Idea Incubator 23: Relying on Resources

Everyone has limited resources. Once, speaking to a room of 200 designers, I asked: “has anyone ever had an unlimited budget?” No hands were raised in response. Throughout my career, I have had only one project where money was no object, resulting in a corporate brochure printed in seven colors with 60 location photos, and ten fold-out pages.*

Beyond money and time, there are several other resources often overlooked. To maximize such advantages requires insight and creativity.

Melissa Giovagnoli always pushes the envelope. Beginning with her book Networlding, she mines business for golden ideas that connect people to potential. If anyone can comment on focus, it is she:

“Look to grievances within your own experience to discover conviction. The only fulfilling strategy is to apply resources where they can do the most good.”
—Melissa Giovagnoli, contributor to Women who Win at Work

This sounds simple, but people are easily distracted or unconsciously complicate situations. Yet a creative use of limited resources will yield stronger results than an unimaginative use of abundant resources. These questions help to focus:

1.  Set up a chart with four categories:
business _____________________________________
career  ______________________________________
social _______________________________________
personal _____________________________________

2.  Answer these questions for each of the four categories:

• What grievances, problems, annoyances, worries, or causes do you address?

• What problem do you hope to solve or what cause do you contribute to?

• What are your greatest resources?

• What can you do to best focus resources?

3.  How can you match your concerns to your resources?

4. What first steps can you take?

* My unlimited budget project was a corporate brochure for S&C Electric Company, a medium-sized privately held manufacturer in Chicago.

See “Marketing to Match” also from Melissa Giovagnoli.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Also please visit the ”Initiator Index“ for overview and development progress.

When Idea Incubator concludes after Part 3,  the online publication will be complete. Segments can be used in any sequence, revisiting like an old friend to remind and revise. As a companion, keep a running check on priorities, originality, and rejuvenation to create a flow for developing the best directions. But this is not the end of the process. Though it places you on your best path, you can go further.

I hope you will continue with your self-seminar into the e-book, Idea Initiator that takes the concepts defined in these first three sections, offers a segment on how to sustain creative energy through project ups and downs, and is a guide for how to synthesize the ideas you have formed into a concise and pursuable plan.Contact me to receive your free copy: please go to my website and e-mail me with your request, using the subject line “idea initiator.”

Always inspired, Liane

Idea Incubator 22: Propelling Passion Daily

For most creatives, there is a tug-of-war between what you want to do and what you have to do. Want-to-do is create or produce ideas. Have-to-do is sales, bookkeeping, and filing, and housekeeping. It is hard enough to balance between—but it is really sad when creative people don’t spend time being creative.

As an art director who has studied creative business models and methods, out of hundreds of designers, I have concluded that salaried staff designers spend 70-80% of their time on billable work. For a designer entrepreneur, it is only 10% of time spent pursuing creative approaches.

Minding the store is important to business. So time allowed for creative endeavors needs to be spent with wisdom. How can you make the most of your creative hours?

Rieva Lesonsky, entrepreneurial expert, knows how dancing to business music requires choreography chosen for best potential. When interviewed, she said:

“Find a business, or the thing about your business, that excites you. Build on that. The best overall joy in work will make a better company for you and everyone in it.”
—Rieva Lesonsky, contributor to Women who Win at Work

Life is too short not to do what you love. And the same with those you work with!

Ask these questions as a reality-check and way to focus passions so potential:

1. What parts of business do you most enjoy?
Identify your top three tasks.

• What strengths does each task use that you most enjoy?

• How can you build on what most excites you through greater use of your strengths?

2. What excites those you work with?
Consider the point-of-view of each co-worker, contributor, colleague, volunteer, or participant.

• What parts of your work can only you do?

• For each task, evaluate whether you must retain, if you can delegate, and if so, to whom?

3. How do the parts only you can do match up to what you most enjoy doing?

• How can you increase the use of your joys, uniqueness, and the benefit of being in your business?

• What aspects of your business gives you both the most fulfillment and product income?

See  “Form a Creative Base,”also from Rieva Lesonsky.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Also please visit the “Initiator Index” for overview and development progress.

When Idea Incubator concludes after Part 3,  the online publication will be complete. Segments can be used in any sequence, revisiting like an old friend to remind and revise. As a companion, keep a running check on priorities, originality, and rejuvenation to create a flow for developing the best directions. But this is not the end of the process. Though it places you on your best path, you can go further.

I hope you will continue with your self-seminar into the e-book, Idea Initiator that takes the concepts defined in these first three sections, offers a segment on how to sustain creative energy through project ups and downs, and is a guide for how to synthesize the ideas you have formed into a concise and pursuable plan. Contact me to receive your free copy: please go to my website and e-mail me with your request, using the subject line “idea initiator.”

