Brainstorm By Yourself

This Saturday, I helped teach Leadership JumpStart class and every time I “teach” I end up feeling like I have learned more from my students than I have taught them.  This class the students were required to give presentation’s on the book The Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation.  A big component on this book focuses on the importance of intersections for innovation, explaining that combining two fields is where discoveries emerge. For example, combining my passion for neuroscience and women’s studies could generate a new field of interest or generate a new perspective that can be used for analysis in a particular field.

Another piece of advice the students presented on were the best methods of brainstorming. What practices and settings can lead to innovation the most efficiently? Interestingly, while team work and a combination of minds in projects is necessary for innovation,  the beginning stages of brainstorming should be in solitude.

It is incredibly important to brainstorm individually before uniting with your teammates. For a team project, for example, one should sit for an hour on their own and just write down all his/her ideas.

When attempting to do this in a group, individuals are more likely to feel self conscious and limit the expression of their ideas. If they have something “out of the ordinary”, they are less likely to express it. Also brainstorming  in a group can lead to distractions, conversations. It does not allow you to get all of your thoughts onto paper.

Further, for brainstorming, quantity is better than quality. Even when you think your ideas are silly or unrealistic, it is better to write them down.  Not every idea will come to life but the process of letting every idea run free is conducive to innovation. Further ideas can be later combined. One idea that did not seem to be “the best” could be combined to generate a new innovation.

Also when you are working with a team, you can eventually come together and share your ideas.

 

It is suggested for to develop one’s leadership to always have a journal on hand. Write down ideas, thoughts, principles. This will ensure that the thoughts that come and go quickly get recorded and can be acted on later. I just ordered my journal from amazon after being inspired by my students.

Another advantage to having a journal is for developing a working leadership philosophy. While these blogs every week are also useful in the process, it is not the best medium for dissecting one’s principles and internal conflict. The thoughts that need to be thought about but should not be published online should go into one’s journal.  We are taught to how to communicate with other people and have in depth conversations, but we are not fully taught how to have a conversation with ourselves. A journal provides a comfortable medium to have an open dialogue with oneself.

2 comments

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    Brainstorm By Yourself | Thinking Big

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    Brainstorm By Yourself | Thinking Big

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