Brainzenning - Taking the NO Out of InNOvation

Want to be More Creative? Relive, Reinvent & Really Blow It - Guest Post from Andee Weinfurt

This week's guest post is from Andee Weinfurt, who has one of my favorite Twitter names - HotCupofCopy - reflecting her dual interests in writing and hot caffeine. Andee lives in Weston, MO and is a copywriter for GlynnDevins Advertising & Marketing.

She admittedly relishes the weird / embarrassing / bad moments of life because they lead to great ideas and ultimately, greater creativity. Today, she shares her approach for how to get from crushing to creative!

While I’m always searching for innovative ideas to capture my creativity, my philosophy has never changed: The worse the situation, the greater the potential to create something from it.

Truth be told, my most embarrassing, unpleasant and downright disappointing moments in life have always been the stepping stones for my most creative endeavors. Many of you reading this, I’m sure, can relate. (If not, watch a John Hughes movie or listen to a grunge album from the 90’s.)

Case in point: when I was fired from my first job at sixteen, there initially seemed to be little worth remembering about the experience. Especially since I had to literally melt my tears before I could dry them (I was given the news in the kitchen freezer, to maximize privacy and apparently my humiliation). But everything that made that experience so utterly awful is also what made it a creative diamond in the rough: I wrote about it and years later turned in that essay to a potential employer as part of the interview process for a copywriter position. While I did get the job, it probably doesn’t speak so much to the piece itself as it does to the idea of using it.

Ever since, I’ve been using this go-to guide for capturing creativity, regardless of the ultimate goal:

1. Relive: Draw upon a bad experience. An embarrassing moment, an unfair outcome, anything is fair game. These experiences make us who we are, and who we are is unique (the most important criteria of creativity).
   
2. Reinvent: Take something from the bad experience, and turn it around to work for you. The irony, the humor, the timing — there’s bound to be something you can apply to the challenge at hand.
   
3. Really Blow It: Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. This will inevitably lead to falling flat on your face — and when it does, embrace the moment wholeheartedly. Then you can start the process all over again!

Sometimes the most innovative idea is realizing the value of an old one.

And making lemonade out of lemons? It still works. - Andee Weinfurt

4 Steps to Get Ready to Wing It Strategically

With so many things changing rapidly in business, being able to successfully react to unexpected developments is a tremendously valuable strategic thinking and innovation skill.

How do you prepare when you may have to "wing it"? Having had to be ready to act with little formal preparation in so many situations, here are some field-tested suggestions for doing it more effectively:

1. Invest a little effort ahead of time imagining what scenarios other than the original one might develop. For me, that often involves visualizing, i.e. literally "watching," in my mind what might happen. Other times, it's writing down possibilities or using a decision tree to look at alternative scenarios. This quick assessment lays a foundation for knowing what you might have to work with.
2. Amid the potential scenarios, figure out what you can reasonably prepare for, just in case. Are there easily secured tools, resources, or information that will get you ready to go in multiple directions should the need arise?
3. Know whether there's a routine that makes you more comfortable amid uncertainty. This may include things around you, people available for support, or activities / rituals you use to get in the proper frame of mind. If it's possible, go through the routine to set the stage.
4. If you have to wing it, go forth creatively and boldly. Don't apologize, make excuses, or say what the original plan was. Act as if the way you're winging it were the plan all along. Often, no one will suspect any differently.

I'm not sure having to innovate on the spot in important situations gets any less nerve racking, but with these steps, you can better flex and still deliver on strategy no matter what gets thrown at you. - Mike Brown

What Has Social Media Done for Me? Plenty

A January post highlighted the plan to broaden Brainzooming through social media. Specific tactics included Twitter, capturing story ideas with Flip video, and participating elsewhere online.

Since many readers have asked, here's a progress update: the opportunities, connections, and possibilities from implementing the plan have been beyond my expectations. For those considering using social media in your personal brand efforts, here are some highlights:

• Since grabbing the @Brainzooming Twitter name in January 2009, it's grown to a focused network of several thousand, including great thinkers globally on innovation, creativity, marketing, and branding.