Always inspired, Liane

Idea Incubator 21: The Best Project Editor

It is easy to get distracted, especially when developing creative approaches. Keeping on track is a day-by-day activity. Like a kid in a candy shop, I have to be really careful to stay on track and not be seduced by my quest for the next great idea. Tough choices must be made. Multiple passions can be dangerous.

The best compass is the reaction from the audience. Leslie Grossman, serial entrepreneur, knows more about developing business initiatives than anyone. She advocates big-picture thinking:

“Get the market need and your passion to come together and form a purpose. Use your experience in a bigger way.”
—Leslie Grossman, contributor to Women who Win at Work

Passion is great for self-satisfaction but does little to effect the world if not matched with an audience demand. Feedback that steers the ship also helps to make an idea stronger. Attain conceptual continuity by reviewing these questions regularly:

1. How does your work most reflect market needs?
Define what causes, services, or products need solutions.
How do you address or fulfill these needs?
What purpose do you derive from blending your passion with the market need?

2. What initiatives can you use to fulfill purpose?
What is the task that will most develop your direction?
What is the first step you can take?
Who is the best collaborator to help?

3. How can you best connect with others to help fulfill your purpose?
What expert can you contact for advice?
How can you best prepare to talk with them?
What contribution can you make in exchange for their help?

4. Who shares your purpose the most and how can you help one another?

5. Choose one initiative that will strengthen your progress and your passion. Make a plan to complete.

Being multitalented can be a curse as much as a blessing. When appealing to expert advice from Hayward Blake, the Daddy of Chicago graphic designers, he warned that my multi-focus will delete my three disciplines rather than support them. Of course I think that my blend of writing, design, and drawing all come together in publishing. But such a blend also makes me confused at times, pulls in several directions, and needs discipline to focus. So I know more about blending than anyone. Hopefully, my struggle to focus and resist the “grass is greener” syndrome will help you to ovoid such a trap and make the best use of your time.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Also please visit the “Initiator Index” for overview and development progress.

When Idea Incubator concludes after Part 3,  the online publication will be complete. Segments can be used in any sequence, revisiting like an old friend to remind and revise. As a companion, keep a running check on priorities, originality, and rejuvenation to create a flow for developing the best directions. But this is not the end of the process. Though it places you on your best path, you can go further.

I hope you will continue with your self-seminar into the e-book, Idea Initiator that takes the concepts defined in these first three sections, offers a segment on how to sustain creative energy through project ups and downs, and is a guide for how to synthesize the ideas you have formed into a concise and pursuable plan. Contact me to receive your free copy: please go to my website and e-mail me with your request, using the subject line “idea initiator.”

Always inspired, Liane

Idea Incubator 20: Presentation Passion

There is such a demand on communication skills that mistakes will be made. Interpersonally, good intentions go a long way to cover. Online, the mistake is just out there. To use passion as a salve online translates some of the components that work offline.

Entrepreneur and social activist Adrian Guglielmo is an expert in presenting ideas that use passion to convince. Passion is a strength when directed appropriately:

“Speak with passion—it shows immediately. If you have conviction, mistakes are forgiven and the good deeds are elevated.”
—Adrian Guglielmo, contributor to Women who Win at Work

How a message is conveyed is as important as the message itself. Passion puts a point on communication’s arrow. Investigate the role of presentation in your work:

1. What kinds of presentation can advance your career?

2. How can you prepare for presentation? Define your direction.
research:
read:
collect advice:
promote:
strategy:

3. Describe which areas of presentation inspire your greatest conviction?

4. Which presentation is the most difficult for you?

5. Which areas can you improve to yield the most results?

6. Schedule next steps.

Presentation Considerations

Personal and cyber presentations are so different that many people capitalize on the gap. And many get into trouble in one or the other. The skills are very different, but both depend on a foundation of factors:

Brevity. People read faster than ever. Reading online means scanning down the middle, so short segments of text are absorbed the most. Being faced with a full screen of grey copy is daunting and rarely read throughout. Brevity demonstrates respect for the viewer’s time.

Pace. Viewers, whether sitting in an audience or in front of a screen, need to be visually guided. Eye-tracking on a page can be evaluated and measured. Is the most important content the largest and easiest to find? What does a viewer perceive first?

Drama. People are emotional first. The more content can inspire emotion, the more it can motivate. Stirring emotion online is harder than face-to-face, so graphics must carry the message. Balance light content (humor) with deeper meaning. How much can be said in images? How much can be personalized for individual viewers?

Expectations. If you don’t know what readers or viewers expect, you can’t present content of interest. Every industry has standards for appropriateness. Fulfilling expectations means knowing your audience.

Stories. People remember stories more than names, facts, for features. When a message is delivered, wrapped in a parable or an analogy, it becomes more entertaining and dramatic.

