Top Ten Brainstorming Techniques for Business Success

We experience creativity every time a fresh idea pops into our minds. We recognize creative imagination in everything from a pastel painting to a business plan. By trying these ten tips, you will discover some amazing creative abilities that may surprise you.

1. Substitute someone else's perspective for yours. How would a teacher, lawyer, actor, artist, explorer, journalist, psychologist, engineer, homemaker, child, or accountant approach your idea or subject? Don't know? Ask them!

2. Look at your idea through the eyes of a critic. For each idea, make a list of all criticisms that may arise. Try to develop as many solutions as possible for overcoming obstacles or repairing weaknesses in your idea.

3. Connect your idea to other worlds or fields. Look at the worlds of Politics, Art, Science & Medicine, Hollywood, The Ice Age, Astronomy, Astrology, Ballet, Animation, The Army, Asia, Teaching, Music, Europe, and the like. Can you make an analogy, and what ideas can you draw upon from these fields and worlds?

4. Magnify your idea. What can you do to enlarge, expedite, extend, strengthen, exaggerate, dramatize, or improve your idea?

5. Simplify your idea. Can you condense, trim down, compact, minimize, or narrow your idea?

6. Change your idea. Modify the name, color, sound, shape, form, function, smell, taste, and properties of your idea.

7. Make your idea meet the needs and wants of the masses. Does your idea meet the basic needs and wants of more comfort, money, food, shelter, time, space, convenience, attractiveness, health, and beauty? If not, alter your idea to meet one if not all of these needs and wants.

8. Add more value. What will add more value? Add extra features, durability, safety, thickness, accuracy, guarantees, uses, and freebies.

9. Examine what others have done. Emulate professionals and experts who have had great success with a similar idea or product. Are you facing a problem that has already been solved? Use the past as a tool for experimentation and learning.

10. Flip a coin. When you cannot make a decision, flip a coin. Once the coin falls, use your intuition and gut to make a decision. If you feel comfortable with the result, go with it. If you feel uncomfortable with the coin toss, make the opposite decision.

About The Author

Bea Fields, Southern Pines, NC, USA; bea@fivestarleader.com

http://www.fivestarleader.com

Bea Fields is an Executive Coach and a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach. She is also a Consultant, Trainer, Public Speaker and author of the Five Star Leader e-course. Her area of expertise is that of Leadership Development and Marketing for Executives, Managers, Small Business Owners, and Political Leaders.

MORE RESOURCES:

Hull adds creative element to Dallas Stars#39; company line - Dallas Morning News

Group hopes to transform vacant building into NoDo creative center - Omaha World-Herald

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1-0fd=Rurl=http://www.omaha.com/index.php%3Fu_page%3D2798%26u_sid%3D10530408cid=1287378751ei=6FFjSdT_It3EmQfdh4j3Awusg=AFQjCNEigHSwafwcjhnQAl7251s4tfGeUwGroup hopes to transform vacant building into NoDo bcreative/b center/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fOmaha World-Herald,nbsp;NEnbsp;-/font nobr9 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1BY CHRISTINE LAUE An artist-led group wants to transform a mostly vacant north downtown building into a bcreative/b center with studios, classrooms, b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1-1fd=Rurl=http://www.omaha.com/index.php%3Fu_page%3D1208%26u_sid%3D10530353cid=1287378751ei=6FFjSdT_It3EmQfdh4j3Awusg=AFQjCNGubziy_lVzHf9uTFdtmoJJofXS9QRetail space seen as vital to linking NoDo, Old Market arts areas/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrOmaha World-Herald/nobr/font/fontbrfont class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1287378751hl=ennobrall 2 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

President-elect Barack Obama inspires an artistic flood of creativity - Chicago Tribune

Hugo Create Contest – Discover Your Creativity - MediaSyndicate (press release)

Market calls for creativity, quick thinking - Inman.com

FileMaker Developers Win $1000 for Your Creativity - prMac (press release)

