Well, the innovative – and perhaps most useful – part comes in having the team members read these rules out loud before starting any type of idea generating session.  Some of the research around this topic suggests that groups who do this yield a greater quantity of ideas.

I’ve been a participant in these types of sessions before – and still want to add in “good job” or sometimes explore an idea – both of which will type us out of the generating mode.  There will be time for that.  So, here are my

TOP 6 Guidelines to Idea Generation and Brainstorming:

Judge Later. This is the time for the group to focus on quantity not quality.  You will have time (before implementation) where you will evaluate the ideas.  If it pops in the head, capture it.  At times, we are are biggest filter and don’t want to say the idea because it might not be good enough, or it won’t fit.  Everything counts, and everything fits during this stage.

Involve Everyone.  It’s important that all members of the group have a chance to play in the ideas sandbox.  As a facilitator it’s important to take into account personal style – Extroversion and Introversion. Use methods that will allow members to write down ideas on post-its, note cards, or while working silently with others.  Also involve methods that allow people to create the verbal synergy needed for those with more Extroversion preferences to be at their best.  It’s a conscious and intentional effort – and will yield a greater amount of ideas.

Number Your Ideas.  IDEO, a design firm, found that groups who did this during their ideas generation phase came up with more ideas. Cool.

Say Yes And. This Improv technique has made it’s way into the boardroom and meeting rooms. Simply substituting “Yes, And” in place of But will create a space that encourages ideas.  Think about the staff meeting or conversation with a coworker, as soon as “But” is uttered the story stops.  A big period.  End. Done. And then they are off to the races with their idea.  Try substituting “Yes, And” the next time – see how these two simple words will drastically change the dynamic and invite others to the conversation.

Use a Noun and a Verb. It’s important to be specific during this part of the innovation process.  The more specific you are at this point, the easier it is to remember what you meant and evaluate it later.

7 Minute Bursts. The brain has this funny way of bursting into creativity mode.  When I work with groups, I go for 7-minute jolts of energy.  After this time, I have the group step back – take a big look at what’s been captured up to this point.  Introduce another stimulus – today it was a collage of images, and then have them go at the idea generating for another 7-minutes.

Give these rules a read around before your next idea generation session and see what you can achieve. The group I was working with today generated 240 ideas in 14-minutes.  Not bad for a team of 12 trying to improve work culture.

The benefits of regular mediation are endless.  It can come in these short burst, too.  You don’t need to set aside 30-minutes everyday to practice – but, what if you could?  Here are three other ways to get that relaxation and benefit from meditation in your day:

• Close your eyes for 30 seconds. This allows you brain to release the stimulus overload we take in visually.  Better yet, close your eyes and cup your hands over them. Then release after a short break.
• Use a Mindfulness Bell.  It can be a Tibetan Singing bowl, meditation chimes, or a website.  The Washington Mindfulness Community has this page where you can activate a bell when you need the pull to presence.
• Office Yoga.  Get a brief stretch with these simple Yoga techniques you can do at your desk. Opening up your chest and shoulders at work will take away some of the stress you carry at work.

Do what you can to bring a little vacation to each day.

Namaste.

What do you want?

When was the last time someone asked you this?  More  importantly, when was the last time you answered with what you DO want and not what you DON’T want.  For example a typical conversation might go this way:

So, what do you want?

Well, I really want my boss to stop piling on the work.  I can’t get everything done in a day and still stay on top of my other projects.  Doesn’t she get it .  The plate is already full.

Why is it that we have been conditioned to respond to a question of abundance with answers of fear?

We have been programmed to be great problem solvers, that’s why.  Think about it. You want to figure things out.  Except the flaw about problem solving usually leads us to believe something might have to go away. And we slip into answering the questions based in fear.  When the brain is asked a question, it has to generate a response.  (Try not to answer the  next question.)  What would make you smile today?

Now whether you said anything out loud or not isn’t the issue.  Your brain started to connect pathways to answer the question.  And your mouth may have started to turn upward into…a smile. Or, you started to think of the things that get you down or get in your way of making you grin from ear to ear.

Can you train your brain to start making connections that make you smile?  Or lean into what you really do want?  Yes. And it’s going to take practice just like any new habit would.  Here are three simple steps on getting what you want and focusing your energy towards that:

1. Set your Intention. What do you want today?  Simply state what you want to occur today.
2. Seek to Notice. Your quest for today is to notice how this might be showing up for you.  It might be thoughts, it might be images it might be people, and it might be something completely unique to you.  You job is to notice on how this IS showing up for you.
3. Secure your Habits. This is where it starts to get really juicy.  As you continue to notice you are starting to create habits around your thoughts. These habits aren’t just going to stay with the one intention you have set.  They have this crazy multiplier effect.  When you start creating your habits around noticing what you want, you can’t help but get more of what you want in life.