Simplify. It is easy to overcomplicate messages in the effort to be comprehensive. To make elegant, present no more than three major points. This will save time in preparation and increase perception.

Polish. Just like wearing a tailored suit with polished shoes, publications need to be dressed. Through testing, correcting, and being thorough in accuracy, crafting, and functionality, the work put into the quality of workmanship shows.

Style. Especially in a time of templates for websites, blogs, newsletters, etc., it has become even harder to stand out with distinction. Choose a style, commit to it, and build upon it. Anchor around a key signature. For example, this blog has a look and feel that mirrors my website that mirrors my business philosophy.

Goal. Purpose has to be obvious. Mystery can be used to build up to the point, but what change must the presentation ultimately initiate? For example, this blog is meant to inspire the reader to want to see my portfolio, to buy one of my books, and/or to hire me for a custom design project.

Relevant. Most viewers react according to the avoid pain/attract pleasure concept. If a presentation falls in between, it lacks legs. Tying into current events, concerns, hot buttons, or dilemmas will plant the impression of being a helpful resource. The message soothes the pain points or clears the confusion.

Takeaway. Different than a goal, the audience discovers something useable, memorable, or educational. In selling creative services, the pitch can’t be about me but must be about how the prospect will benefit. Offering useful information is an introduction to creative services and demonstrates a give-to-get philosophy (see my article,  with this title “Give to Get,” (PDF) that collects ideas from contributors who demonstrate the wisdom in generosity.)

Presenting in person and online are so different that each of these factors must be adjusted on both sides to promote consistency. Personal meeting reveals rapport—so important in the development of design. Online, visuals must be strong enough to make mistakes minor and the overall message primary.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Also please visit the “Initiator Index” for overview and development progress.

When Idea Incubator concludes after Part 3,  the online publication will be complete. Segments can be used in any sequence, revisiting like an old friend to remind and revise. As a companion, keep a running check on priorities, originality, and rejuvenation to create a flow for developing the best directions. But this is not the end of the process. Though it places you on your best path, you can go further.

I hope you will continue with your self-seminar into the e-book, Idea Initiator that takes the concepts defined in these first three sections, offers a segment on how to sustain creative energy through project ups and downs, and is a guide for how to synthesize the ideas you have formed into a concise and pursuable plan. Contact me to receive your free copy: please go to my website and e-mail me with your request, using the subject line “idea initiator.”

Always inspired, Liane

Idea Incubator 19: Maintain Motivational Momentum

The more creative an idea, the more resistance it will cause. As an external measurement, negative feedback can inspire determination or kill ambition. Despite the reception, a good idea is relentless. It itches. It haunts. At night, it appears in dreams. During the day, it pops up in clues. It won’t go away.

Though persistent, when the itchy idea climbs the ladder of development and makes a launch dive off the platform, the easiest part is over. Keeping enthusiasm, momentum, and following through take more energy and discipline that beginning. It takes fuel to keep going, to absorb what is worth developing and to ignore the rest.

Keeping motivation uses techniques learned through practice, but can be set up in advance to ensure progress. Nell Merlino knows more about creating business opportunities from ideas than anyone else. This year is the deadline for her Make Mine a Million program begun eight years ago. As I go off to investigate how many millionaire businesses they’ve grown, I revisit my interview with her and remember the challenges she outlined.

“Those who succeed have a sustaining passion. They overcome barriers that are both systemic and personal. So determined to grow their businesses, they fight to overcome resistance.”
—Nell Merlino, contributor to Women who Win at Work

All passions need a fighting commitment for materializing projects. The way to keep the fire alive through the process will indicate the depth of conviction. Construct a foundation that will help to confront the barriers of resistance:

1. What are your greatest work joys? Match each with how you keep that passion fed.

2. Does your profession possess systemic barriers for flexibility (such as glass ceilings, economic restrictions, stiff competition, distribution limits, visibility opportunities)? Match each barrier with at least one idea to overcome.

3. What are first steps you can take for each overcoming idea?

4. Who can you ask for advice on your ideas? What is your reaction to their advice?

After collecting some of your own ideas, I offer some of mine below.

Creative Cultivation: fuel-building ideas from Liane

It is hard to sustain enthusiasm over a long-term project. Distraction tugs, other projects tempt, detours threaten. Harder than starting an initiative is staying with it to completion. The longer the project, the harder to achieve. Whatever time planned, a project will take double before completion. Although I start a lot of initiatives, I take them to a level of testing their viability and then only pursue a small percentage. Knowing what resources large projects eat up, I am careful about commitment. But when I do embark, keeping enthusiasm is critical.

