By John
Alexander
One aspect to take into consideration when brainstorming is
that to be most effective, you cannot always
take a logical approach. The trouble with most of us as
adults, is that in many things, the more logical
you are, the more successful you are. Not so when
brainstorming.
In an action of brainstorming, you are seeking to come up
with something completely different than what
has been done before by others. Therefore, taking an
illogical approach sometimes helps you render
completely new ideas. The challenge for many of us are that
we tend to be either on the creative side or
else on the analytical side.
Looking back at the theory that Walt Disney took in the
early days, he tended to believe there was room
for both highly creative and highly logical thinkers. The
creative people were the ones most successful at
brainstorming story ideas, gags for his famous cartoons, or
dreaming up some new ride at Disneyworld.
When brainstoriming, you were encourage to add on to others
ideas, but if you had a logical streak or
presented a question to break the creative flow, then you
would join the team of logical thinkers in another
room. For example in the midst of a discussion about some
new attraction, the group might have been
layering idea upon idea, when suddenly, someone blurts out,
"But we can't afford to build this" or
"there
are 2 reasons this will never work." Everything
creative comes to a complete stop. So instead, Disney
would allow someone to say, "Well...we could do that,
if we did this first."
His creative people were called imagineers. They were in one
room dreaming up creative concepts, while in
another room the analytical group awaited. When the idea was
brainstormed out, then Disney would take
the concept to the logical group and say to them,
"figure out how to develop this and build this
attraction."
No problem, they were logical and could build something to
spec.
5 Creative Brainstorming
Tips on brainstorming:
1. Take the pressure off yourself and do something fun
Take the pressure off of yourself by doing something fun, something different.
When children are allowed to play together, their creativity can go wild. But as
we mature, we seem to lose this focus.
In creating the very first search engine workshops back in the very beginning, I
would actually take a day to talk business, while walking through Disney world in
Orlando. Our very first few Workshops were conducted on Disney property.
2. Stop
trying to replicate something that has already been
done before.
Far too many people spend their live trying to
analyze and copy the ideas of theirs, rather
than creating something brand new and fresh.
Back in 2002 there were no hands-on SEO training
workshops.
But today, the Search Engine Academy has training
centers located around the globe in the US, Canada,
Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong
Kong, the Philippines and later this year in the
United Arab Emirates. |
Never
Assume Life Has Handed You A Lemon
 |
3. Surround Yourself with the Right Kind of Creative Partners
Surround yourself with the right type of creative minds and only brainstorm with
creative people that know how to layer ideas upon ideas. It is good to have logical
thinkers too (very important) but use their services down the road to validate, double
check on things once your brainstorm has been developed by the creative group.
4. If you Feel Stuck Somewhere - Try Brainstorming in Reverse
Brainstorming is about taking a creative approach. It may help to start, by dreaming
up the end result that you'd like to visualize. Then try brainstorming backwards to
establish stepping stones to where you are now.
5. Choose carefully whose voices you choose to learn from
What you read, the teaching you absorb and any mentors that you may follow, are all
important in fine tuning your own original approaches. Creativity is one of the most
powerful influences there is, for reducing your competition, and for capturing the attention
of new audiences.
In Summary - Early Realizations of my own:
I first realized the potential a number of years ago, before starting the Search Engine Academy.
I was in the propane gas industry. I began to work with a group of employees in planning an event
which was called "Propane Safety Awareness Day." With everyone's input, we created an awesome
event to educate the public on propane safety. We had a huge tent, various demonstrations, cutaway
cylinders that let people see the inside of a propane tank. We ended up pairing the event in support
of the literacy counsel and children's story book reading, a tour of a propane yard. We even had hot
air balloon rides. The concept was something I thought up as an experiment, but it's the brainstorming
with the group that brought such a diverse arrangement of activities (thanks to a very creative group of
lateral thinkers.)
Come join John Alexander at the Upcoming SEO Workshop in Markham Ontario on April 18-20.
About John Alexander:
John Alexander works together with his network of globally located Search Engine Academy SEO Trainers who teach
hands-on SEO Certification Workshops in communities across Canada, The United States, Australia, Asia and soon in the
United Arab Emirates. John also is a writer of the Free SEO Tip of the day which offers you literally hundreds of free
SEO tips (one fresh SEO tip each day for free.)
If you are interested in training for an SEO career please visit one of our local community based SEO training Workshops
located closest to you. Read a few SEO graduate success stories here.