• BrainzoomingTM blog activity is up 3 times for the biggest month in 2009 vs. 2008. It's increased through Twitter, answering questions and updating activities on LinkedIn, sharing links on Business Week Business Exchange, and commenting on other blogs.


• Twitter led to connecting with @sethsimonds, who's helping revamp Brainzooming, moving it to Wordpress (and Brainzooming.com).


• Posting "Taking the NO Out of InNOvation" on Slideshare, being selected as a feature ebook, and sharing the link broadly generated nearly 3700 views in six months to broaden the Brainzooming audience.


• I worked with a talented team to live tweet, blog, and video the Business Marketing Association conference in June 2009. We'll build on the experience for the October 2009 American Marketing Association Market Research Conference I'm chairing. We're building a Twitter presence with @amamrc, recording webcasts, bringing live tweeting into presentations via ParaTweet, and exploring unconference and Pecha Kucha presentations (which yes, I learned about through Twitter).


• A request came through Twitter to participate in a Sydney, Australia innovation event with two stories shot on the Flip and posted on YouTube. There have also been new speaking opportunities on social media and innovation (in person, on radio, and the internet) and writing connections with 24 Hours of Innovation, World Creativity and Innovation Week, and Braden Kelly's Blogging Innovation website.


• Brainzooming is listed among top innovation blogs on IdeaConnection. (If you have a minute, please go there and vote up Brainzooming!) Brainzooming has become more of a recognized outpost for innovation thinking, with a wonderful group of Twitter-based guest bloggers contributing and PR outreaches from people wanting to be featured on Brainzooming.


• Finally, Googling "Brainzooming" in December 2008 would have yielded about 40 hits. Doing it just now, "Brainzooming" returned thousands.

One learning has been that taking a strategic approach to social media for me means concentrating efforts on only a few sites. That's why there's little presence from me on Facebook or Plaxo. I will be trying though to make a concerted attempt to get back to some high impact sites and explore new ones. One is Bulbstorm.com - a crowdsourcing beta site allowing individuals and businesses to solicit input on ideas while still protecting fundamental, proprietary elements of the ideas through varying access levels.

What a partial year so far of learning, meeting new people, and discovering new opportunities! Email or DM me with questions on your social media effort or suggestions for mine. - Mike Brown

Don't Let the Door Hit You on the Way In

Someone told me about his new company where they do entrance interviews. In contrast to an exit interview, the objective is to get a download of potentially innovative ideas when someone starts a job, before there's time to develop a point of view biased by the company's culture.

What a great strategic thinking approach!

Given the current hiring market, entrance interviews may have limited applicability right now. It's a wonderful idea though for increasing the diversity of an organization's creative learning during the narrow window when a new employee is approaching things from a completely fresh perspective. - Mike Brown

Brainzenning - MIght As Well Jump

Employing Strategic Thinking & Choosing Happiness - Guest Post from Tracy Brown & Gordon Simmons

This week's guest post is from Tracy Brown and Gordon Simmons are the co-creators of Happiness Inside – a social networking website offering articles, tools, tips, and encouragement. Its aim is to help each visitor develop a toolbox to build their own Happiness INSIDE. Gordon is a writer, musician, and online businessman. Tracy is a writer, a dreamer, and loves to engage and inspire others. You can follow them on Twitter at HappinessInside.

They're sharing their perspective on making a strategic choice for happiness:

When we were invited by Brainzooming to do a blog on employing strategic thinking and choosing happiness, we jumped at the chance. You may wonder: Why “strategic thinking” when you are talking about being happy? Well, happiness is a choice – we’ll discuss that later in this post – but first let’s start with thinking strategically in order to choose happiness.

The mind is a funny creature. Undisciplined, it wanders from subject to subject, thought to thought, from imagined scenario to perceived situation. Sometimes, this is fine – it’s nothing more than benign musings. But the undisciplined mind by itself doesn't always necessarily act in your best interests. When this happens, thinking strategically can help.

