Trust me. Create an Idea Inventory

How many times have you started a brainstorming and get frustrated with your people coming up with the same obvious, basic ideas from last time? Well, here's and idea: make sure to take the time and pass your ideas into an IDEA INVENTORY. You may think transcribing those post it notes into an excel sheet is a waste of time, but quite the contrary. It will prove valuable in so many ways.

Here's just a few:

1. TIME SAVING: Being able to send those ideas as pre-work or have participants look at them before the meeting actually starts, gets their creative juices going as well as gives your project a head start. It will avoid you going back to the starting line + everyone in on the same page and ready to go.

2. BOLDER THINKING: Let me ask you something: I am looking to raise money for the Girl Scouts. What ideas come to mind? ................. COOKIES. I know!! It's natural. When starting a brainstorming, our brain starts with "top of mind" ideas. It's just natural! Having reviewed a list of "top of mind" obvious ideas gets rid that top layer. It then pushes us into bigger, bolder thinking, faster.

3. AVOID MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: Sometimes the ideas we come up with at today's brainstorming are too complicated for the time. They do not make the cut due to lack of resources, technology, people or even support. The timing is just not right. Having an idea inventory keeps that idea as a possibility for the future. Let's say we meet again in six months. Things have changed. When we review the list of ideas you may realize, what was not the "right idea" then, could be the right idea now. Not having that idea in your organizational memory could actually result in a missed opportunity later (and of course we don't want that).

By: Angiemille Latorre

Cofounder SeriouslyCreative