Excerpt on brainstorming:
“A surplus of ideas is as dangerous as a drought… In brainstorming, rampant idea exchange is exhilarating. But without some structure, you can become an addict of the brain-spinning indulgence of idea generation. Recognizing the tendency to bask in idea generation is the first step toward managing your energy to ensure a tangible outcome… Approach every occasion of creativity with a dose of skepticism and a bias toward action… Start with a question and the goal of capturing something specific, relevant, and actionable. You should depart such sessions with more conviction than when you started.”

My 2 cents:
After a strong storm, I always notice how clean the air is, and how beautiful the horizon and landscape can be without all the clutter and smog. Brainstorms should end the same way—with clarity, no clutter, noise, and smog, and instead very tangible, actionable steps that are properly communicated and delegated to individuals who will take personal ownership over their respective tasks.

I have had my share of brainstorm meetings that left me more confused after the meeting than before, or with no clear action steps communicated and delegated. The meeting gets adjourned but no one does anything about what gets discussed. The minutes just get sent out via email. No one reads it. The next meeting comes around, we talk about the same items discussed the last time because nothing has changed. Why not? No clearly defined action steps, no ownership, no accountability. The brainstorm left a rubble of ideas, and no clear actionable solutions.

Since I find myself leading my own meetings now, I’ve been worked on applying this concept and making every meeting end in a way where people in the meeting clarify their respective roles and responsibilities that were just discussed in the meeting. It’s a conscious effort on my part (I sometimes still forget to do it) but i’m finding it to be a very rewarding practice, both for myself as team leader and for my teammates.

Another 2 cents:
Though not technically a brainstorm, I feel that individual conceptualization moments (when you’re idea generating by yourself) should be approached with the same bias toward action. And I think some of the best practices that are done in the most effective of brainstorm sessions should be applied.

In particular, I’ve found that giving yourself a time limit to think, create, ponder, and plan will greatly increase your focus, energy, and will ultimately result in greater productivity. Too often we allow ourselves to get lost in our thoughts, only to find ourselves with no time left before the project submission deadline and with no significant output other than a few ideas and a ton of research. Our wheels were spinning, but we got no traction, no movement.

When we do what Belsky recommends in the book and “recognize the tendency to bask in idea generation,” we can start building external systems (like giving ourselves a time limit for research, idea generation, and planning) that can help us overcome these tendencies and enable us to be more productive with our time and with our ideas.

Let me know how you’ve learned to handle your discussions / brainstorms / idea generation.

(More on this topic to come soon.)

Which leads me to my latest find: the book “Making Ideas Happen” by Scott Belsky of Behance. It’s been a very good read so far. What I find particularly interesting is that the book was written for creatives, people who are often not associated to the idea of organization and productivity. And right off the bat, Belsky makes a strong case for creatives to develop structure and organization around their creative world if they have any desire to make any significant impact with their innovative ideas.

I’m only in Section 1: Organization and Execution, but am already getting so much out of it.

Here are two of my favorite excerpts from the parts I’ve read so far that I’ve discussed with my team:

On organization:
“Organization is all about applying order to the many elements of a creative project… These elements exist in any creative project, but we don’t always acknowledge them… Of course, doing so decreases the odds that our ideas will ever happen… Only through organization can we seize the benefits from bursts of creativity… Like it or not–Organization is a major force for making ideas happen.”

Creativity X Organization = Impact
“If the impact of our ideas is largely determined by our ability to stay organized, then we would observe that those with tons of creativity but little to no organization yield, on the average, nothing… Someone with average creativity but stellar organizational skills will make greater impact than the disorganized geniuses among us… The ‘organization’ side of the equation deserves as much focus as the ‘creativity’ side. Why? Because ultimately you want to make an impact with your ideas.”

Pretty interesting, isn’t it? I love the equation. Though it isn’t scientific, it gives me a visual reference and helps me evaluate myself in the area of creativity, organization, and, ultimately, my impact.

More excerpts to follow in the coming days.

Today, my team and I discussed several of the points she raised in the first part of her book. I really enjoy processing new ideas with my team. Their insights and perspectives are very helpful to my own learning.

Here’s one of the questions from the book Kim raised that we worked on:

“If I evaluated the last three communication pieces I created, how much was simple and succinct? How much was detail overkill?”

Chique (our resident copy editor) had an interesting insight about how Filipino culture plays a role in our tendency to clutter our communication that got me thinking. We do tend to beat around the bush a lot. Me, I think I’ve got comm overkill down to a science. Which is why I’ve got A LOT to learn.

What about you, any communications pieces you worked on recently? Was the piece cluttered or was the message communicated clearly?