1. If you need more data to prove your point, you'll never have enough data to prove your point.

2. Being unreasonable is often an innovator's biggest advantage.

3. Analysis paralysis.

4. You already know what to do.

5. You're going to follow your gut, anyway.

6. "Not everything that counts can be counted; and not everything that can be counted counts." (Einstein)

In India, spiritual adepts who give up sex to pursue God are known as "brahmacharyas."

They believe that their vital power (i.e. kundalini) needs to be completely intact in order for them to have the ultimate experience. They celebrate by being celibate.

What does this have to do with you, oh sexually active seeker of the Big Idea? Plenty -- especially when you consider that one of the main reasons why many new ideas never see the light of day is because their originators have a tendency to "prematurely articulate."

Indeed, the act of talking about one's idea often takes the place of doing anything about it -- and the idea, regrettably, ends up merely a fantasy.

Time to celebrate!
February is
"National
Get Your Ducks
Out of the Damn
Row Month."
C'mon!
I know you
can do this!
Get those ducks
out of order.
Spin them!
Turn them around.
Put sunglasses on them.
See what happens
when you let yourself
do something
just a little
bit different
for a change.
Quack!

Idea Champions

If your company runs brainstorming sessions, know this: too many of them have become veiled opportunities for people to trot out their pet ideas.

Because everyone is so ridiculously busy these days and real listening is at a premium, people use brainstorming sessions as a way to foist their pre-existing ideas on others.

And while this sometimes leads to results, it doesn't make best use of the opportunity a brainstorm session provides. The way around this phenomenon?

Give people a chance to express their pre-existing ideas at the beginning of a session. Clear the decks. Then use the rest of the time to explore the unknown. Woof! Woof!

High Velocity Brainstorming
Conducting Genius
Idea Champions

Whenever I ask my clients to tell me about the quality of the brainstorming sessions in their company, they usually roll their eyes and grumble.

Simply put, most brainstorming sessions don't work.

Not because brainstorming, as a process, doesn't work -- but because they're usually done poorly.

What follows are 26 of the most common reasons WHY -- and after that, a list of what you can do differently to turn things around. Ready?

1. Lame facilitation

2. Wrong (or poorly articulated) topic

3. Unmotivated participants

4. No transition from "business as usual"

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
-- Albert Einstein

If you have even the slightest respect for the wild-haired father of modern physics, consider this: Your organization's fascination with metrics is often nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to quantify the unquantifiable -- a compulsive effort to validate that which you and everyone else already know to be true.

I'm not suggesting you abandon metrics (I track, daily, how may unique visitors make it to my website) -- all I'm saying is not everything needs to be measured, at least not all of the time.

The core of your company's "innovation process" is actually less about mind, and more about heart. (And if you're about to ask me how I know that, please read the Einstein quote one more time).

More from Albert

THE EMBEDDED REPORTER

There is a state of mind psychologists have dubbed the hypnopompic state that is a rich source of inspiration and fresh ideas.

In this state, most often associated with the first few minutes upon waking, the analytical mind is at bay and a fuzzier logic prevails.

It is as if a portal opens between worlds and we gain greater access to the subconscious part of mind where brilliance, insight, and expanded perception often reside.

This is a marvelous, lucid, well-written blog post by Tom Asacker on ten of the fundamental mindset changes that you and your company will need to honor if you expect to thrive during these radically changing times.

HINT: Your marketing efforts need to be less about branding and more about bonding.

Who, on your team, do you need to meet with to explore Tom's key points? And when will you do it?

Idea Champions
Free the Genie

DREAM CATCHING

Many great breakthroughs have come in dreams.

Rene Descartes got the concept for the Scientific Method in a dream. Elias Howe came up with the final design for the lock stitch sewing machine in a dream. August Kekule arrived at the formulation of the Benzene molecule in a dream.

In the dream state, our subconscious mind arrives at solutions that our conscious mind is unlikely to discover no matter much it obsesses.

That's why Thomas Edison and Salvadore Dali used to take naps during the day.

Click the link below for a simple technique you can use to help remember your dreams...

This is the first in a series of 35 postings that describe simple techniques you can use to liberate your innate creativity.

1. WRITE ON!

Buddha, as the story goes, once said that human beings have 2,000 thoughts per second -- and that he had slowed his mind enough to be able to identify the last two.

Few of us are in Buddha's league. Our thoughts are often a blur, flying in under the radar -- great ideas mixed with odd bits about shoe sales, sex, and salad dressing.

Like unremembered dreams, our ideas come and go, having little or no effect on our lives. That's why you need a way to track and capture them. At the very least, the effort will give you the option of remembering them.

Cavemen recorded their ideas on the walls of their cave. You also need a way.

Here's a fun 5-minute exercise -- a good icebreaker or brainstorm session starter.

Make a list of every bad thing that will happen to you and your business if you don't figure out how to free yourself from being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Then take another five minutes and make a second list of everything you can do to prevent the stuff you just wrote down on your first list from happening. Go!

Idea Champions

Let's cut to the chase: Innovation doesn't begin with processes, structures, and protocols. It begins with inspiration.

And where does inspiration come from?

It comes from inside the impassioned mind and heart of each person who works in your organization.

When people's mind/mindset is in the right place (i.e. open, curious, imaginative, communicative), your organization is home to thousands of daily, spontaneous opportunities for innovation to take root.

But all too often it doesn't.

One reason why there isn't more innovation in your organization is because too many people are working on their own. The result? Overwhelm. Stress. Bottlenecks. And too many missed opportunities. Here are 20 ways to change the game:

Got a big idea? Think you're too old to create! Think again. Here are some incredible examples to inspire you to go for it! Click "full screen" (bottom right icon) for easiest reading.

The Creative Age
Catalyzing the Creative Mind
Idea Champions

Everything begins as an idea.

Whether you're in business, school, jail, or debt, that's how it all gets rolling. First there's the idea, then there's the manifestation of the idea -- assuming, of course, that the person with the idea has their act together.

If you have any doubt, take a look around you.

Everything you see began as an idea: The microchip, the chocolate chip, the fishing net, the internet, the company you work for, and the company you keep. All of it. Everything. Even the Universe, some say, began as an idea in the mind of the Creator.

Well then, if it all begins with an idea, where in the world do ideas come from?