SIMPLE  STEPS TO GET THE IDEAS FLOWING

Dreaming of success, plus a little help from Vivaldi, may well be the key to achieving success.

I like to touch on the power of creative visualisation, or the art of brainstorming without a group.

There are thousands of ways to brainstorm. Albert Einstein used to go to bed and dream about his theories. Archimedes made his famous discovery while taking his bath in a tub.

On a more contemporary note, Dr Yoshiro Nakamatsu, or better known as Dr Nakamats, Japan's inventor extraordinaire who designed the floppy disk, literally goes under. He picks up a water-proof note-book and marker pen, puts on his googles, jumps into a swimming pool and stays underwater as long as he can manage while brainstorming.

For managers who may not want to go to such extremes, there are other tried and tested techniques for getting the ideas flowing. 

While working in various general management portfolios during my almost a quarter of a century in the corporate world, I have gathered and synthesised some of these into the following approach for brainstorming, especially when one is alone. The process goes through several distinct phases.

PREPARATION

Play Baroque and Classical music in the background as you prepare to brainstorm.

Research has shown that such music from the 17th to  18th century can help eliminate stress and enhance performance.

Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Pachelbel's Canon in D Major are highly recommended for enhanced mental performance,

Other recommended Baroque and Classical composers include Bach, Corelli, Handel and Telemann.

From my own strategic exploration, New Age music selections work beautifully too. My favourite New Age composers include Kitaro (just stay away from his drums), Ray Lynch, Ravi Shankar, Stephen Halpern, van Gelis, and Yanni.

PAINT THE BIG PICTURE

Write down the problem or issue you want to resolve, in key words or phrases. Better still, paint a "big picture" of the problem, using what is popularly known as the mind mapping system.

Mindmapping is described in Tony Buzan's book, Using Both Sides of the Brain. The author explains that the left-brain, which is logically oriented, "reads"only words, numbers, lists and facts. The right-brain "reads" spatial relationships, patterns, rhythms, feelings, colours and "senses" the whole. 

The left and right brains together process the "big picture".

A mind map is just like a road map, with a pattern of inter-related clusters of ideas.

At the centre of a blank sheet of paper, write the key word or create a central image that captures the essence of the problem. Then, as you proceed to think about the problem, you build clusters of ideas around this key word or central image.

As your thoughts flow, you connect or link the many clsuters of ideas. Using different colours to mark different cluster sof ideas, you can make your "big picture" more sensory-rich, since your eyes from the pathways to your brain.

This is a very powerful technique because it is exactly how the brain processes, assimilates and retains information.

For those of you who are seasoned keyboard warriors, you can make use of computer-aided mind-mapping software like MindManager or VisiMap, which are my perennial favourites. 

[To be continued in the next post!] 

A SMART ADVISORY FROM TECHNOLOGY FUTURIST DANIEL BURRUS

A Smart Advisory: "To See the Future More Clearly, Think Both/And"

"... We tend to greet innovation with an either/or assumption, either we use the old or the new. 

But this is not an either/or world we live in; it’s a both/and world—a world of paper and paperless, online and in-person, digital and analog, old media and new media...

... When looking at new technology, remember the Both/And Principle and focus on integrating the old with the new to create more value than either have by themselves... "

~ technology futurist Daniel Burrus;

For me, a good example is: I do quick hand-crafted diagramming sketches of salient points, whenever I read/review books and/or online magazine articles in my large ideas scratchpad.

When I need to do presentation, I transcribe some of them into fancy and colourful pieces with the aid of available software-based mapping tools like SmartDraw Pro, MindManager or VisiMap Pro.

Both ways, comprising the old and the new methods, serve their unique purposes.

WHEEL OF WISDOM

The above diagram is a composite of wisdom from geniuses; I recommend you get to know them well. They are a sprinkling from the pantheon of stellar brains; feel free to make your own constellation of geniuses.

By studying the lives and thoughts of these creative role models, your own creativity will blossom resplendently.

The Wheel of Wisdom that I have created is a spark plug to detonate your own creative spirit. I have learnt much from the personalities within the wheel, and from many others that slot into their categories of creative brilliance.

[Excerpted from the 'Ideas on Ideas' edition of The Braindancer Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

Say Keng's personal comments:

The Wheel of Wisdom from Dilip Mukerjea is certainly a good idea for building what I like to call a 'Learning from the Masters' portfolio. It helps one to pick out all the salient aspects of the personal learning experience from a chosen "constellation of geniuses".

For me, I often use the MindManager software to capture my personal learning experience from my chosen "constellation of masters", so to speak.

Here are two examples of Mind Maps (overviews only, for the purpose of illustration) I have created during the nineties with MindManager along the lines which Dilip has outlined.

One is 'Tools for Enhancing Personal Effectiveness'; the other is 'Thirteen Power Tools to Help You Survive, Excel & Thrive in the Knowledge Economy'.




