Cardio for the Mind for 2013 – The Warm Up

If you’re planning for 2013 you may be running into a lack of new and creative ideas. It’s time to start exercising your mind. If you’re looking for brainstorm ideas for your team, try planning your own ‘think-tank event.’ Studies show that group brainstorming is much more productive than doing it alone. Spending time with other creative minds insures you will be surrounded by new and fresh ideas.

To get started with your own thing-tank event, outline what your mission is to accomplish at this event. Is it to come up with ideas to improve what you do for a living or do you want to narrow your mission to be more specific to your 2013 goals?

Two weeks prior to the event have each member in your team write down five new ideas each day, excluding the weekends. Then each member will be already armed with fifty ideas before your think-tank event even starts. This is very important to a successful event. Generating a greater quantity of ideas will yield a higher quality of creative ones. A study conducted by two Texas A & M University undergrads tracked results by obtaining creative ideas from individuals versus collective groups. They concluded more diverse ideas could result from having each person begin to brainstorm individually and later assemble to share their thoughts.

For your think-tank event venue - be sure to plan the event in an inspiring location. It can be as simple as a hotel meeting area with invigorating designs, a nearby bed and breakfast, or even a beach. Be creative in your venue selection but keep in mind the size of group you need to accommodate. Remember, the intent behind your event is to generate interactive discussion that is honest and open so it’s very important everyone is comfortable and relaxed.

For continued tips on planning your own think-tank event tune in to my blog next week.

Until then,

Cheers!

Melissa 

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