For a moment, picture the mind as river, water rushing along as you stand along the shore. The water in the river will follow the path of least resistance, especially when circumstances cause a surge in its volume. The water itself is not out to create a flood or breach the river banks; it’s just following the route it can flow in most easily without opposition.

The mind can behave in a similar way. When left unchecked (like the river’s water), the mind can wander into subjects and areas you do not want to think about or do not need to dwell upon. And it can certainly wander into areas that are simply not true and have a negative effect on how you feel, and ultimately believe and act.

Consider these examples. You are in school and fail a test. Or you are giving a presentation for work, and you totally bomb in front of your coworkers and maybe even your boss. It just doesn’t go well for you that day. An undisciplined mind might start to travel in “unruly” directions telling you things like:

• “I’m so stupid."
• “I can’t get this.”
• "I never do these things well.”

And on and on. Those thoughts are just not true and do not employ thinking strategically. Now, let’s apply strategic thinking to the two examples above.

Number one, you failed the test. Your deliberate thoughts can go in this direction:

• “Ok, I really did not do well on that test.” [This is true.]
• “Today was not my best day.” [This is true.]
• “And I will work to do better in the future. I can do better.” [This is also true.] \

This last thought is the beginning of thinking strategically. It opens the door and points your mind toward finding a way to create future positive experiences for yourself.

The bombed presentation?

• “This was not my best presentation.” [That’s a fact.]
• “I had the opportunity to learn what works for me when I’m talking to a group and what does not.” [That’s a fact.]
• “My next presentation will be better because of what I’ve learned in this one.”

Again, this is thinking strategically.

So what does thinking strategically have to do with choosing happiness? The answer is simple: What you choose to think about will ultimately have a direct affect on how you feel. Choosing more positive thoughts will create an environment for your mind to be more apt to discover, develop, and experience happiness. Choosing to be happy will create more opportunities for feeling good.

The happier person is the one who is more strategic in his or her thinking – the one who chooses to think, “I bombed today, but I’ll rock tomorrow!” - Tracy and Gordon

It Will Be Just Like Starting Over

I'm a huge advocate of saving idea snippets for later refinement. Doing this has saved me so much creative time over the years.

Sometimes, though, this strategy leads to a creative dead end.

I have a nearly 100 page Word file of blog article starters along with several sketchbooks loaded with ideas. These have been great resources, serving as a safety net when ideas or time are tight.

Yet, the ease with which I used to write the blog has evaporated over the past several months.

This is likely due to a whole variety of legitimate tugs on my time and mental energy. But instead of my idea trove helping me, the chore of sifting through it and thinking about what and how to edit the ideas has been more daunting than invigorating.

So I tried a new approach this weekend. I began with a brand new Word file, a few ideas written down this week, and pounded out 5 new articles Saturday evening, just like the early days. Freed from the creative baggage of feeling compelled to rescue ideas, words and ideas started flowing naturally again.

It comes back to a fundamental strategy: be willing to walk away from what has worked for you when it isn't working anymore. - Mike Brown

Pecha Kucha in Kansas City - 6 Reminders for Better Presentations

Last Thursday, thanks to a heads up tweet from Todd Chandler, Cyndi and I attended our first Pecha Kucha night at Crosstown Station in downtown Kansas City. If you've not heard about it, Pecha Kucha is an innovative 20-slide PowerPoint presentation format with each slide on-screen for 20 seconds. Introduced in 2003, Pecha Kucha nights have been held in more than 200 cities globally.

Pecha Kucha emphasizes rapidly-paced, visually-oriented, creative slides. You'd think, by definition, it would be difficult to do a bad Pecha Kucha presentation since so many poor presentations emerge from slow pacing and too many words on a slide. While avoiding these downfalls helps improve presentations, it doesn't fix everything.

As a result, here are 6 presentation reminders from Pecha Kucha night that apply to other presentations too:

Reminder 1: Boring presentations aren't only caused by too much text on a slide. Despite agonizing about overly bullet pointed PowerPoint slides, an exclusively visual presentation can be deadly as well. One way to accomplish it? Read your presentation and don't make eye contact with the audience.