Are Creative Types Just Good For Flings? - The Frisky

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifa href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/6i-0fd=Rurl=http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-are-creative-types-just-good-for-flings/cid=1287256714ei=6FFjSdT_It3EmQfdh4j3Awusg=AFQjCNFAywpFHs0zV516ayBOWIg-6gVtlgimg src=http://nt0.ggpht.com/news?imgefp=DJvyOzLX0jUJimgurl=static.thefrisky.com/images/uploads/Man_Painter_main.jpg width=80 height=53 alt= border=1brfont size=-2The Frisky/font/a/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/6-0fd=Rurl=http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-are-creative-types-just-good-for-flings/cid=1287256714ei=6FFjSdT_It3EmQfdh4j3Awusg=AFQjCNFAywpFHs0zV516ayBOWIg-6gVtlgAre bCreative/b Types Just Good For Flings?/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fThe Frisky,nbsp;Georgianbsp;-/font nobr20 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Are “bcreative/b types” good for anything other than flings? “I am always attracted to bcreative/b men,” one woman writes the Guardian. b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table

Creativity key in quest to help nonprofits - Rockford Register Star

(From the last 12 hours) - Monterey County Herald

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifa href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/8i-0fd=Rurl=http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/131369cid=1286922348ei=6FFjSdT_It3EmQfdh4j3Awusg=AFQjCNEoMvouLc7UXTZC8FWaty3_rKekIQimg src=http://nt2.ggpht.com/news?imgefp=sk2pBhcdsvIJimgurl=www.aspendailynews.com/files/imagecache/art_photo/files/articles/RIPDeVilbissJudgePortrait_.jpg width=56 height=80 alt= border=1brfont size=-2Aspen Daily News/font/a/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/8-0fd=Rurl=http://www.montereyherald.com/entertainment/ci_11384329cid=1286922348ei=6FFjSdT_It3EmQfdh4j3Awusg=AFQjCNEOFZCLjlNXDJbrz_5dSnvdP5_vUg(From the last 12 hours)/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fMonterey County Herald,nbsp;CAnbsp;-/font nobr2 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Your bcreativity/b could be stronger, but your ability to see past the obvious allows you to step out way ahead of others. Friends might surprise you with b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/8-1fd=Rurl=http://www.montereyherald.com/entertainment/ci_11366657cid=1286922348ei=6FFjSdT_It3EmQfdh4j3Awusg=AFQjCNE5Bbzx53X-3WKyBY4ZblP02iPDKQ(From the last 12 hours)/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrMonterey County Herald/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/8-2fd=Rurl=http://www.montereyherald.com/entertainment/ci_11370873cid=1286922348ei=6FFjSdT_It3EmQfdh4j3Awusg=AFQjCNGNEt3laU-r2gVPLNFLjP8xkGDHGw(From the last 12 hours)/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrMonterey County Herald/nobr/font/fontbrfont class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1286922348hl=ennobrall 13 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

Canada Amnesty International Secretary General: Cultural Show ... - The Epoch Times

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9-0fd=Rurl=http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D9732cid=1286895394ei=6FFjSdT_It3EmQfdh4j3Awusg=AFQjCNGsd4V9fT3V5OY9htl71QEtLa_gTQCanada Amnesty International Secretary General: Cultural Show b.../b/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fThe Epoch Times,nbsp;NYnbsp;-/font nobrJan 4, 2009/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1It obviously reflects considerable hard work and talent and bcreativity/b,quot; said Neve who is the Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada. b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9-1fd=Rurl=http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D9760cid=1286895394ei=6FFjSdT_It3EmQfdh4j3Awusg=AFQjCNEsXdIzBgDFxY7KbsK_OJGUd7E2_wFilmmaker Gets Ideas, Inspiration/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrThe Epoch Times/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9-2fd=Rurl=http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/content/view/9756/cid=1286895394ei=6FFjSdT_It3EmQfdh4j3Awusg=AFQjCNE122r9XF-qdygYyyVe_LKVMhRCrw‘A true delight’ Says Public Official/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrThe Epoch Times/nobr/font/fontbrfont class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1286895394hl=ennobrall 98 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

Creativity - Google News

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