Some good ideas have to die

I know you’re probably sick of hearing about Google. I am a little bit too. But I did enjoy this description of how they get ideas, provided by Social Media Influence. Apparently, Google gets so many good ideas from its employees that they have to kill a bunch of good ones. I think that’s an important point. Once you start having a lot of good ideas, you will not be able to take action on every single one. You will need to learn to let go or you’ll be spread too thin. When you’re working on too much at once, everything will get a crummy implementation – if it gets one at all. Believe me, I know this from experience.

It’s better to sacrifice a few good ideas than your reputation for getting things done.

Are you getting too many good ideas? Which ones should you let go of?

The funniest people you know

When you're feeling down, it can sometimes block your idea flow.

Here's what I do to combat the blues. It's a pretty good way to generate more ideas, and it's great for a quick pick me up.

1. List the funniest people you know

2. Write down the top five most hilarious things they have done or said

3. Call them and re-live these moments

It's basically a brainstorming session of your most entertaining memories. Brainstorming something you want to think about can clear the gunk out of the pipes and make it easier to brainstorm about things you have to think about (like that project at work you haven't started on yet).

I recently called my sister to crack up (again) over the time we were having dinner together while on vacation. My mom had made pork chops and there was one left on the plate. It was shaped a little like football pants. My sister pointed to it and said, "look! meat pants!"

I have no idea now why this was so funny, but we both laughed so hard that we could no longer stand up or breath. We still laugh about this.

Yeah, I know it's not even funny. But everyone has at least one of those "you had to be there" stories that make you smile. What are yours?

Don't hoard

The VAR guy has an interesting post on what he calls sustainable innovation. Basically, he emphasizes the importance of continuing to innovate, and not just putting all your eggs in one basket. I think it ties in nicely to one of the principles of having a lot of ideas. Don’t hoard them.

Ever get an idea that you loved, that you knew was a winner? But the timing wasn’t quite right. You didn’t think the audience would be receptive yet. You thought that this was the Next Big Thing and you wanted to wait until everything was perfect to roll it out. And you held on to it, and didn’t share it or act on it. Or you fell so in love with the idea in its current state that you refused to consider other possibilities for it.

When you hoard ideas like this, it puts a roadblock up. That roadblock keeps you from developing and building on the original idea. And often our new best ideas come from our old best ideas.

Lesson? Don’t hoard your ideas. Don’t fall so in love with one of them you think it has no faults or can’t get better.

Ideas on index cards

Jessica at Indexed has so many amazing ideas. Can't imagine them getting much riper. Of course, that's the thing about getting ideas - You can continuously improve. I can't wait to see what someone with this much idea potential does next.

A recent favorite post on innovation.

Jessica takes index cards and draws clever diagrams with clever headers. Wonder what her idea inspiration was.

Look around your home or office. How can you transform an everyday item like an index card into a great idea?

Don't kill your ideas for small people

How many times have you been in a situation where you had a good idea, decided not to speak out, and then someone else came up with something similar and everyone liked it? That’s what happens when you kill your own ideas. You miss out on opportunities to show your colleagues, friends, bosses, whoever what value you can add.

On the flip side, have you ever spoken an idea aloud that no one liked? Or worse yet, that was harshly criticized or laughed at? Ouch. That doesn’t feel good, does it? It doesn’t really make you want to go out there and share more ideas either. This is why it is so difficult to stop killing your own ideas. Killing ideas keeps you from feeling embarrassed.

When I feel belittled by someone making fun of my ideas, I like to remember this quote from Mark Twain:

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the truly great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

More idea inspiration

Thanks to Guy Kawasaki (one of my favorite bloggers for idea inspiration), I discovered a great new source for ideas. Check out Roger von Oech's Creative Think blog, subtitled, "Fun ideas to stimulate your creativity."

He just released a 25th anniversary edition of his book on how to be more creative, A whack on the side of the head. I'm so glad to have found this, even though apparently I'm 25 years late to the party. But, I'll be reading it soon anyway.

Another fun tip - when you go to his website and click on his picture at the top, you get an idea prompt.

You don't have to be smart

Feeling like you're too dumb to have great ideas? Read this article from Harvey Mackay. In it, he addresses all my favorite guidelines for having ideas, like that everyone can have more ideas or that the best ideas are built off the ideas of others.


Favorite quote (it was hard to pick just one favorite):

Of every study known to mankind, not one -- zero, zilch, nada -- says there is a
correlation between IQ and creativity. This is good, because it means every one
of us can become more creative.