Reminder 2: You can lose the handle on a presentation in less than 6 minutes. Even if you're only presenting for a few moments, failing to have a solid presentation strategy and a well thought out flow will put you in the ditch quickly.

Reminder 3: Sometimes 20 seconds a slide is still too long. You wouldn't imagine it, but 20 seconds can push the limits of how long a slide should be on screen if there's no reason for it to be there or it's not information rich.

Reminder 4: It's a good thing corporate presentations don't usually include beer and poetry. No matter what they are, distractions change a presentation. The beer break in the middle of the evening introduced an attractive distraction. Subsequent presentations became funnier or less tolerable (i.e. the poetry reading) because of it.

Reminder 5: Doing a visually-oriented presentation doesn't mean you should treat it like a slide show. Really compelling pictures are worth a thousand words. Marginal images are worth about five. And if you're not prepared to fill in some of the other necessary words to make a point, you've got a problem.

Reminder 6: Humor nearly always helps a presentation. Even in a brief presentation, smartly using humor makes a presenter more intellectually & emotionally approachable, bringing the audience into the experience. One of the funniest lines of the night? "These mouse turds were hand rolled by me." How can you not be rooting for someone who's willing to honestly share that?

Go to Pecha Kucha if you get a chance (as a teaser, here's Todd's fun presentation). I'll be working on my 20 second presentation chops for evening #7 on October 22! - Mike Brown

Off-Blog Brainzooming

Beyond sharing creativity, innovation, and strategic thinking ideas here on the Brainzooming blog, I've had several opportunities recently to be involved with other channels to get ideas out. These are free and available for all of you to download!

"Fascination" - An Interview with Sally Hogshead

I recorded a webcast interview with Radical Careering author Sally Hogshead on Fascination and the triggers that make brands, ideas, and people fascinating. The webcast, in support of Sally's keynote speaking appearance at the American Marketing Association Market Research Conference (which I'm chairing by the way) debuts Tuesday, July 21. It will be available on-demand for one year afterward.

Having known Sally for several years, it rocked to get the opportunity to talk with her about fascination since it's the topic of her upcoming book. Her discussion on why Michael Jackson is fascinating is worth the listen alone!

And if you're involved in market research, you should really attend the Market Research Conference. We have a tremendous lineup of speakers addressing how market researchers and intelligence-based marketers need to prepare for "What's Next" to drive business success. Beyond traditional conference approaches, we'll be incorporating social media heavily into the event to extend & deepen the learning experience. For updates, http://www.twitter.com/amamrc.

Hosting Eye on Small Business

Kelly Scanlon hosts the "Eye on Small Business" radio program on 1510 Hot Talk in Kansas City. I've been on Kelly's show previously talking about "Taking the NO Out of InNOvation." She asked me to substitute host for her on the topic of “What Can You Do When You Can’t Do What You’ve Done Before” with guests Jan Sokoloff Harness and Kate O'Neill Rauber. You can listen to the broadcast and grab the guerrilla marketing tools questions we discuss later in the show.

Some More Brainzooming Stuff

Here are a few more free Brainzooming download sources:

• High Velocity Radio appearance on "Taking the NO Out of InNOvation" with Stone Payton
• Live with Jay Liebenguth radio appearance on Strategic Thinking
• "Taking the NO Out of InNOvation" ebook on SlideShare - 8 perspectives for more innovation

Hope you find these beneficial, and let me know if you have questions on any of them. - Mike Brown

Brainzenning - Walking Down Michigan Avenue

Extra Credit - My traveling companion remarked about how interesting it was that artist J. Seward Johnson took the two dimensional "American Gothic" by Grant Wood and created the three dimensional "God Bless America."

How can you add another dimension to well-known work you've previously done and create fresh interest in it? - Mike Brown

Breaking Creativity Blocks - Guest Post from Robert Alan Black, Ph.D.

