BrainZooming

FEBRUARY 23, 2017

We facilitated a follow-up innovation workshop for an industrial client. In previous workshops, a large group convened and re-imagined a manufacturing process to improve quality, while maintaining costs and production efficiency. A follow-up workshop moved four of the process improvement concepts into detailed project planning. They requested a follow-up innovation workshop to inspire bigger, further out thinking.

Exercises 69

Exercises Creative Thinking eBook Creativity 69

BrainZooming

JUNE 19, 2017

3 Conditions for Explosive Creative Thinking Skills. Reflecting on grain elevators led me to consider explosive creative thinking skills , and the parallels between the two. The characteristics that create a potentially dangerous explosive situation at a grain elevator can be turned to a positive when applied to creative thinking skills: #1. Finally, by having creative thinking exercises in place, you provide the right structure for group collaboration.

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Creative Thinking Creativity eBook Exercises 81

BrainZooming

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

Chuck is the owner of Brilliance Activator , which helps leaders uncork the creative genius of their teams to improve products and processes, delight customers, and grow profits. During the creative thinking workshop we facilitated inside an internal management meeting, participants worked through multiple exercises to identify ideas for internal and customer initiatives. Why Specificity Makes or Breaks a Creative Thinking Workshop by Chuck Dymer.

Creative Thinking 91

Creative Thinking Creativity eBook Exercises 91

BrainZooming

AUGUST 9, 2016

What are your expectations from a creative thinking workshop? That is the first question I ask the audience at a Brainzooming creative thinking workshop. 7 Expectations from Creative Thinking Workshop Training. Preparing for a creative thinking workshop this week, I looked back at a recent workshop to review the expectations participants shared. What’s the life cycle of creative ideas?

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Creative Thinking Training Creativity eBook 40

BrainZooming

FEBRUARY 15, 2018

I was talking with someone who was wondering aloud about how to boost the creative thinking skills of a group made up primarily of fact- and logic-driven individuals. Think accountants, engineers, compliance officers, and others in right-wrong answer professions. We don’t deal with it more frequently because we consciously push in advance for diverse groups to engage in creative thinking and innovation workshops.

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Creative Thinking Groups Creativity Exercises 96

BrainZooming

MARCH 1, 2018

Sometimes, we get to design a creative thinking exercise that seems like so much fun during its development that it causes me to continually smile and giggle. It combines the Shrimp creative thinking exercise , the ultra-popular-at-Brainzooming mad face emoji, the extreme creativity and celebratory slogan (“Winner, winner chicken dinner”) of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives , and one of our favorite products: orange, “I Am Creative,” notes to self socks.

Creative Thinking 68

Creative Thinking Exercises Creativity eBook 68

BrainZooming

JUNE 8, 2016

Last week, we presented a creative and strategic thinking workshop for a Brainzooming reader who leads the national sales division of a global industrial manufacturer. We integrated the Brainzooming strategic thinking workshop into their annual sales meeting. While we did that, an early exercise during the strategic thinking workshop shaped the rest of the day. 13 Unexpected Benefits of a Strategic Thinking Workshop.

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Strategic Thinking Creative Thinking Exercises Creativity 40

BrainZooming

DECEMBER 10, 2015

We’re with a client today, delivering a strategic and creative thinking skills for sales workshop. We’re scheduled to have more than 120 of the client’s sales team members participate in an interactive, half-day Brainzooming workshop in the Chicago area. As an outgrowth of the workshop, here is a strategic and creative thinking skills compilation comprised of articles that support the Brainzooming workshop we’re delivering.

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Creative Thinking Exercises Creativity eBook 40

Innovation in Practice

APRIL 6, 2021

Guess who’s more creative – men or women? . Well, neither is more creative than the other because both are equally creative. They just have different roles in terms of their creative output. The Study on Gender Role and Creativity.

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Creative Thinking Study Creativity Exercises 59

BrainZooming

MARCH 21, 2017

Short Story: Look for specifics and things that people can actually do or perform to move creative thinking into action. How do you move from creative thinking into action? That was a persistent question during a recent Brainzooming strategic thinking workshop that also included a heavy dose of content on creative thinking. They also wanted a sense of when and why you should think creatively.

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Creative Thinking Creativity eBook Strategic Thinking 61

BrainZooming

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

Sometimes you think you know best, only to find later that you have absolutely NO clue. As an example, I wrote some time back about the “Shrimp” creative thinking exercise we included during a creative thinking workshop for a regulated financial services company. After you push the thinking to as outlandish and dangerous a point as possible, you roll the ideas back to where they are once again doable.

