Casual Fridays

I recently read a fascinating article on unleashing creativity from Scientific America.

Executive editor Mariette DiChristina conducted a roundtable discussion involving three experts on creativity:

John Houtz is a psychologist and professor at Fordham University. His most recent book is The Educational Psychology of Creativity (Hamptom Press, 2002).

Julia Cameron is an award-winning poet, playwright and filmmaker. Her book The Artist’s Way (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2002) has sold more than three million copies worldwide. Her latest book is The Writing Diet.

Robert Epstein is a visiting scholar at the University of California, San Diego. Contributing editor for Scientific American Mind and former editor in chief of Psychology Today, Epstein has written several books on creativity, including The Big Book of Creativity Games (McGraw-Hill, 2000).

Below are a few quotes I found interesting.

Read the rest of the article and see what you cull from it.  Perhaps it will inspire you to unleash more of your creative potential.

Just a couple of quickies today (gotta work hard to impress the new boss).

I had some Internet issues this week.  This page came up as I tried to access Yahoo!

Based on a search by Yahoo!, it no longer exists??  For a minute, I wondered if Microsoft had bought them out.

About a 1/2 mile from my house is Tom Peters Elementary school.  Can you imagine, err… RE-imagine, the education kids get there?  They should at least learn to use bright colors, 64 point type and exclamation points!!!!

Some dreams are lived. Some die. Others change.

For almost two years, I’ve been the creative director at Beyond Marketing & Advertising. I started that endeavor with high expectations for what I could accomplish and what we could create as a company. Some of those expectations were met, others were not. Overall, it was a fun (and educational) ride, but as you can probably tell, that ride is over.

This week, I accepted an offer to join a group of consultants at The Frontline Group. This move will give me more opportunities to work with Word-of-Mouth Marketing efforts, social media and helping clients tap into their own creativity.

I will continue to collaborate with Beyond and will remain in Tulsa, but am excited about the opportunities The Frontline Group represents.

I got some correspondence on The Idea Orphanage that encouraged me to share advise on reclaiming your idea orphans. I guess it would be rather cruel to raise awareness of the lost and abandoned without giving a way for you to help. So, here are a few ways to get the adoption process started:

1. Write them a letter.
Let them know you haven’t forgotten them. If you don’t write the idea down, you probably will forget it again. Then we’re right back where we started. While you’re putting the idea to paper, also write down the reason you abandoned it. This may help you create solutions to the original hurdle(s).

2. Adopt as a couple.
Share your idea with someone else who might help you “parent” the concept. This also creates some accountability to the idea. Someone else may push you to meet timeframes or make greater commitments.

3. Prepare a room.
If you’re going to bring a little one into your life, you have to create a good home environment. You’ll need to make space in your life, so create that margin now. Do you have the time and overall capacity to add something else to your plate? We don’t want to have a case of neglect on our hands.

4. Consider Their Age
You should treat the idea differently based on age. A younger idea may need more feeding and development. An older idea may need more acclamation to your environment. A lot may have changed over the years, take that into consideration.

5. Know Your Parental Rights
Before you finalize the “adoption,” make sure you know your rights. Should the idea be patented, under copyright or trademark? Make sure no one else already has these rights while you’re at it.

I was plugging away on my computer when I heard the cry from upstairs.  “Oh no!”  I asked my wife what was wrong.  “You’re going to hate me.”  She said.

I climbed up the stairs and found her in the laundry room.  She began to pull out pieces of paper and show them to me.  “My Moleskine?”

My wife hesitantly responded, “Yeah.”

I had left the notebook in a pair of jeans. Inside the notebook were months of notes.  Ideas, reminders, details and contacts.  Now it looked like scraps from an office wastebasket.

Amazingly, the notes were still intact.  The pages had all become loose leaf, but they didn’t shred (as business cards do, much to my wife’s chagrin).  The ink was slightly smeared in places, but everything is still readable.

So, in this case, rumors of my Moleskine’s demise were greatly exaggerated.

I doubt most notebooks would have escaped the laundry as anything more than pulp in the lint screen.

Sidenote:  This is the second Moleskine tragedy for me in as many weeks.  The previous week, I left my other Moleskine at a school auditorium in Oklahoma City.  Still haven’t tracked it down.  So, if you’re in the OKC area, be on the lookout for a small pocket notebook.  It is black and 3.5″ x 5.5″ in size.  It has slightly curly corners and a rough complexion.  It is full of great ideas and responds by the name of Ledger.

“There are no such things as bad ideas.”

Whoever invented that statement has never watched an infomercial.

There are plenty of bad ideas. The essence of this statement is that bad ideas can lead to good ones. Unfortunately, we either disregard someone’s bad idea altogether or we embrace it, because we’re stupid and don’t realize how bad it is.

Caterpillars can be wrapped in cocoons and made into butterflies. Here are 5 tips for responding to bad ideas:

1. Look past the book cover.
Ask for clarification of the idea. You may discover the idea is better than you thought. Most ideas are initially presented quickly, leaving out much information. The initial pitch is like a book cover. It’s a quick title and subtitle attempting to persuade you to open the book and see what’s inside. As we know, you can’t always judge a book by it’s cover.

2. Try a horse of a different color.
Don’t pitch out the idea completely. Maybe you still use a horse, just change the color. Ask if there’s a way to tweak the idea to overcome objections you may have. Example: “This seems cost prohibitive. Is there a way to do this without incurring so many expenses?”

3. Store nuts for winter.
Maybe I should say, “Store nutty ideas.” Preserve the ideas, even temporarily. If you’re in a meeting, write it on a white board. If the idea was emailed to you, save the email for later. Get away from it for a bit, then come back to it. You may see it in a whole new light.

4. Ask for more bullets.
If you criticize someone’s initial idea(s), you’re taking the gun out of their hands with bullets left in the chamber. Even if their first idea is idiotic, don’t respond hastily. State something like this: “That’s an interesting idea and I want to talk about it more. Before we do that, did you have any other ideas to discuss?” This can’t always be your response or it will be a formula easily recognized as, “That’s pretty lame, but let me patronize you before I tell you so.”

5. Identify Bad Guys vs. Daredevils
Maybe you don’t like the idea because it’s risky. Perhaps the idea is truly good, but carries risk that’s uncomfortable for you. If so, then ask yourself if the idea should be made “safe”… or if you should embrace the risk. You may be surprised by the answer.

There are plenty of bad ideas out there, but these five tips may help you find the beautiful monarch lying dormant inside the worm.