The great perspectives from creative and innovative thinkers I've met on Twitter continues this week with this post on breaking creative blocks from Robert Alan Black, Ph.D. Known as "wanderingalan" on Twitter, he's the founder and president of Cre8ng People, Places and Possibilities and author of "Broken Crayons, Break Your Crayons and Draw Outside the Lines." He can be reached online at alan@cre8ng.com

It's a real honor to have Alan share his perspective on a random thinking technique that's a twist on the "Change Your Character" approach that's been shared here previously:

Oh no! I'm blocked again. No ideas. I just sit and sit and no ideas come.

Where is my muse when I need her?

I have to have ideas and a basic proposal in 90 minutes, and I feel stale, blank, dry, like a void in space. No ideas are coming, especially creative ones.

This blocked, frustrated feeling often happens when we are under pressure. One process I find helpful is to Alphabetize Sources.

Simply take a sheet of paper and write down the left side of the page the letters a, b, c, through z. Then think of the name of a famous/infamous person whose name fits, i.e., Abe Lincoln for A, Benjamin Franklin for B, Charles Manson for C. You can use first names or last names or a mix. It is up to you.

Then proceed to randomly pick a series of letters from a to z and write them on separate cards or pieces of paper. Now look up the names that match on your list.

You may have chosen D, X, M, T, U, O, H and the names from your list were:

D - Walt Disney
X - Xavier Cougat
M - Mickey Mantle
T - Teddy Roosevelt
U - U. S. Grant
O - Oscar Wilde
H - Henry Fonda

The next step is to imagine how each of these people might approach your challenge. Walt Disney might focus on amusement or entertainment while Xavier Cougat would orchestrate the problem using a large group of players and Mickey Mantle might swing for the home run, and so forth.

Often the ideas will appear farfetched at first. That is when you need to use your always available logically creative thinking skills. Take the "wild idea" and ask yourself: How might I alter this to make it more workable (using any appropriate criteria or limitation)?

This process helps "break mindset," "shift paradigms," and forces me to explore approaches I might never consider otherwise, especially under pressure of a time restraint.

This method can be used in many different ways. Instead of famous people's names you could use:

• Cartoon characters
• Characters from literature
• Super Heroes (Steve Grossman developed this version)
• Occupations
• Animals
• Objects
• Randomly chosen nouns from a dictionary

The possibilities are endless. The key is to force your thoughts into new patterns, to "Break Your Crayons," change your mindset quickly, and effectively find creative directions even when your muse is off on vacation in Barbados. By breaking your crayons you will cause your brain to make leaps when you need it to and not have to wait until it is in a creative mood.

This is just one method to help ourselves be more creative on the spot, on demand, and off-the-wall. What ideas do you use to stimulate your muse? Share your ideas in the comments section for other innovators to learn. - Robert Alan Black, Ph.D., CSP

What's Your Creative Crutch?

Before this fellow passenger on a recent flight started reading his book on Shoeless Joe Jackson, he pulled out a cigar and stuck it in his mouth. It stayed there (unlit) the entire time he was reading. It was quite clear the cigar was his crutch - an aid to more productive reading (and probably productivity in lots of his other activities too).

We all have crutches; some are creativity crutches. Mine include big glasses of Diet Dr. Pepper heaped with crushed ice, plus Sharpie markers and many varieties of paper. All these help me be more creative.

What are your crutches? Importantly, think about ones that work well for you. But also consider crutches that aren't really providing much help anymore. It's always good to know what's working and what isn't when you need assistance easing into creative periods. - Mike Brown

How Are You Staging Your Next Idea?

My wife told me about a home staging TV show where they have $500 to get a home ready to sell. In one episode, the homeowner had already moved their furniture, so the show's designer created cardboard furniture before the open house.

Since cardboard furniture obviously isn't functional, why would they do that?

When trying to sell a house, furniture isn't there for function. Its presence helps prospective buyers visualize the possibilities the house offers, and move them from cursory interest, to motivation, and to purchase.

That's a great example when trying to sell early-stage ideas.