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Creative Thinking Exercises Creativity eBook 40

Michael Michalko

FEBRUARY 28, 2022

This is because becoming an expert means you tend to specialize your thinking. When experts specialize their thinking, they put borders around subjects and search for ideas only within the borders of their expertise. Ask the Frog! Aim (what for?)

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Handbook Creative Thinking Groups Exercises 11

BrainZooming

OCTOBER 13, 2016

That conversation, and a related one on creative thinking and what is funny got me reflecting on a day in my life and the creative thinking and creative self-talk that goes on behind the scenes. As I started to jot down ideas from the day, it read like a bunch of creative thinking policies and non-policies. Some of the creative self-talk is not particularly beneficial. Day of Creative Self-Talk. Ask other people what they think.

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Creative Thinking Creativity Policies eBook 40

BrainZooming

MARCH 22, 2016

Delivering a creative thinking workshop , I was eavesdropping on conversations at five tables full of attendees. One group was starting to use one of our creative thinking exercises. Even though creative thinking exercises and strategy questions are intended to help people approach familiar situations in new ways, they can easily become new boundaries to constrain thinking. They should inspire, not limit thinking.

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Exercises Creative Thinking Creativity eBook 40

BrainZooming

MAY 3, 2016

We were working with a client and sharing the value of our extreme creativity strategic exercises to boost creative thinking skills. We love extreme creativity questions because they provide an opportunity to push strategic thinking into bigger and bolder areas than an individual or group would envision by simply asking, “What are new and different things we could do?” It’s the same with inspiring creative ideas.

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Creative Thinking Creativity eBook Tips 40

BrainZooming

JANUARY 6, 2016

We’re developing a strategic thinking webinar for a client on cultivating and sustaining creativity among its salesforce. Since the webinar is with the organization’s sales leadership, the focus is on creative thinking skills they can and should be embracing to help their salespeople see opportunities in new ways. Part of the creative thinking skills content will come via our Idea Magnets material. Giving “One” for Team Creativity.

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Creative Thinking Creativity eBook Strategic Thinking 40

BrainZooming

DECEMBER 14, 2015

Based on all The Brainzooming Group experience in helping clients generate new ideas and innovative strategies, diversity is vital to successful creative thinking activities. For example, at one of our client creative thinking workshops there wasn’t any of diversity to spare. So how did the participants sit in the large room for the creative thinking activities? 3 Questions to Stop Squandering Diversity in Creative Thinking Activities.

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Creative Thinking Creativity Exercises Groups 40

BrainZooming

OCTOBER 14, 2015

I’ll be presenting on social media super models , followed by a VERY QUICK creative thinking exercises for sales presentation. The creative thinking exercises for sales content is a different take on both familiar and some new creative thinking topics. While Daniel Pink never came out and associated the skills enabling the new ABC with “creative thinking,” they screamed creative thinking to me.

Creative Thinking 40

Creative Thinking Exercises Creativity eBook 40

BrainZooming

OCTOBER 19, 2015

What’s a “pizza meeting,” and what does it have to do with creative thinking? Back in the Fortune 500 days, we facilitated so many strategic planning workshop sessions we gave up renting creativity-oriented offsite locations. We’d make creative thinking happen wherever we could find a large enough meeting room at one of our headquarters locations. To do SOMETHING to make the space a little creative, we’d arrange the tables and chairs every which way.

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Creative Thinking Meeting Creativity eBook 40

BrainZooming

NOVEMBER 18, 2016

Chuck has been an incredible influence on my career, especially as it comes to creative thinking skills. Chuck was the first person I heard deliver an in-depth presentation on creative thinking skills. Creative Thinking Skills and Place with Chuck Dymer. I asked Chuck to talk about the IdeaLoft and how place and creativity relate to one another. Enjoy the video and Chuck’s insights and expertise on how place influences creative thinking skills!

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Creative Thinking eBook Creativity Video 40

BrainZooming

MARCH 27, 2017

How are you boosting your creative thinking skills in dramatic ways for 2017 and beyond? It features forty-five creativity and innovation experts! The Innovation and Creativity Summit 2017 is a virtual event running from this coming Sunday through the following Sunday. Your FREE registration includes access to at least forty-five all-new interviews with global creativity and innovation experts. Paul Sloane – Author of Think like an Innovator.

Creative Thinking 40

Creative Thinking Creativity Strategic Thinking Video 40

BrainZooming

MARCH 29, 2016

Creative Thinking Skills – Some Working, Some Not Working. Amid the odd times, it’s no surprise my creative thinking skills have varied widely the past few months. When my creative thinking skills HAVE been stronger, here’s what has been working: When I think about needing to get all the financial records updated to be ready to prepare taxes , I can suddenly write like crazy as a diversion. It’s been odd times recently.

