Any objections? Throw away that option immediately! As you probably have noticed - at home, work or at a party – when a proposal is made, an idea presented or a solution for a problem suggested, it is often met by an objection. That is not bad as such since an idea is seldom perfect. …
Design Thinking
Every designer needs to look somewhere for inspiration and ideas. Design Thinking is Andrew Taylor's speciality. He has kindly written a story about how a designer got inspiration for the next big thing. Andrew has worked with design engineering and industrial design. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts with a keen interest in …
How to Fail Most Successfully
Ultra-Solutions, first coined by Paul Watzlawick, are solutions that in a previous situation worked brilliantly or at least to your satisfaction. Then you try the solution in another context and it turns into the opposite. The solution is worse than the disease. It is a way to fail most successfully. Rocket silos NASA built silos …
World Thinkers’ Ideas – Fitness Club for the Brain
Alvaro Fernandez is SharpBrains’ co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. He was recently named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF). This forum honours young leaders around the world for discovering innovation solutions to problems that are regarded as significant in today’s world. Alvaro Fernandez was born in Spain but he has lived in …
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Thinking Patterns
People vary greatly in what they notice. Different things capture our attention. We focus our attention on different things depending upon our experiences, knowledge, values and goals. As a result, we will see certain aspects and ignore others. Our capacity to process information is limited. Information organises itself into patterns like magnetic marbles. The handling of …
Cassandra Information
The introduction of computers and the web combined with an explosion in information have lead to an overabundance. Finding ways to use information in the best possible way is becoming a vital skill. Many people, when confronted with a problem, begin a broad search for information. They assume that enlarging the information space inevitable will lead to uncovering the information needed to solve …
Innovations – The Blue Economy Approach
Today’s world is characterised by quick and dramatic changes. This means that there is a constant search for new ideas. Yet, there is a difference between innovation and ideas. Most of us have ideas, some of them good, other not so good. Miguel de Icaza, the founder of the GNOME and Mono projects …
A 20 Minutes Idea Boost
Many people think that to get ideas it is necessary to move from the working place to a resort in the woods or the beach. It is easy to believe that another environment will free the mind. I have never seen any evidence that a retreat helps, but it seems to me that every time an …
Dialectical Thinking or Kick Box Thinking
Dialectical Thinking is a common way of resolving arguments in company meetings, families, scientific discussions and political debates. It is suggested that dialectical thought enable individuals to tackle complicated issues once they acquire the capacity, to coordinate the characteristic contrasting and contradictory thoughts. Often the process unfolds in a fixed pattern. A person or a …
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Innovation is a Tool
Below is an extractfrom Jeffrey Baumgartner's Report 103, which he has kindly given us permission to reprint. An inspiring post about innovation, and the importance of considering how to innovate. Jeffrey Baumgartner is from Belgium and when he is not busy writing about creativity he trains individuals and organisations on how to solve problems. And of course, …
Blue Economy and Positive Thinking
Positive Steps New ideas and suggestions to solving problems are always interesting to examine. In many cases, there is a lack of obvious signs of the idea or suggestion making any real change. Sometime this way of looking at new ideas can be deceptive. Often new human resource management ideas are regarded as old wine …
Positive Thinking and Nearling
The way we choose to describe a situation can influence not only our perception of the situation but also our actions. Say the word Failure slowly and listen. It is a heavy word! Negative! You immediately want to avoid all the negative things associated with failure. Many of us fear failure. Failures are ignored and not …
The Thinking Habits of Steve Jobs
In Walter Isaacson´s biography Steve Jobs emerges as a nasty, selfish, and ruthless man. Fortunately, he applied his talents to making computers and did not engage in criminal activities. Although, Steve Jobs thoroughly studied Buddhism and meditated, there is little evidence of an inner peace of mind or compassion with other humans. He is the epitome of a genius who, because he thinks much faster and better than his employees, fell into the trap of arrogance and power play. Fanatic, extremist, narcissistic and obsessive, not a man to have in your enterprise, …
Creativity
When and Why You may want to have creative ideas for all sorts of reasons. You may want to improve something that already exists – like making a noiseless vacuum cleaner. Or you may want to design a new product. Write a book, or start a business. Many of us want to change things and …
Negative Thinking
Challenging Negativity You are thinking negatively when you fear the future, or expect failure. Negative thinking damages confidence, and harms performance. A major problem is that negative thoughts tend to inhabit our minds and influence our thinking. Challenging your own as well as an organisation’s negative thinking is important. The more you fire neurons …
Positive Thinking and Writing an eBook
Starting the Journey Do you have a passion for something? An idea you want to spread? Are you curious about something and want to learn more while sharing the learning process with others? Writing an eBook could be just the thing for you. This eBook project started when one person said, “Yes, let’s do …
Feasibility
Is it Feasible? Determining if your idea can work in practice is a vital. Often adjustments need to be made to the original idea. An idea is rarely a finished product and seldom practical. Additional thinking is needed to perfect an initial idea. Searching for ways to carry out the project can be made …
Motivation
Mental Challenge To motivate yourself, find a task that is the right level of difficulty. Or learn to transform tasks. A difficult task will frustrate you and it is easy to give up. And an easy task quickly becomes boring. A trick is to mentally change the perception of the task to continue to stay …
Curiosity and Motivation
Curiosity means to look into the unknown. In a dark room, your feel yourself around in the room instead of switching on the light. In addition, you try to figure out what is out there and you ask questions. Curiosity is like a magnetism pulling you towards something. Creativity means breaking free to be like …
Creativity and Belief
New ideas may be easy to generate using various thinking tools such as random words or pictures. But to put the ideas into work requires a belief. Not only a belief in the idea itself, but also in yourself. A positive mindset and an awareness of how to explore the positive aspects and the risks …