In communicating a relatively new idea, many people limit their options because they assume without a relatively fully-designed and functional concept they'll undermine the sales effort. On the contrary, something merely suggestive of your full concept can be the difference in helping decision makers VISUALIZE the idea you're pitching.

Think how ad agencies pitch ideas. Invariably there's some type of visual - a storyboard, a relevant video snippet, sounds, role playing, etc. Again, none of them are functional, but they are all great at helping depict and sell-in a concept.

So don't let a lack of time, creativity, or initiative thwart your success at pitching ideas. Instead, figure out what your best equivalent of cardboard furniture is and improve your odds of creating a motivated buyer for your idea! - Mike Brown

5 Strategic Thinking Approaches for this Week

Here are five things strategic thinking approaches, any one of which you can work on this week to improve your performance:

1. Take time to perform long-term actions even when near-term pressures are very distracting.
2. Don't overreact in the face of incomplete information. Ask questions & allow others the opportunity to answer.
3. Ask questions of smart, well-informed people outside the mainstream. You'll learn a lot.
4. Be willing to ask, "How could this be different?" particularly if you're a black & white type thinker.
5. Work on developing more decisiveness, tenacity & patience. You need them even more these days.

BTW - Based on reader feedback, the summer Brainzenning videos are moving to Fridays starting this week. - Mike Brown

Who is Your Producer?

Listening to The Beatles Abbey Road show provides a sense of the incredible talent they brought to the recording studio. The impact of George Martin, their producer, is also clear in how he shaped the group's artistic sensibilities and vision, crafting them into a coherent whole.

Considering the benefits a producer can provide, do you have one (or more) producers in your creative life? Your "producer" could be a mentor or a creative instigator who's there to:

• Expand and shape your creative perspective
• Bring in other talents to help realize your vision
• Challenge and edit your work from a less invested perspective than you have

Maybe you self-produce your own creative efforts. That's a viable approach, and some people do it well. But if you don't have a producer for your major projects, think seriously about working with someone in that role who can be the catalyst for new creative success. - Mike Brown

What's Not So Funny 'bout Creativity & Innovation? - Guest Post from Patrick Fitzgerald

Twitter continues to be a great source of new thinking to share on the blog via guest posts.

Today's comes from Patrick Fitzgerald of Straight Face Productions. Using original sketch comedy as a way to engage audiences and further brand marketing objectives, Straight Face Productions creates original characters that are easier to relate to than the brands they represent. The approach, while nuanced, is aligned with the evolving viewing habits of online audiences.

Here's Patrick's view on the link between creativity and innovation and what it takes to actually deliver results from creativity.

What’s so funny about Creativity and Innovation? In my estimation, not much.

When I was invited to write a guest blog for Brainzooming, I was guided toward the topic of humor in relation to creative thought and innovation. I suppose this is because I lead a company using comedy as a method to engage audiences and further brand marketing objectives.
This is a common situation for me; when I make presentations to brand folks, there is an air of anticipation in the room as people wait for me to be funny.

Trouble is, I don’t do funny - not like that. Comedy is hard and best left to professionals. We all know the quote from the British vaudevillian on his death bed, “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.” Try dying in front of a room of people expecting you to be funny - that’s really hard.

So, I revert to writing about the creative process and innovation, as people generally agree that Straight Face Productions is an innovative and creative company.

We all know creative people. We serve on committees with them because they “have a million ideas.” To varying degrees, everyone is creative. Innovation, though, is the ability to implement logical structure to creativity; to give it function and then value. Innovators distinguish themselves by recognizing opportunity where others may not, valuing the opportunity appropriately, and developing methods to realize the value in a timely manner.

Innovation necessarily begins with a creative thought process - thinking beyond what is known and creating a set of possibilities that extends beyond our experience.

Creativity is necessary in order to overcome the forces of status quo and cultural norm. These two forces, behind gravity alone, bind us to the earth and limit what is possible. Status quo and culture are damning forces to innovation. They are always felt, and never seen. They are evidence of the Laws of Inertia in the plane of ideas. Creativity provides the energy necessary to overcome culture and status quo.