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Creative Thinking Creativity eBook Conference 40

BrainZooming

FEBRUARY 23, 2018

We were facilitating report outs at a strategy planning workshop after multiple teams tackled developing high-level plans to improve various employee challenges in a relatively high-performing company. Chuck Dymer, who was co-facilitating the client workshop with me, remarked at the depth and importance of several of the report outs and the conversations they sparked. Brainzooming - All Posts Collaboration Diversity Performance Strategic Thinking Strategy

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Strategy Strategy Report eBook 98

BrainZooming

APRIL 15, 2016

Interestingly, the most challenging situation for Brainzooming strategic thinking workshop success is when it includes TOO MANY individuals viewing themselves as creative. Having TOO MANY strong creative perspectives can tank the actionable results coming from a strategic thinking workshop more than having too few creative individuals. That particular session was filled with about 85% HUGE creative egos. So get creative individually.

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Strategic Thinking Creativity eBook Groups 40

BrainZooming

JUNE 27, 2016

Last Friday’s Gas Can Creative Conference sponsored by AAF-KC (American Advertising Federation – Kansas City) was a half-empty gas can, at best. While there were a few presentations and ideas to stimulate our creative thinking skills, there were far too few for an all-day event. 3 Creative Thinking Skills Ideas from Gas Can 2016. Today, here are three valuable creative thinking skills ideas no matter where your creative community is located.

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Creative Thinking Exercises Creativity Comparison 63

BrainZooming

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

The week included: Large scale community collaboration workshops – Nearly eighty students from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale gathered Monday night and a comparable number of Carbondale, IL residents assembled on Tuesday for community collaboration workshops to imagine the community’s future with Gigabit Internet capabilities. That is a huge change, and opens the door to some radically different future workshops.

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Collaboration Groups Engagement Exercises 40

BrainZooming

JUNE 20, 2016

We introduced the first Brainzooming strategic planning workshop resembling what we do today as The Brainzooming Group ten years ago, June 19-20, 2006. The First Brainzooming Strategic Planning Workshop. Chuck’s creativity techniques and helped us generate tons of ideas. After creating the workshop, we surveyed the company’s senior team for ideas in advance and headed to Harrisburg, PA for the actual workshop.

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eBook Survey Resources Strategic Thinking 67

BrainZooming

APRIL 11, 2018

We have a call with a client about an upcoming Brainzooming innovation workshop. One question (which we think MAY have been included by mistake on the list of topics they sent us) is what we do when energy is diminishing during a workshop. Perhaps the most important way to boost an audience’s energy level is number thirty: we make every attempt to design any Brainzooming workshop to re-energize the group throughout the time together.

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Exercises Groups Creative Thinking Strategic Thinking 81

Gregg Fraley

MAY 1, 2018

Frameworks assume: engaged leadership, talent on the team, day to day creativity, curiosity, and domain knowledge. You will fail with: Lean, Agile, Design Thinking, TRIZ, Stage-Gate, Osborn-Parnes CPS, KILN’s FuseTrail, or a homegrown/blended framework. Seven Innovation Fundamentals: Applying creative thinking to problems. There is no innovation without creativity. Individuals and teams need to be creative in order to solve focused innovation challenges.

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Training Project Roadmap Idea Generation 70

IdeaScale

NOVEMBER 29, 2021

Innovation is a process that relies heavily on creativity and individual thinking, and these are things that don’t come easily. Advantages of Creative Thinking Exercises. Here are some of the advantages of using creative thinking exercises.

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Exercises Creativity Creative Thinking Roadmap 243

Innovation Excellence

MAY 4, 2020

If you’ve been working in innovation for at least some time, you’re probably sick and tired of hearing people talk about “thinking outside the box”, or the need to create “outside the box innovations”. First principles thinking. Constraints create creativity. Think bigger.

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Ideation Competition Industry Examples 52

BrainZooming

NOVEMBER 17, 2015

We’re developing a workshop on creative thinking techniques for a B2B salesforce in a few weeks. Reviewing the attendees’ pre-workshop surveys on their expectations, personal learning objectives, and needs for creative thinking development, they mentioned “thinking outside the box” and “how to get out of my comfort zone” frequently. They are creative thinking aspirations seemingly devoid of ideas for making them happen.

