Great Ideas Are A Dime A Dozen

If it's true that money makes the world go around, then ideas may be the mental printing presses of our creative minds. Indeed, human creativity and imagination thrives wherever problems and challenges are encountered. So why is it that many people claim they don't have any good ideas? I don't believe that's true and in this article you'll discover five methods that can make idea generation as natural as breathing.

Note: the Mind Map below is available on NovaMind Connect at http://www.novamind.com/connect/nm_documents/457

As with many goals in life the intention to act is a prime motivator. So, in order to let ideas flow naturally from your subconscious mind into conscious awareness, you must decide to open the creative floodgates. By carrying a notebook and pencil you are signaling to yourself that you expect results.

Don't be surprised if you start getting all sorts of ideas at all sorts of unexpected times. You'll be in the bathroom, in the shower, driving, sitting bored in a meeting etc. and when the ideas come don't edit or judge them. Concentrate on capturing them. Write them down before you forget.

Of course, in this high-tech society there are electronic alternatives to pen and paper. Mobile phones such as the iPhone are morphing into multipurpose communications devices. You can use iBlueSky mind mapping application on your iPhone in order to quickly record your thoughts, and then later send it to NovaMind for the final editing process. This gives you a much more powerful and flexible solution than the old fashioned pencil and paper.

Much has been written about the deliberate act of generating ideas. In the corporate world asking groups of people in a meeting room to come up with as many ideas and suggestions as they can in a limited time is one way. Ideas are written on sticky Post-its and attached to large sheets of paper. Tremendous excitement and creativity can be unleashed in these types of group sessions but the challenge becomes what to do with all those pieces of paper and disconnected ideas...unless you use a program to record the ideas.

When you're grappling with a difficult problem and good ideas are nowhere to be found, take a break. Or at least change to another task or physically go somewhere different.  It seems that directing your concentration away from a particular stumbling block allows your mind time in which to process connections and possible associations that you may not have thought of yet. Some people find that literally sleeping on the problem generates ideas during the following day.

This is where the power of idea number two is brought to life by using software that makes idea mapping fun and intuitive. Mind mapping application programs lend themselves well to this purpose because the collective wisdom of the group can be categorized and organized in a very visual and attractive way.  And by using multiple idea maps, both the concepts and details of any given idea can be explored and shared with everyone who has access to the software over a network.

Sometimes the best way to understand the topic is to teach it! In this case, take one more of the idea maps generated from the brainstorming session and present your current understanding of how these ideas can be used to the people who came up with them in the first place.  Expect lots of light bulbs to come on in peoples' minds as they begin to see a visual representation of their thoughts on these issues.  The idea maps can then be updated using their feedback and the whole creative process advanced another stage.