Using a number of fuel-building techniques, perhaps some of these will inspire your ability to keep passions alive through the development process:

1. keep to a schedule and thus create habits
2. organize and plan projects to pick up and put down
3. use workbooks to plot and record progress
4. collect quotations that inspire
5. define style and build through signature elements
6. take a related field trip
7. keep up with work of others through key blog list
8. interview those that can instruct; keep questions handy
9. take strategic breaks to gain a fresh perspective
10. strategize how to handle barriers: go around, go under, climb over, burrow through, or take a detour.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Also please visit the “Initiator Index” for overview and development progress.

When Idea Incubator concludes after Part 3,  the online publication will be complete. Segments can be used in any sequence, revisiting like an old friend to remind and revise. As a companion, keep a running check on priorities, originality, and rejuvenation to create a flow for developing the best directions. But this is not the end of the process. Though it places you on your best path, you can go further.

I hope you will continue with your self-seminar into the e-book, Idea Initiator that takes the concepts defined in these first three sections, offers a segment on how to sustain creative energy through project ups and downs, and is a guide for how to synthesize the ideas you have formed into a concise and pursuable plan. Contact me to receive your free copy: please go to my website and e-mail me with your request, using the subject line “idea initiator.”

Always inspired, Liane

Idea Incubator 18: Productive Passion

It is easy to talk about ideas, but to implement them takes developed skills, practice, and expanded viewpoints. To focus all three in the same direction begins with passion. If faced with a task you mustdo, but lack passion to do it, two things will happen: 1) you make a game or reward for doing it and plow through, or 2) you stop after an initial burst. Passion predicts behavior and project outcomes. Experience teaches to be wary of projects where you lack passion: usually the motivation is money and that has a limited timespan. Following passion means making choices that are sustainable.

Andrea March, consummate entrepreneur and business growth expert, examines how to plan focus to keep passion directed:

“See the big picture first and then the details. Focus on what you want to achieve and then how to realize the outcome.”
—Andrea March, contributor to Women who Win at Work

Start with the end goal and work backwards to create a project plan. Usually the goal’s description will comprise deadline, budget, and needed resources. Break the project into portions so tht you can free your focus to concentrate on development. Project management feeds passion—the two reinforce eachother. Construct the why and then compose the how:

Develop a Focused Project Plan

1. Declare mission. Name your statement of purpose for each initiative, whether business, career, or personal. It needs to be no more than two sentences. Consider it like a mission statement to get the target in view. If you don’t know where you are going then any direction is fine and it is easy to scatter or waste resources.

2. Determine positioning. How does your work fit within your industry or society? After your vision is solidified but before you begin investing any more time, do homework to determine if anyone has done what you want to do. Either you will do it better or you must differentiate how you are different. Paint a mental picture of your position into these levels of exposure:
a. Blog buzz—what do you want people to say about you? What kind of controversy or news can you stir up?
b. Associations and organizations—rub shoulders with experts so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Who knows the most about what you want to do?
c. Business publications—research articles to garner experience from others quickly. No one has time to make all the mistakes, so identify land mines before beginning.
d. Interviews—find sources that give you access to experts through blogs, websites, or virtual reality. Social media must be managed as the point on the communication arrow.
e. Books from experts—for any theme or topic, someone has written a book on it. Or at least an article! If there happens to be no book on your focus, consider writing one.

3. How does your goal change or evolve your position? Where would you like to grow? What will change for your audience as a result of your project’s success? Growing an enterprise is never finished. It is always a work in progress—the best keep focusing on what they do well, increasing capabilities from a strong base.

4. Write a press release. Though not written to send out, this exercise will clarify your goals, target your audience, and illuminate what is newsworthy. Writing a release is the first test of commitment and viability. Determine to whom you will send the press release in the future so you visualize while composing. When the project is finished, revise the release to fit the evolution, and then send it out. Any revisions along the way will further clarify your direction and be a benchmark to judge development priorities.

5. Break the goal into component phases, tasks, and schedule. Arrange steps by critical path, difficulty, and expense. It is often a good idea to start with the easiest. The momentum will propel the more difficult or time-consuming phases, sidelining any hesitation or procrastination. Consider tackling the most difficult portions of the project immediately after the completion of phases that encourage growing success.

6. Supplement resources with trades or partnerships. Ask for help and offer something in exchange; follow the give-to-get philosophy (download my article with this title). Reliability is key. If collaborators don’t share the same passions, don’t recruit into your project. Find someone who does. Working virtually offers new resources and talents not available locally.

7. Conduct first step analysis for each goal on a regular basis. The plan ensures that efforts keep moving in a consistent direction. As each first step is accomplished, another takes its place on your Things to Do list until all the components are ready to be polished for release.

8. Plan to grow organically. Define options for reaching the goal, for there is always more than one way to accomplish it. Good plans evolve during execution. The path may be flexible, but the end destination beacons consistently.

To focus on priorities is impossible without a plan to define the priorities. Distractions, limitations, and economic restrictions all endanger progress. Working around detours is costly in time and resources, so before committing to the effort, the inner voice of passion must declare resolve. When you combine passion with planning, you create power.

