Stop Chasing the BREAKTHRU IDEA Fantasy

Stop Chasing the BREAKTHRU IDEA Fantasy

My work may have started with BREAKTHROUGH CREATIVITY because that was popular.  That was what so many of the authors and speakers focused upon.

Over the past 33 years I have moved towards simple creative thinking, idea generation, problem solving for and/or by individuals, couples, teams, departments or entire organizations..mostly in the workplace.

One of my pet peeves has been the arguments about BIG C and tiny little insignificant c.

My focus has grown into helping people

a. accept that they were born with abilities to think creatively

b. accept that their cultures, schools, workplaces and even sometimes their families have stopped, diminished, KILLED their creativity into order to produce conforming, sameness, commoness, safeness

c. accept that they can respark, regenerate and grow their abilities to think creatively about anything in their lives

d. learn how to continually further expand, enrich and develop creative thinking skills, abilities and traits

another pet peeve is the belittling of group ideation or better yet team ideation and the labelling of it 'brainstorming'.

Which is like calling using computers IBM-ing, or photostatic copying/photography, Xeroxing.

brainstorming has become a generic, distasteful term used to label poorly run meetings

instead of what Alex Osborn, Sid Parnes, Charlie Clark, Bob Eberle, and hundreds to thousands of CPSI presenters and others who learned from their books or presentations or simply created their own versions or types of ideation with and among combinations of people.

Hero worshipping is another....

our profession, field, occupation is filled with too many people who use mythical stories

Edison invented the light bulb
Ford invented the automobile
Wozniak invented the personal computer
Archimedes invented creative thinking with his EUREKA streaking through the streets of Athens

Each of these are examples of fantansies of one GREAT GIANT BREAKTHOUGH IDEA that instantly solves a problem.

To me focusing on BREAKTHROUGH IDEAS instead of thinking more creatively....generating many options, not judging ideas initially, holding back people who are freewheel thinkers because "we"/Society thinks the ideas are dumb, stupid, weird, impossible, strange......

Of the many things I have learned through creativity is one that I have given Alex Osborn credit for now since 1978....

"It is easier to tame a wild, weird idea down to make it work, then to take an average or dull idea and make it exciting."

Steve Jobs and hundreds of Apple employees, venders or consultants they hired took many WILD WEIRD STRANGE ODD ideas and tamed them down into great products.

Seldom were any of their products since the two Steves worked in Jobs parents' garage or basement ever the result of

SINGLE BREAKTHROUGH IDEAS.