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One Person Brainstorming
Table of Contents
Preface 1
Introduction
Why Would You Need To Do This By Yourself? 2
What Your Mind Needs To Be Creative 3
Set Up the Atmosphere To Be Creative 4
Props and Tools 5
Tools & Techniques
Abc Lists 6
Mind Maps 8
Sun Rays 10
Radio Cues 13
Brain Breaks 15
Sensory Lists 18
Rad Libs 20
Story Writing 22
Forced Associations 24
3 Panel Cartoons 26
Environmental Shift 28
Really Bad Ideas 30
Wrap-Up 32
Appendix [All forms are included on the Compact Disk accompanying this manual.]
Introduction
Why Would You Need To Do This By Yourself?
“Everybody” knows about classic brainstorming techniques or sessions. An image comes to mind of a high-powered team, assembled from different parts of the corporation, and sent off to some wonderful (often warm and sunny) location to sit around a comfortable space and have fun. The output of this hard “work” is lots of lists of idea fragments; and occasionally a usable idea for a new product, advertising campaign, slogan, Brand name, line extension, etc.
Sessions like those described above are usually led by trained facilitators who bring a wealth of experience and techniques to help groups get beyond the usual boring list of ideas that they could have come up with on their own. A two or three day session might even include a round of golf or a session held on the beach or by the pool to help participants relax.
But what do you do if you don’t have the budget, the team, the facilitators or the other resources, but you still need to find a solution to a problem or some truly fresh ideas? Believe it or not, you can get some pretty darn good answers relying only on yourself and a few trusty techniques. Don’t be fooled. Everyone is a creative person; some of us just practice expressing it more often. YOU CAN DO THIS!
You will need to be able to set aside some uninterrupted time to conduct your personal ideation session. And, depending on your personality type, you might find it much easier to try and rope at least one other person into helping you achieve your goals. All of the exercises in this manual are easily adapted to two or three people working together as well as being suitable to do by yourself.
Good luck!
And remember, each purchaser of a
New Directions Consulting Pack
may call on us for one hour’s consultation by
phone [888-347-6672] free of charge.