Also see Andrea March’s contribution in Idea Incubator #9,
“The Creative Compass“

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Also please visit the “Initiator Index” for overview and development progress.

When Idea Incubator concludes after Part 3,  the online publication will be complete. Segments can be used in any sequence, revisiting like an old friend to remind and revise. As a companion, keep a running check on priorities, originality, and rejuvenation to create a flow for developing the best directions. But this is not the end of the process. Though it places you on your best path, you can go further.

I hope you will continue with your self-seminar into the e-book, Idea Initiator that takes the concepts defined in these first three sections, offers a segment on how to sustain creative energy through project ups and downs, and is a guide for how to synthesize the ideas you have formed into a concise and pursuable plan. Contact me to receive your free copy: please go to my website and e-mail me with your request, using the subject line “idea initiator.”

Always inspired, Liane

Idea Incubator 17: Passion Rules

Don’t waste time on ideas that you think will be popular but where you lack the deepest conviction. It is astounding how many people feel they must do what is lucrative over what is soul-satisfying. There is no project that can be sustained without passion. Commitment is more important than talent, innovation, or finances. Examine any significant creative achievement and discover a conviction more powerful than money can buy.

However, money and art do have a symbiotic relationship. Though filled with friction, they need each other. If there were no aesthetics, money would have hollow influence. If there were no money, art would have no editor. How you invest your resources is gauges potential growth. How you are rewarded gauges influence.

Susan Davis, who applies creativity to the financial industry (as well as her eco-leading lifestyle), says:

“Invest around your values to earn financial returns at market rates plus social and environmental dividends.”
—Susan Davis, contributor to Women who Win at Work

To put money where your mouth is demands consistency and the deepest commitment. The only way to be sure that you have the stamina that will be needed to launch new ideas, be sure to match your actions with your beliefs:

1. Define your top values in each of these areas:
• financial—what budget do you need to both develop and sustain a new idea into acceptance?
• environmental—how does your concept impact the world around you?
• community—who will most benefit from your contribution and what is their role in the development process?
• social—can you incorporate friends or family into assistance?
• professional—what connections have you made that can help further visibility and impact?

2. How do you invest resources in each of these areas?
• time—being realistic, how much time you can devote?. Then double it!
• money—what nest egg do you have so that when you are ready to take action, you can move on the idea quickly?
• talent—does your talent and training match the challenge?
• connections—what help can you bring in to compliment your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses?
• other—do you have the right facilities and equipment or do you need additional advance funding?

3. How does each investment above reflect your values? The more that you mesh with the topic and can build necessary relationships, the better the chance you have of authoring new approaches. Most great new ideas confront initial resistance—the greater the idea, the greater the challenge to grow it to influence! The more of your values used in the project, the stronger will be its sustainability.

4. List current action, then one idea for improvement or enhancement (push the idea further), in how the project impacts each of these areas:
• time—what can you devote, what can you edit, and how can you prioritize to give the project the time needed?
• money—what you can invest and then find a way to generate seed-money to prepare for development?
• talent—does the project use your best contributions (particularly where you are doing what no one else can do)?
• creativity—will the journey be continually inspiring?
• connections—can you build new connections through the process?
• other—is the goal realistic and using the best of your resources?

5. What activity for improvement has the greatest potential? Evaluate all the variable critically:
• research—do you need to gather additional information, facts, or background?
• feedback—what opinions have the most backing?
• projections—most importantly, what is your plan for filling deficits in funding or experience?

6. What are the first steps that you can take? List and then prioritize.

Most artists make their greatest investment in time spent on creative production. This is probably the biggest reason that artists on the whole don’t make much money. Those who believe in being an instant rock star have no understanding of the terrain. It takes years of preparations to be an overnight success! To excel both financially and artistically is, unfortunately, rare. So the motivation has to be more than dreams of stardom. Or narcissistic gratification.

Investment, the most serious of career choices, is a roadmap. They say if you want to see your future, look at your friends. If you want to see your potential, look at your investments. (Mine is in my creative endeavors—if wealth is measured in intellectual property, I am one of the wealthiest people I know!)

Like most artists, what I do matters more to me than how much money I make. Yet it is the economic necessity of paying bills that sharpens the creative pencil—to be very careful about where I spend time and money. Hopefully I am making the best choices. Perhaps some of these ideas will inspire you to make yours.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Also please visit the “Initiator Index” for overview and development progress.

When Idea Incubator concludes after Part 3,  the online publication will be complete. Segments can be used in any sequence, revisiting like an old friend to remind and revise. As a companion, keep a running check on priorities, originality, and rejuvenation to create a flow for developing the best directions. But this is not the end of the process. Though it places you on your best path, you can go further.

