Channel Creative Genius Comments

Steve Davis

Wed, 29 May 2013 10:46:15 +0000

Thank you Linda. I'm glad you found it helpful and I'd love to hear how that works out for you!

Linda Tillman

Wed, 29 May 2013 09:52:28 +0000

Hi Steve..great article. I really like the idea of assigning a 'creative ombudsman' - I never heard that term/role description used in project teams before. I will incorporate this role into my next project facilitation assignment.

Noelle Celeste

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:18:16 +0000

one technique I've liked is to reflect first, capture next, share third... the idea is that by first having time only to THINK about a question or challenge everyone is encouraged to move beyond their first reactive response. Next by capturing your own ideas first, nothing is lost. Finally I move to sharing where people have an opportunity to express their solutions and build off of each other's ideas. Too often a powerful linear or creative thinker can drive the "divergent thinking" process, so I like starting in our own playgrounds pulling in our intuition, guesses, experiences and wild ideas, before turning it to the group.

Jeri

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:10:14 +0000

Great article! I love how you used the Apprentice teams as a great example of the difference between linear and creative thinking and what happens when one is prioritized over the other. Both types of thinking are necessary to successful collaboration. I find that the sooner everyone gets their concerns and agendas out on the table (flipcharts and post-it notes do work well for this)the sooner we can get to the real creativity that brainstorming can unleash. It is often challenging to get linear thinkers to relax enough to contribute to the brainstorm so building in a few minutes of an activity that uses both sides of the brain can help. Your suggestion of putting time parameters on the brainstorming is great. It really helps to let the linear thinkers know that there will be analytical work done as well. I find it helps to get participants to agree up front to walking out the door with an action plan and assignments within the time allotted. As long as they know you have an eye on the clock and trust you to move them along, the process works beautifully.

Ollive

Thu, 8 Apr 2010 03:56:35 +0000

Hi,
the article was very useful for assessing what exist in my organization's leadership

I now believe that more of us need to do personal analysis o identify where our strengths are ..because we all have so of each but one may be more dominant...

thank you so much for writing these candid peices

davissm

Tue, 6 Apr 2010 17:41:13 +0000

Thanks for your feedback Kim! And thanks for sharing the flip side of this issue, which in most progressive circles is the norm. As we tend to embrace diversity as a matter of course, the shadow side of this movement is the one you describe: endless processing and input without a clear structured approach to accomplishing objectives. In my mind, managing a structure where innovation flourishes is the prime purpose of facilitation.

Kim

Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:48:40 +0000

Hi Steve. Another great article. In my work place we have the opposite problem. We have very few linear thinkers and almost all the movers and shakers are creatives. We have great brainstorming, pie in the sky sessions, but when it comes down to actually implementing things, very little actually gets done, and we find ourselves at each meeting rehashing the same old issues over and over again. I like your idea about the time boundary and distilling the ideas into an action plan for moving forward. It's usually those of us who are trying to do this who are ignored and ridiculed.