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eBook How To Learning Exercises 40

BrainZooming

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

Most of the time we have to go well beyond what hotels consider standard ways groups will use their meeting rooms when we’re trying to create an effective space for a Brainzooming creative thinking workshop. Based on the challenges we typically encounter, here’s my basic list of twelve reasons why hotel meeting rooms suck: The seating plans cram too many people into rooms to the point where there is no room for people to spread out and think.

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Meeting Collaboration eBook Exercises 49

BrainZooming

OCTOBER 1, 2015

In nearly every Brainzooming community collaboration workshop, we conclude with a Plus-Minus-Interesting-Recommendation-Question exercise (a PMIRQ for short). The open-ended questions in a PMIRQ allow participants to share invaluable reactions and ideas; we use them directly to shape what we do in future innovation workshops. I was thinking I may not be as included since I’m not from or otherwise generally associated with (the community).”. Discovering Shared Thinking.

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Collaboration Exercises Brainstorming Groups 40

HYPE Innovation

OCTOBER 26, 2017

This exploring of different innovating activities is including a growing number of many of our larger companies, perhaps with deeper pockets, trying a variety of creative thinking concepts. We have all become totally wrapped up in thr “Innovation Theatre.” Some have called these song and dance routines , others like Steve Blank, have described their view of “innovation theatre” around the current obsession of setting up outposts , mostly in Silicon Valley.

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System Conference Management Creative Thinking 140

BrainZooming

DECEMBER 3, 2018

Stronger creative leadership to identify productive tactics, make better (and faster) decisions, and successfully implement with a major impact. If all that causes you look at your team and wonder where the creative leadership will come from to accomplish next year’s plan, we have a great way to make it happen: cultivate Idea Magnets throughout your team! The Answer to Boosting Creative Leadership within Your Team! Your Go-To Resource for High-Impact Creative Thinking!

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Leadership Creativity Creative Thinking eBook 78

InnovationTraining.org

DECEMBER 6, 2022

AI can be a powerful tool to use in your innovation, design thinking, or ideation projects. “Unlock Your Creative Potential: Transform Your Ideas into Innovations!” Write 30 ideas for names for a new program on design and creativity. Creative Design Academy 2.

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Ideation Brainstorming Design Creativity 84

Michael Michalko

DECEMBER 10, 2021

As an officer in the United States Army, Michael organized a team of NATO intelligence specialists and international academics in Frankfurt, Germany, to research, collect, and categorize all known inventive-thinking methods. Thinkertoys: The Best Creative Problem-Solving Book of all Time.

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Handbook Brainstorming Exercises Creativity 52

BrainZooming

OCTOBER 4, 2016

I attended a presentation on cultivating a creative culture delivered by Michael Perman, formerly of Gap, at The Marketing Conference last week in San Francisco. During his keynote, Perman discussed twenty-plus three-day creativity sessions he organized while at Gap. ndspark, the sessions brought together thirty team members from The Gap in three-day “mini-TED conferences” to capitalize on creative diversity.

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Groups Creativity Conference eBook 91

BrainZooming

MARCH 14, 2017

Short Story: Strategic planning questions that allow people to challenge conventional norms are fun and lead to disruptive thinking, so employ questions to harvest ideas from the wild possibilities. The question got me thinking about specific strategic planning questions we use to liven up strategic thinking. This is the core creative thinking question for our Shrimp exercise. This strategic thinking question is on our extreme creativity list.

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eBook Exercises Creative Thinking Brainstorming 68

BrainZooming

JUNE 5, 2018

It doesn’t start with getting everyone together in a room for a creative thinking workshop and expecting innovative ideas to happen spontaneously. Analysis, outreach, and design thinking combine to make in-person innovation productive and ROI-driven – after completing the pre-work. Before holding innovation strategy workshops , we take advantage of best practices, stakeholder input, & upfront analysis to surface high-impact innovation opportunities.

Strategy 66

Strategy Strategy Analysis Survey 66

Michael Michalko

MAY 14, 2022

Following are tips on how to loosen up the group to energize their creative thinking. Ask participants to draw a personal symbol that metaphorically symbolizes their view about creativity. A six word description of creative thinking could be: “Last night confused.

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Handbook Groups Creativity Guidelines 77

BrainZooming

OCTOBER 16, 2018

I explained to them that no matter who we bring into an in-person Brainzooming workshop, we design the questions and exercises so that EVERYONE will be successful participating. It’s like the secret to creative success for everyone ! If you want to collaboratively engage your team (or multiple teams) in a strategic and creative thinking process in which any of them can discover the secret to creative success, then it’s time to contact us.

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Creativity eBook Creative Thinking Strategic Thinking 79