Tell a Friend
Thunder-Thinking…When Lightning Strikes
Published May 2003
"The lightning spark of thought generation in the solitary mind awakens its likeness in another mind," according to Thomas Carlyle
Thunder-thinking occurs when you unleash your mind's creative power and is fully experienced when the lightning of a new idea strikes. But can this creative power be controlled or directed?
From my personal and business experience, I've found that unleashing the creative power of several minds on a single issue can work miracles. There are many benefits to teaming up for creative problem solving. It can be a lot of fun and bring people closer together, providing a sense of belonging or bonding that enhances relationships and creativity. Morale can be enhanced when people are solicited for their input and ideas. A larger amount of good ideas, better ideas, will result if the thunder thinking process is properly utilized. Communication is often improved.
Whenever you have more than two individuals involved, team creativity or joint idea-creation can successfully be used in solving problems for most situations in family, small business, church groups or community associations.
Webster's defines 'brainstorming' as a group problem-solving technique that involves the spontaneous contribution of ideas from all members of the group." Alex Osborn, respected author of "Applied Imagination", popularized the technique in the late 1930's. Actually, the idea is older than that I've been told that Hindu teachers in India practiced it over 400 years ago. It works as a part of the creative problem-solving process, occurring during the idea generation or illumination phase. Thunder Thinking more accurately focuses this power for productive tapping into your creative genius.
The creative problem-solving guide is a tri-phase process involving fact finding, i.e. gathering information, doing research and defining the problem. This is followed by the idea generation phase, as mentioned already. The final stage or phase, is the solution selection, i.e. refining, verification of ideas and selection of the best possible alternative idea or combination of ideas.
Keep in mind that ideas generated during a thunder thinking session need to be evaluated and processed to be productive in their application. Thunder-thinking, as a creative process, provides its greatest benefit in the generation of good ideas, in contrast to our experience in a typical meeting, and in less time too!
The typical committee is not a breeding ground for creativity, with participants continually getting bogged down in minutia or in defending their own agenda or viewpoints. I remember a quote that sums it up, "God so loved the world that he didn't send a committee." This is not to down play the valid contribution of committees, but to emphasize their limitations and difference in roles.
Are there any rules I should be aware of, you ask? Yes! Several, that will assist in effective thunder thinking.
- Criticism and judgement are suspended ... virtually forbidden. Only by suspending judgement do we unleash the power of our individual minds and tap into the real underlying power of SYNERGY. Evaluate later.
- Free thinking or wheeling is essential. No idea is too wild, too crazy, too far fetched when it comes to attacking the matter at hand. Evaluate later.
- Shoot for quantity! Make it your goal to throw out as many ideas as possible. The greater number generated the greater chance of discovering a useful idea.
- Work to combine and build on ideas, to improve on them, to add to them, as they are mentioned. Encourage participants to value add or layer on the ideas of others as they seek to add new ones of their own. Work each idea and adaptation until it reaches a natural pause and then move on to the next one.
- Make the problem to be brainstormed as specific as possible, by breaking it down into its essential components. Focus each participant's energies on a single topic. Accurate problem definition will assist in its solution being generated.
- Use thunder-thinking for idea finding decisions. Judgement style decisions work better with a balance sheet or pro vs con approach.
- Once you've defined the problem to be brainstormed, share the relevant background and
parameters with all participants.
- Start each session with a review and a commitment by all parties to follow the basic rules and guidelines.
- Work to side step a "perfectionistic" atmosphere ... keep it informal and fun. A spirit of friendly competition could be helpful. Encourage ideas that are stimulated by previous ideas...get a chain reaction happening...feed or bounce off each others' creativity and ingenuity.
This article is continued on Page 2 .
Most Visited Articles |
Related Articles |
If you enjoyed this article, be sure to visit CanadaOne's current issue for more informative articles.