The creative process begins with a set of questions of a more general nature. Start with “What if?” and “Can we do this?” Shape your solutions based in possibilities, not in fear and limitations. Innovation takes place when you evaluate the possibilities and begin solving problems in the gap between the possible and the real. Albert Einstein said, “Innovation is not the product of logical thought, although the result is tied to logical structure.”

Innovators are not primarily concerned with failure. Any real innovator, though, will have a good deal of experience with failure. Woody Allen said, “If you don’t fail now and again, you’re not doing anything very innovative.” In fact, the familiarity with failure provides motivation; knowing failure through experience provides a powerful avoidance mechanism. To be successful, innovators manage their relationship with fear; innovators find fear to be a useful in navigation but a terrible traveling companion.

For an innovation to be adapted, it must demonstrate value. The patent office is overflowing with all manner of creative ideas that have failed to demonstrate value. You have to accept that value is a relative term. Sure evidence of that is that marshmallow peeps are an innovation in sugar intake systems. Conversely, purple ketchup is no longer on the store shelves. To be too critical is to dampen your own creative ability. To recognize value where others may not is critical to being innovative in your thinking.

Finally, true innovation requires repeatable success. Warren Bennis warns, "Innovation, any new idea by definition, will not be accepted at first. It takes repeated attempts, endless demonstrations and monotonous rehearsals before innovation can be accepted and internalized by an organization. This requires courageous patience." - Patrick Fitzgerald

Do You Recycle?

I love hearing about the creative processes behind famous works of art. And in any creative process there are obviously first, second, third (maybe even thirtieth) versions potentially bearing little resemblance to the final product. Yet these versions reflect the trials, learnings, and flashes of inspiration necessary to advance the creative process.

If you don't mind me asking, what do you do with the early versions of your creative efforts?

I know people who, for any number of reasons, immediately discard early creative incarnations. Others hang on to them for nostalgia or the possibility of later re-mining them for pieces, parts, or perhaps new inspiration.

Probably not surprisingly, I'm in the latter group. To me, you never know when an image, video clip, or written passage could take on new life or provide needed inspiration in a different situation.

Want an example?

For months, I've had a half-completed draft of a piece similar to yesterday's post on not naming things too soon. It was centered on the Flip Mino name, talking about how nobody knew what a Mino was, so the name provided a tremendous amount of flexibility for what Flip wanted the product to become. I never finished the post, but it's stayed in my online file of blogging scraps. Keeping it top of mind allowed it to be combined with The Beatles piece and become a more compelling treatment of a similar idea.

Here's my advice: maintain an inspiration file full of unfinished work and exploit it for scraps you can mash up into something distinctive and cool at the appointed time. - Mike Brown

You're Just Talking Nonsense

Though The Beatles "Abbey Road" album was recorded 40 years ago, I recently heard a program called "Pop Go the Beatles" about its creation. Told through stories and alternative takes of the album's classic songs, it was so inspiring it spawned posts for today, Wednesday, and Friday this week.

During an early recording of "Something," George Harrison hadn't finished the lyrics. John Lennon advised him to sing nonsense words until figuring out what the actual lyrics should be. One specific suggestion was "attracts me like a cauliflower" during the passage that eventually became "attracts me like no other lover."

This is great advice. Using nonsense words keeps a writer from becoming enchanted with work that's "almost there," but isn't really on the mark. Nonsense words will get worked on and replaced; "almost there" work might make it all the way to the marketplace, however, if the creator is easily satisfied or downright lazy.

This lesson can extend to developing projects, programs, products, and services. There's typically a rush to name any of these. Someone picks a rough description that's close and all of a sudden, the name starts to influence decisions and development steps that should be addressed independently of an early, potentially limiting, and often haphazardly chosen moniker.

Here's an alternative approach: Pick a code name or some combination of nonsense letters and numbers to describe your effort while it's in development. Then when the time is appropriate to give it a real name, you won't have constrained its creation unnecessarily or be challenged by walking away from a now familiar (read "comfortable") name that might ultimately limit its true potential for success. - Mike Brown