Use the following What Do You Want Worksheet and start developing your habits to get what you really want today.

Another great way to get what you want is to work with a coach, check out our Coaching page for more information.

“What if something better than (insert whatever tool you might be thinking of using) comes along?”

The questions need to be more about strategy than tools.

1. Decide whether or not to play in the Social Media sandbox.
2. Determine your purpose for answering Yes or No.
3. Then let’s look at tools to use.

Too often times the conversation shifts to using Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn without any clear purpose.  And then it’s tainted by our personal filters for how we engage – or not – using these tools.

The exercise I did with the board two-fold.  The first part was to have them take a flip chart paper and divide it into 2 columns.  On the left hand side:  How are we communicating to our clients today? The second column:  How do they want to be hearing from us? These simple questions led to a productive conversational shift in how to best get the message to your audience.

The second part of the exercise is here.  Download the  Social Media PDF Exercise
to use with your group.

“Be Olympic.” And then I quickly sipped my coffee and rushed out the door.

As I proceeded to be in the hum-drum of my drive, I thought, what does it mean to Be Olympic?

These 3 things will allow us to show up in a way where we can Be Olympic in the competition of our daily lives:

• Find your courage - Look to the home town gal, Joannie Rochette, who’s mother past just two days before her time on the ice.  She didn’t just “show up” she is sitting in 3rd place after the short program.  How do you find your courage? If you were to be able to stand in your Courage what results might you ahceive?
• Prepare for your moment – If you were like Aussie skater, Cheltzie Lee, you might not even have thought the 2010 Olympics would be your moment.  She got the call two weeks ago informing her she could compete after the skater from Israel was not going to be at the games.  Cheltzie skated the best short program of her life in the brightest spot light for her world. What daily habits do you have that are preparing you for your moment?  What do you still need to be doing so that when the spot light hits, it’s shining on you?
• Get out of your own way – The Korean women in first place, Yu-Na Kim, took a nasty spill in practice the day of the short program.  A fall on her left side, from which I understand is not common and can be quite jarring – to the body and the ego. Going into her jump during the competition she let it happen – and landed it perfectly.  Where do you find yourself getting in your own way?  What landings might you stick if you could simply move yourself out of the way?

Everyday we make choices about how we show up – some conscious and some completely on autopilot and so far from our own awareness to detect that it was even a choice. How might you Be Olympic today?

Better yet, what might you get as a result?

The Story.  Yep, the story.

I’ve been to a number of different personal development sessions where this concept comes out – Landmark Education, Coaching Certification, and the book Language and the pursuit of happiness.  This concept of story is something very powerful when you can just stand with it.  Live with it. Own it.  And then get to choose – how is it serving me?

Think about that relationship in your life where you might benefit from a deeper connection.  Maybe it’s your brother, you boss or barista at your favorite coffee shop.  What’s the story you have about that relationship?

Once you’ve become aware of the story that you have – get yourself clear about what it truly is. What if the story was written a different way?  (your brain might shift to autopilot and convince yourself it’s can’t possibly be another way than it currently is today, or it’s not possible to change – because they aren’t going to change!)  As a coach, I’m not really interesting in spending the time and energy around why it can’t change – I’m interested in “if you want the story to change, what can you do to rewrite it?”  Here’s how:

1. Create the story you want to live in.  What is the story that would make you jump for joy, throw your hands up, pee your pants because – holy crap, I never knew it could be that good.  Describe that story.  Write it down.  What is the story you want to create?
2. If you got to live in that story – what would be different for you? What does this story sound like? look like? smell like?  What does this story evoke in your heart, head and soul? (write down a few notes about this)
3. And if you had that, what would you have? It might be a fuller relationships, a sense of letting go, peace, harmony…what else might it be for you?
4. Move to action to live in this story.  Identify 25 things YOU will do to show up in a way that lives this new story. (BTW this list is about you, not the other person)

Doing this simple exercise to repair, renew, revive a relationship in your life might have a profound impact.  I don’t know if it ends happily ever after.  I just know today might be uniquely different from days in the story of the past.

What’s it worth to you to see how you can rewrite the stories of your life  - or better yet, what are you risking if you don’t?