I hope you will continue with your self-seminar into the e-book, Idea Initiator that takes the concepts defined in these first three sections, offers a segment on how to sustain creative energy through project ups and downs, and is a guide for how to synthesize the ideas you have formed into a concise and pursuable plan. Contact me to receive your free copy: please go to my website and e-mail me with your request, using the subject line “idea initiator.”

Always inspired, Liane

Idea Incubator 16: Gauging Good Ideas

There are always more ideas than time to create them. Sifting through concept approaches can shift focus from the hot inspiration of insight to the cold skepticism of evaluation. Take a step back to determine what is worth the investment of time and resources. It is the most important step in the creative process.

Judith Anderson studies and writes about creativity in the corporate setting, magnifying from the individual into the team.

“Decide what is a weed and what is a flower. Cultivation is not only elimination, it is also regard for what the creative process brings forward. Appreciate what is in your garden to create enthusiasm and motivation.”
—Judith Anderson, contributor to Women who Win at Work

The grass may be so green that it distracts from realistic appraisal. Creative thinkers are known to ‘chase rainbows.’ I am accused more of the chase than the capture. Rather than look for green grass, I return to my conceptual well, to plow my own soil, treasure hunt in my imagination. With new ideas everyday, I have a checklist to determine which are most worth pursuing:

How do you know if your idea is a good one?

1. It itches. It won’t go away. It reoccurs in other forms or applications. It pops up as a theme even when trying to forget about it.
“Idea Incubators” are like that for me. I have studied various techniques of creative development and have found going through this series of questions not only helps give me ideas, but proves as a guide to know what to do with them.

2. You think of it first thing in the morning. Perhaps you dream about it. The best ideas penetrate the subconscious—which is the well of creative combinations.
I call this the “morning test.” What is the first thing I think of before my feet hit the floor? That is the idea most worth pursuing. If there is a choice between concepts, the morning reveals which is the strongest.

3. It leverages your talents, bringing forth combinations of background, experience, and skills. Suddenly it feels as though you had been building up to this point your whole career.
Blogs have that effect on me: they combine my strategic, design, writing, editing, and communication skills. They provide a platform to test, refine, and reveal.

4. It uses connections that you have, via colleagues, associates, family, or educational. The more people you know that exemplify your audience, the better.
It also provides two new opportunities: expand existing audience and develop a new one. My most exciting journey now is to venture into the realm of international!

5. It is within your control. The concept uses resources that you already have and don’t need to develop. Beware of ideas that may lead to precarious financial risks!
The economic implications of developing an idea are usually the factors most misjudged initially. Everyone wants to believe that an exciting idea will be the next hot trend. The enthusiasm can set up reality-blinders. And, most great ideas cost more than the creative developer can afford. Reining in to what is possible is a major challenge that should be undertaken as early in the process as possible. I have expensive ideas everyday. But ideas within my purview cuts down the number instantly. Beware of reinventing the wheel!

6. It passes advisor tests. Show it to those who both have opinions you respect and will be frank with you.
Collecting trusted feedback may slow the process initially but speeds it later on. I have four or five critics that I return to for reality-checks. These are not people who say what I want to hear but those who love to play devil’s advocate. Putting ego aside, I am not my wor! Being open to constructive criticism can help define early weaknesses or flaws.

7. It is relevant. Select experts who have experience in your pursuit of study or perhaps to approach for counsel. If positioned as competition, acquire advice from association connections or a business group like SCORE.
Watching for news headlines and tying a concept into current events will strengthen it. Timing is tricky—and I tend to be ahead of curves. It often seems that what I do today becomes a trend tomorrow, but tomorrow I am already on to something else. Once i Master a new skill or approach, I move on instinctively.

8. It is scalable. You can break out a portion to develop as a sample or as a test.
If the idea can’t be broken down into accessible components, I don’t embark upon developing it. The only way to scale a mountain of work is to scale a zig-zag path going up. Each bend to continue the climb is an accomplishment! To me there is almost more satsifaction in completing the pieces that the whole!

9. It is simple enough to grasp quickly. Through combining, editing, and developing, (written about in other posts) the idea is polished to express a have business case.
“One of the hardest things in life is to keep life simple,” said my old friend Ann Blocker who spoke at the International Design Conference in Aspen (now discontinued after fifty years). The same is true with my ideas. Instantly I can see a series. Instantly I can mold and push the idea into a career! Keeping the message crisp, sharp, and clear is probably my greatest challenge. It is what I do so well for clients but what is so hard to do for myself!

10. It is expansive enough to sustain enthusiasm. Having enough fire within it to pull your attention, the idea does not have to be pushed—instead it pulls. And it must be strong enough to withstand market challenges to inspire perseverance.
Many of my ideas don’t have the right timing. I am growing to accept this. The good news is that every now and then, I hit the bullseye and have a seed to grow. The hardest part is to abandon a direction that I believe in but falls flat in the market. It it a bad idea or bad timing? This is one of the most difficult to gauge!

