by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
So where do we get ideas?
Recently the Wall Street Journal said that Group Brainstorming was not the best place to get ideas.
John Clark, a former university dean of engineering, says “brainstorming sessions come in handy to distribute blame in the event of failure." But in his experience, most often someone hijacks the topic at hand, tries to prove everyone else wrong, works to impress the superiors who are present or just plain blathers for his own enjoyment.
“Sometimes group sessions can result in one person's bad idea tainting and limiting the range of others' ideas. The best way to get good ideas is to get people to write them down privately and then bring them in. You want group diversity but no more than five to seven people or you risk ending up with 'co-blabberation,' “ warns David Perkins, Harvard School of Education.
"If you stand back and think about [brainstorming], it's plainly inefficient," says Prof. Perkins. But, he says, "sometimes you take the brainstorming approach because you want everyone to feel they have a voice."
(Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2006, "Brainstorming Works Best if People Scramble For Ideas on Their Own." Cubicle Culture By Jared Sandberg)
Note Susan Ohanian’s response to this article:
http://susanohanian.org/show_outrages.html?id=6184
In the E-Myth Mastery, Michael Gerber suggests you ask your staff to each come up with a list of ten ideas, bring them to a group meeting and then cultivate creative experiences by making composites of the ideas, and then organize them into
Medium of communication,
Content that is most essential,
and Process to get the message out.
http://www.emythmastery.com/
In Thinking for a Change, John Maxwell provides this list for creating creativity.
1. Remove creativity killers
(negative attitudes, criticism early on)
2. Think creatively by asking the right questions
(Brian Tracy says when you ask yourself a question it obligates the subconscious to come up with answers… give time and place for subconscious to respond.)
3. Develop a creative environment
(Maxwell says he has a special thinking chair.)
4. Spend time with other creative people
5. Get out of your box... change personal patterns in how you do things.
(Note some of book reviews of Thinking for a Change at Amazon.com)
Business Week has just launched a quarterly magazine called IN Inside Innovation.
One way to innovate is through ethnography.
Ethnography is a process companies are using to build products in flow with how people use them by "living and breathing with the customer." It is an in-depth art of tracing the detail patterns of how people do and use things.
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/
The origin of all ideas is in Spirit.
In the Beginning God created....
God is Spirit.
Spirit still creates and re-creates constantly.
Oswald Chambers says,
“The one true mark of a saint of God is the inner creativity that flows from being totally surrendered to Jesus Christ. In the life of a saint there is this amazing Well, which is a continual Source of original life. The Spirit of God is a Well of water springing up perpetually fresh. A saint realizes that it is God who engineers his circumstances; consequently there are no complaints, only unrestrained surrender to Jesus. Never try to make your experience a principle for others, but allow God to be as creative and original with others as He is with you.”
(My Utmost for His Highest, June 13)
Creativity comes out of having fun with ideas, being around those we love and feed us in Spirit. When Spirit is flowing back and forth in love and acceptance, creativity flows as well.
Getting too serious kills creativity.
Jesus poked fun at what others took too seriously.
Look at the conversations He had with the Pharisees. He made light of a lot of the things they did, said or represented. We could easily picture Jesus as a tongue-in-cheek stand-up-comedian making humorously retorting remarks to the Pharisees.
The disciples must have been snickering in the background as they saw Jesus do what they would only dare someone to do. They probably said, “I can't believe Jesus said that.”
The Pharisees created so many rules;
they absolutely took the fun out of life.
So Jesus said... there is one rule... Love each other.
Love has fun in it, it is creative and doesn't take itself too seriously. We are erroneously prone people and we can make fun of our own inadvertent mistakes.
Some times we take our lives too seriously.
And take things around us too seriously.
Don't take yourself too seriously.
Loosen up.
Enjoy the moment. If you are the first to poke fun at yourself it disarms others who would. You will also get a laugh and create a positive environment. Then joy will be there and everyone will not take themselves so seriously.
When we are all having fun, ideas come. God's Spirit of creativity has a chance to find a door open It can come into us, and come out from us.
Ideas and innovation come out of joy, hilarity, looking at things differently, having fun.
Nothing is sacred... just that we love.
The unique peculiarities in others inspire us versus disturb us... when we lovingly accept uniqueness. Conformity stifles creativity. Non-conformity, freedom of individual expression (acceptance of) opens up channels for creativity. Spirit interacting, love flowing, creates the creative, the innovative.
Dwell in Spirit and interact in Spirit...
love and acceptance.
Be Still... listen to the Spirit's voice.
Connect to Spirit... receive a fresh view of things.
“Now I (Spirit) will tell you new things I have not mentioned before, secrets you have not yet heard. They are brand new, not things from the past. So you cannot say, `We knew that all the time!'” (Isaiah 48:6, 7 NLT)
Creativity and having fun are linked.
When we are having fun we open up creative channels. Jesus said He would make our joy complete!
Allow new thoughts of Spirit to come to mind and create a hilarious moment in your Spiritual mind.
Jesus says... "abide, dwell in me and I will live in you and your joy will be complete. All things you ask for, see in your creative imagination, I am making for you.
So live and love and I will bring new life to you...
that's fun, fresh, alive, creative!"
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