In a recent post Seth Godin wrote: “Getting smart about naming is at the heart of marketing.” But how do you come up with a cool name for your product or service? Mike Brown answers that question in a great post on the Brainzooming Blog: Creating Cool Product Names for a New Product Idea – [...]
Author Archives: Chuck Dymer
Six Ways to Deal with Stumbling Blocks to Creative Thinking
Whether we call it writer’s block, creative block, or the blues – sometimes we can’t come up with a single idea or a simple response. We’re stuck and there seems to be no way forward. This can happen for hours or it can happen for days. And sadly for some, it can happen for years. [...]
On Track with de Bono, Six Hats and Creative Thinking
Don’t know how my Dad felt about it, but when I was young I loved it when we had to stop at a railroad crossing and watch the trains go by. One time while we were waiting, Dad asked me if I knew what the sign near the track said. I said no, so he [...]
Posted in Brilliance, Brilliant Actions, Creative Thinking Techniques, Focus, Leadership, Teamwork, The Good Doctor: Prescriptions for Better Thinking, Thinking Skills Tagged creative thinking, Edward de Bono, innovation, lateral thinking, Simplicity, Six Thinking Hats, Six Value Medals, team building, team work, The Power of Perception 1 Comment
Leadership Lemonade – five insights to develop better change leaders
An insightful article appeared today in the McKinsey Quarterly, Developing Better Change Leaders. The message of the article is that leadership too often overlooks the “softer” skills needed to spread and embed change throughout an organization. Here are some of their insights: Leaders can’t ask others to change if they’re not willing to change themselves. Tie [...]
Taking the plunge with new ideas – 7 questions for idea assessment
Hand over the money, I’m armed! If you’ve ever attended a brainstorm session you have, like me, heard the phrase: “There are no bad ideas.” And like me, you probably said to yourself: “Oh yes there are!” During a brainstorm, we shouldn’t judge ideas because judgment stifles idea generation. But once the idea generation phase [...]
Nine Constraints To Innovation & Change
Innovation may be the latest business craze, but for most organizations, the achievement of bold innovation targets is difficult. To make matters worse, any one of these nine constraints make the task of innovation more difficult, if not impossible: Brilliance Activator helps leaders uncork the creative power of their teams to develop products and services [...]
Pink Slime, Leadership and Slime Balls
Barb Shelly wrote a commentary in the Kansas City Star titled: ‘Pink Slime’ A Product Of Our Cheap-Beef Economy. In that article she quotes Donald D. Stull, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Kansas, saying this about pink slime: “It is interesting to watch how framing really transforms the dialogue. It seems to [...]
Is brainstorming an ideas generator or a myth?…part two
Is Jonah Lehrer’s argument against brainstorming all wet? Brilliance Activator helps leaders uncork the creative power of their teams to develop products and services that delight customers, increase repeat sales, and improve their profit margins. Receive regular insights and information from Brilliance Activator by subscribing to our free newsletter.
Is brainstorming an ideas generator or a myth? – a New Yorker State of Mind
I’ve read about the brainstorm technique– work as a team and wildly ideate don’t criticize or ideas deflate. But I want to think alone, where not a white board you’ll find– I’m in a New Yorker State of Mind. (with apologies to Billy Joel) In January of 2012, Jonah Lehrer wrote an article for The [...]
The Seven Lemons of Leadership – Episode Seven
What do leaders do? According to Robin Ryde in his book, Thought Leadership, leaders talk. In other words, communication is at the heart of being a good leader. “Crummy Communication”, the seventh of The Seven Lemons of Leadership, is one of the most serious reasons for failed leadership. In the video that follows, I discuss [...]