Marketing Profs

Warm Up Your Thinking Cap

Organizational psychologist Amantha Imber, Head Inventiologist of Inventium, claims nothing saps creative juices like the hyperlogical mindset that professionals often bring to the table. "Most idea generation or problem solving meetings are scheduled immediately after a strategy or finance meeting," she says. "[Consider] how difficult it is to come from a meeting that requires analytical, rational thinking into a meeting that requires us to think laterally."

To ready yourself for creative activities, Imber suggests a solution she calls Fat Chance. The idea is to warm up your brain for the task at hand, much as you might stretch before going for a jog. Here's how it works: The team chooses an impossible goal or objective to be solved in an unrealistic time frame. "The tighter the better," she says. Since this is an exercise, have fun with the subject matter and use the brainstorming session to tackle topics such as how to boost Paris Hilton's IQ 100 points by the end of the week, or how to raise $10 billion dollars by dinner tonight.

Break into small groups to generate three solutions that don't have to be logical or rational. "Indeed," she says, "those types of solutions won't actually solve the problem." After five minutes, present your solutions and have a good laugh. You're now ready for business.

"It only takes a few minutes of effective warming up to shift your brain into an open-minded and lateral thinking mode," says Imber. We think any exercise that puts you in the right frame of mind for peak creativity is Marketing Inspiration.

More Inspiration:
Ted Mininni: 'Locavore' and More: The Buzz Around New Buzzwords
Valeria Maltoni: Throw Social Media in the Mix for Lead Generation
Ann Handley: Super Bowl Haikus, Postmortem

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