I introduced Edward DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats model to the group.  This method of idea evaluation allows participants to be comfortable approaching new ideas from their natural perspective (possibility, caution, historical-based, and everything in between) while creating a space for each of the perspectives to be valued.  Here’s how it works:

There are six different hats – each one has a color associated with it.  They are as follows:

White Hat – based on facts, figures and historical data

Red Hat – look at decisions based on gut reaction, intuition and emotion

Black Hat – this is the lens of skepticism and caution by highlighting the weak points in the idea

Yellow Hat - this hat keeps things going with the eyes on positivity and answering the question why this can happen

Green Hat – the creative juices flow while wearing this hat, new ideas, patterns and relationships start to form here

Blue Hat – known for the concern on process; this hat is usually worn by the facilitator or meeting chair

Any highly effective group would bring these perspectives to their evaluation discussion.  Usually what happens though is people get stuck in wearing the most comfortable hat – and keep it on all the time.  This might squelch conversation, derail, or shut people out in the decision making process. So that all perspectives can be heard – and even better decisions can be made – use this method the next time you need to evaluate an idea or decision.

Process Note:  Everyone must be wearing the SAME hat at the SAME point in the conversation.  Start by spending 5 minutes wearing the White Hat to evaluate your idea. Be sure everyone keeps this hat on during the first five minutes.  Next, switch the conversation and ask participants to put on the Red Hat.  And for the next 5 minutes use this hat to get at gut reactions, intuition and emotions around this idea or decision.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat with each of the remaining hats.

Notice the following during this process:

• how the conversation changes as people change the hat they wear
• how the energy in the rooms shifts with each switch of the hats
• which hat you are really comfortable in
• which hat drives you crazy to have to wear (and try to bring this perspective to your next meeting)

Using this might just increase involvement and engagement with your group because each person’s perspective is valued and can be heard by just changing hats.  What effect might this have for you and your team?

They admitted, that more times than not it was a struggle and often heard a gasp as the eyes rolled around in their group members. I through out this ideas – “what might be different if you called this an exercise?”  Hmmmm…What’s the diff?

To start:

• Your group is going to go into autopilot and check out when they hear the dreaded “icebreaker”
• The EXERCISE is going to be related to the content of the training.  This is where I think icebreaking goes awry.
• I’m not going to ask you, as a participant, to do anything I hate doing as a workshop participant.  That’s a pretty good gut check for me to gauge the feasibility of any opening exercise.

One of my favorite exercises to do in the beginning of the workshop is around the learning objectives themselves.  Download the PDF Exercise for  a simple step-by-step approach to starting your next training off with a SPARK, not a deep freeze.

It was in the elevator at work today that I heard a colleague say “Isn’t it a great day out today?”  I’ve spent the last number of years in MN so I eagerly nodded and said, “Yes, it’s amazing what the bright sun and crisp glare of fresh snow can have on a day.”  That, and we both loved that it was 35 degrees today.  Yes, 35 degrees (F)!

Why is it, if you are reading this in sunny SoCal, you must think we have lost our minds.

Or, if this was June, and all things being the same:   35 degrees, sunny with fresh dusting of snow – I’d sound like a loon.

It’s all a matter of perspective – we simply got too comfortable in the deep freeze. And it wasn’t until we could thaw out that we could shift our perspective and see something from a different point of view.

Want to add some new ideas, new way of looking at things – shift your perspective.

Ask yourself these questions to glimpse into a new perspective:

• What would someone from Minnesota say about that?
• How might Olympic Gold Medalist Lindsey Vohn approach it? (also from MN)
• What might the courageous you say to this?
• How might (insert anyone other than yourself) do in this situation?

and let their perspective shape yours.  Who’s perspective would you like to learn from?

I typically start my workshops off with some sort of goal setting by the participants.  I’ll ask individuals to set a goal they have for themselves as a result of attending the session.  My intention is to have them answer the dreaded what’s in it for me question.

I have the participants write this down on a 3×5 card or a giant post-it. Something they can keep in front of them during our time together.  After they have completed this, I then follow it up with these simple instructions:

“Now, listen for this as the content of the workshop starts to unfold.”

This simple instruction can create a filter, a perspective, a point of view in which to hear everything from.  It’s the easiest – and quickest – way for me to get learning to stick for individuals and tie back into the goal they have created for themselves.

When we start to LISTEN FOR something, we start to make connections.  We also start to be engaged as learners.  As learners we start creating meaning for the content that is being shared.  It’s when learners can create context and relationship where real change in performance can occur.

So, what are you listening for today?