The idea itself is the first payback to its author. There is the first big rush of working on a meaningful project. The dream of being impactful launches the project on its highest note. Astute project managers will take a step back to identify the most difficult parts of the execution before beginning. Enthusiasm at the beginning is worth celebrating but will be empty if abandoned too soon. Ensure that your journey is the right one. Ask the hard questions and be open to the answers. It is better to find out early if an idea is on shaky ground than later when building upon weakness. If an idea passes all the initial tests, it doesn’t mean there will be smooth sailing but it means that the boat is strong enough to handle the waves.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Also please visit the “Initiator Index” for overview and development progress.

When Idea Incubator concludes after Part 3,  the online publication will be complete. Segments can be used in any sequence, revisiting like an old friend to remind and revise. As a companion, keep a running check on priorities, originality, and rejuvenation to create a flow for developing the best directions. But this is not the end of the process. Though it places you on your best path, you can go further.

I hope you will continue with your self-seminar into the e-book, Idea Initiator that takes the concepts defined in these first three sections, offers a segment on how to sustain creative energy through project ups and downs, and is a guide for how to synthesize the ideas you have formed into a concise and pursuable plan. Contact me to receive your free copy: please go to my website and e-mail me with your request, using the subject line “idea initiator.”

Always inspired, Liane

 

Idea Incubator 15: Solitary Brainstorms

Ideas are everywhere. Inspiration is not. Insatiable curiosity breeds ingredients for the creative mind to mold. Synaptic connections lead to ‘aha’ moments that  begin with a discipline possessed by all creative achievers. Because Jill Sebastian (artist, educator, and my sister) teaches creativity, she can study and test various approaches. She is a master at finding cognitive connections that are useful to those who wish to improve original thinking:

“Solutions are creative when the process to arrive at them blends common ingredients in unexpected ways. Exercising creativity regularly becomes a habit.”
—Jill Sebastian, contributor to Women who Win at Work

Explore: What is the best way to develop creative processes that can reveal which ideas are worth pursuing?

SOLITARY BRAISTORM PROCESS
Creative pursuits begin as solitary pursuits: concentrating on solutions to defined parameters. Contemplating after research and homework uses subliminal as much as conscious thinking. The process of mental marinating rolls factors around in the back of the mind to surface as ideas, often in odd places and times. To facilitate this marination process, try this approach:

1. Name the creative challenge. Then remove distractions including the phone and e-mail. It is recommended to change locations—go to a coffee shop, library, or retreat in nature. Take about an hour to contemplate and consider each of these next steps.

2. Use stream-of-conciousness. How many ideas (without editing) can you think of to answer your creative challenge?Jot as many as you can as quickly as possible–get as crazy as you can. Keep thinking about the audience and visualize where and when the message will be recieved. Collect ideas without looking back until you have a minimum of three. Keep them in a drawer and forget about each for now. Keep note-paper handy when in the shower or traveling, etc. Add additional ideas to the drawer.

3. Compile. After as much time as you can afford, open the idea drawer, lay all the pieces out, and combine as many as possible. Look for patterns and themes. Scale ideas to be larger or smaller. Evaluate components and turn them into modules. Mix and match variables.

4. Polish. Cull three solutions from your new idea salad that have the shortest development time and greatest use of resources. Too often, the large scale goals of a huge project become like a looming mountain. Any big idea worth pursuing will have small component ideas that can be done as smaller projects, then turning into building blocks. Assemble at least three of these blocks to test—no one can think of all the implications or challenges before embarking on a new idea. Passion isn’t enough to sustain the investment demanded by the development phases. Initial enthusiasm is tested by the necessity of execution.

5. Ask for reactions. Who can you show ideas to? What kind of confidentiality may be needed? Choose two kinds of critics: those with a background in your topic and those without but whom you respect. How do they react? Compare each piece of advice with your objective. Which is the strongest and most useful suggestion made? What can you change in response? Revise the presentation until your priorities are perceived clearly by your intended audience.

6. Sleep on it. Every morning, my most creative time of day, I come to my work with (almost) fresh eyes. The morning test is what I am excited about before my feet hit the floor. Ideas may not come to me on command (some of my best happen when riding the el or sitting in the library). But the connections come together every morning as a predictable anchor for the day. It is a good time to check priorities and review goals, compare pieces, and question what works.

7. Repeat. After going through this solitary process and testing, absorb the feedback. Go back to Step 1 and jot down more ideas. It is often at this second round that the strongest approaches are born. The feedback and audience identification help to scale and mold approaches. If this input doesn’t then the idea is too self-centered and won’t lead to desired responses after working more. Repeating this process regularly will help keep ideas fresh and on-target.