[I have since then expanded the repertoire of requisite skills in the first one, & have posted it in my 'Optimum Performance Technologies' weblog, under 'Are Your Killing Yourself . . . or Skilling Yourself'? Here's the link.

Readers can also access the 13 Power Tools in my 'Optimum Performance Technologies' webog. Here's the link.]

BOOK REVIEW: 'IDEA MAPPING', by Jamie Nast

[Extracted from the 'Optimum Performance Technologies' weblog.]

Frankly, I regret to point out that this book is just another 'how-to' Mind-Mapping book.

Essentially, it's no different from what Tony Buzan or Joyce Wycoff had written earlier. Except for one: The author has now fully incorporated the use of MindManager software to go with it.

Undoubtedly, MindManager can expedite the mind-mapping process. [With all the available third-party add-ons, MindManager is really a godsend!].

In some way, you can say reading this book is like reading any of Tony Buzan's Mind-Mapping books, syntopically with the 'MindManager for Dummies' book!

In reality, this book is not ground-breaking & does not offer any new insights into idea generation.

I must add, however, for a beginner into techno-savvy Mind-Mapping, this book is still great stuff.

I also want to compliment the author for listing out a series of 28 Mind-Mapping applications & suggested practice activities in the Idea Mapping Menu at the end pages!

For beginners, this is obviously a very good place to start.

My only adverse comment about mind-mapping as envisioned by Tony Buzan & his staunch followers is that every topical idea must seemingly take a radial approach & commence from the centre. This book doggedly follows the same approach.

Nancy Margulies, in her debut book, 'Mapping Innerspace', during the early eighties, took a radical departure from the Buzan routine. She created 'Mind-scaping' - your topical idea can start from anywhere you like - which I thought is really great!.

To some extent, 'idea-mapping' as the book title is quite a misnomer. It is obvious to me that the author has a somewhat narrow perspective, arising from her only chosen exposure to Buzan's Mind-Mapping routines & the MindManager software.

A truly 'idea-mapping' book should provide readers with a smorgasbord of options to go beyond traditional Mind-Mapping & just MindManager alone.

To illustrate a quick point, 'Mind-scaping' routines appear exceptionally wonderful with SmartDraw Pro (with its abundant templates & cliparts) or even Microsoft Visio.

'Concept mapping' routines, with the topical idea starting from the super-ordinate hierarchy as postulated by Joseph Novak, & 'causal loop diagramming' routines (from the field of systems thinking) are pieces of cake with 'Inspiration' software.

'Fish-bone diagramming' & 'flow-charting' (which are other forms of idea-mapping) with either 'Inspiration' or 'SmartDraw Pro' softwares are some good examples, too.

There are too numerous other software examples to cover in this review.

[For readers who are visual thinkers with a high propensity towards conceptual modeling, I would even suggest the 'AXON Idea Processor'. It has an impressive 3-D modeling capability, with a 500-level depth migration. Incidentally, it's also a Singaporean thoroughbred!]

In the course of my work, I have come across a lot of followers who are simply indoctrinated by the mindsets of Mind-Mapping as envisioned by Tony Buzan.

I would like to share with readers the true power & value of idea-mapping:

An idea-map is just a visual tool to jot down & organise ideas, & then use it to generate insights, irrespective of whether they are from reading a book or just stretching your brain for a change.

This is the initial response.

Once, this map is drawn up - with or without software -, it's just an exploded-view (map) of what you have just captured. Period! Most kids at primary school level can do it very well.

After the idea- map is done, you step back, take an helicopter view & reflect on it, by seeing the bigger & broader picture as well as from the systemic relationships between what has been written or drawn on the map.

You can then add to or may even subtract from the map. A lot of thinking (& reflection) on your part goes into this stage. Tactically, you also cross-pollinate from what you have read elsewhere as well as from your own &/or other peoples' experiences in connection with your reflections (or memory jogs!) from the idea map.

This is what I call the reflective response.

Lastly, comes the final response, with which you readily integrate (or internalise) what you have done in the initial & reflective responses, into what you are thinking &/or planning to do.

The resultant outcome is your assimilative response. Using another lingo, this is your strategic model.

This is where the actual value of an idea map is primarily located! Not in the beautiful map - with or without software - you have drawn in the first place!

(I also note that a lot of Buzan followers simply love to spend time & effort in beautifying their mind-maps! This is really crazy!)

I love to call this end-point process the 'water logic' of idea generation, to borrow a phrase from Edward de bono.

The true value or ROI of an idea-map is WHERE IT LEADS YOU TO.

Of course, having a beautifully drawn or crafted idea-map is good for the ego - looking good, but going nowhere!

Just as I have said earlier, this book has really great stuff for the beginner into techno-savvy Mind-Mapping. But, please don't just stop here because life as well as business issues are never centralised.

So, keep exploring! The world is full of possibilities!

To summarise my review, the author, regrettably with all her good intentions, did not focus on the true power & value of idea-mapping in this book.