’t work because of budget, time schedule, or lack of resources. If someone suggested opening your sales conference with the Victoria’s Secret models, that might be out of your price range. Having your marketing retreat on top of Mount Everest might be a bit tough as well. Make your first edits on the things that stand out.

Next, pull ideas that are probably good but won’t solve the particular problem you’re facing. Some great ideas are ahead of their time. Fine. Put them in your files and pull them out next year.

In the end, you should have your list of real, practical ideas that could work. It may be good to let that list gel over time. Perhaps you bring the team back in a week to discuss which of those ideas will work best. If you’ve developed a great team, then politics and ownership of ideas shouldn’t be a problem. A great team knows it’s not about individual stars, and one person shouldn’t campaign for an idea just because it was his or hers. Develop a team that values the best ideas and will work to fine-tune the list until you all agree on the best possible solution.

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of “crackpot” than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.

—THOMAS J. WATSON, FOUNDER OF IBM

Commit to a life of creativity and original thinking. Dress differently, drive home an unusual way, look at your job from a new perspective, stop taking people and things for granted. A life of creativity is a wonderful world where you’ll encounter new possibilities and see the world from a distinctive viewpoint. Just as in many other areas of change, some people will be upset with you. Lots of people out there hate creative thinking. They don’t like change, and therefore originality is something they are uncomfortable with and shun. Many people in corporate leadership don’t like their policies questioned or their dictates doubted.

But the results of original thinking cannot be doubted, questioned, or criticized.

Tom Kelley, in the closing of The Art of Innovation (see p. 87 here), wrote:

Try it yourself. Innovation isn’t about perfection. You’ve got to shank a few before your swing smooths out. Get out there and observe the market, your customers, and products. Brainstorm like crazy and prototype in bursts. You know the drill. The next time you’re knee deep in a challenging project, don’t forget the true spirit of innovation. That’s right. Have some serious fun. (297)

Perhaps the best-selling point for creative thinking is fun. It makes work seem like a playground and can transform your attitude toward your job and your business. Innovation can build teams of top performers and create a corporate atmosphere of excitement, enthusiasm, and loyalty.

It works in your personal life as well. When you can view every aspect of your life as a creative opportunity, the mundane becomes a compelling adventure and you’ll begin to see everything in a new light.

The classic advertisements for Apple computer said it best: “Think Different.”

» JOLT #13

EMBRACE AMBIGUITY

Appreciating the Mystery of Life

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

—F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, NOVELIST

If you really want something in life, you have to work for it. Now, quiet! They’re about to announce the lottery numbers.

—HOMER SIMPSON

I like to toss out provocative thoughts on Twitter and Facebook just to see the reaction. It often leads to fascinating discussions, but more than anything I’ve noticed just how black-and-white some people can be. They want clear and simple answers to everything and can’t tolerate shades of gray. But the truth is, we don’t have answers for a lot that happens in the world.

Why does one family experience tragedy and another doesn’t? Why does a company fail in spite of a great product? Why is there so much need in the world? Why can’t I accomplish my dream?

One of the hallmarks of the modern mind—especially during the last hundred years—was certainty. The rise of modern science made us believe that everything can be proven given enough time, and in the age of modernity, we came to see