The habit of creative thinking thrives on variety, isolation, and momentum. When in the habit of discovery, the mind is triggered to follow a brainsotrming approach.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Also please visit the “Initiator Index” for overview and development progress.

When Idea Incubator concludes after Part 3,  the online publication will be complete. Segments can be used in any sequence, revisiting like an old friend to remind and revise. As a companion, keep a running check on priorities, originality, and rejuvenation to create a flow for developing the best directions. But this is not the end of the process. Though it places you on your best path, you can go further.

I hope you will continue with your self-seminar into the e-book, Idea Initiator that takes the concepts defined in these first three sections, offers a segment on how to sustain creative energy through project ups and downs, and is a guide for how to synthesize the ideas you have formed into a concise and pursuable plan. Contact me to receive your free copy: please go to my website and e-mail me with your request, using the subject line “idea initiator.”

Always inspired, Liane

 

Idea Incubator 14: The Most Creative Question

Being creative is the best and the worst way to make money. Most innovators—those on the bleeding edge—stay poor. They believe in the dream, in their ability to achieve it, but they underestimate the adaptation. By the time the idea is accepted, most creative thinkers are onto another bleeding edge idea. If you venture into obscure innovative territory, you can end up lost in the jungle.

However, if you have a really hot idea and it sparks a trend, you can hit it big. The good news is that if you capture the pulse of the situation, understand the marketplace, and use business sense, you can build a creative practice that is sustaining. Making a living as a graphic designer has allowed me to learn so much about other businesses, types of audiences, buyer behavior, and what kinds of ideas will most appeal, I would never trade such perspective. Every innovator that I have ever met (or read about) that was successful could leverage his or her advantages, make great connections, and find a way to be in the right place at the right time. Some is pure luck. But success in a creative business can be by design if studying the rocky road, getting a good map, and finding great short-cuts. More than anything, though, it starts with a good idea.

Stephanie Medlock has a horizontal perspective through her work for the University of Chicago’s Graham School. Assigned with discovering the best presenters and courses for their curriculum, Stephanie is in the business of identifying innovative thinkers. When interviewed for my book, she said:

“Break the rules that dominate your discipline to be free and combine what you know of that field with other types of information. In nearly every major scientific advance, the individual who changed an entire paradigm did not work in the discipline in which the advance was made. This meant that his or her imagination was not constrained by the rules of argument that dominated that discipline.”
— Stephanie Medlock, contributor to Women who Win at Work

To fuel the development of a breakthrough, how you feed that process will reveal the depth of your mental connections. Here is a tool to prepare the idea-generating ingredients that lead up to the single most creative question you can ask:

IDEA DEVELOPMENT CHECKLIST

Each problem has five possible viewpoints: yours, the way you think others think, the way others actually do think, the way they think you think, and finally, the way the audience thinks through evaluating the numbers of what they really do.  Within those five situations, there are at least three solutions to discover for each. Contemplate these preliminary questions as they fit each of the five viewpoints. This helps to decipher reality that will befriend or murder infant ideas.

1. What do your targeted constituents care most about?

2. Who quintessentially represents your audience? How can you put yourself in that person’s shoes?

3. What other fields/solutions relate to the situation or challenge?

4. Who is in a different field that may offer parallels? How can you talk to them and share experiences?

5. What other research/homework will fill out your knowledge (do not yet seek out what competitors are doing. Only when you are solid on a few ideas should you examine competition—but make sure to do this before moving in to development!)

When Stephanie talks about cross-fertilization, I feel that is the job of the creative mind. Originality combines the familiar in new ways. Ideas are sparks of insight. What better way to gain the vocabulary of insight than through a wide range of experiences? What I love the most about graphic design is the range of businesses I encounter. Travel is another great resource. And nature—always the best source for originality. Ultimately, originality comes down to asking simply: “What If…?”

What ‘escapes’ can you use that will absorb your attention and give new input (events, exhibits, concerts, field trips, site visits, etc.)? The best escapes get you out of your office studio, or even into new e-places. Online adventures are great for a quick perspective adjustment even if they don’t contribute to a complete getaway.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Also please visit the “Initiator Index” for overview and development progress.

When Idea Incubator concludes after Part 3,  the online publication will be complete. Segments can be used in any sequence, revisiting like an old friend to remind and revise. As a companion, keep a running check on priorities, originality, and rejuvenation to create a flow for developing the best directions. But this is not the end of the process. Though it places you on your best path, you can go further.

I hope you will continue with your self-seminar into the e-book, Idea Initiator that takes the concepts defined in these first three sections, offers a segment on how to sustain creative energy through project ups and downs, and is a guide for how to synthesize the ideas you have formed into a concise and pursuable plan. Contact me to receive your free copy: please go to my website and e-mail me with your request, using the subject line “idea initiator.”

Always inspired, Liane