Creativity - Keetria.com

4 Unique Brainstorming Methods for your Next Project Meeting

Published on March 21, 2016August 31, 2022

Being the owner or employee of a small business means being a constant idea machine. You’ll have to learn how to come up with solutions and ideas on the spot at any time of the day. At first, this can be pretty easy – you’re a fresh mind with fresh ideas and you’re spitting them out left and right. After a while, though, the well starts to run dry. You’re grasping at straws, trying your damnedest to come up with whatever you can and what you do deliver isn’t very good.

This means you’re going to have to learn how to brainstorm. No matter whether you’re totally new at this or you’ve exhausted your entire idea bank, it’s never a bad idea to develop a talent for brainstorming – especially with others.

Group brainstorming activities can be the best way for you and your team to come up with brand new ideas, or even fine-tune old ones. One half-formed idea you have combined with one half-formed idea from another coworker can add up to be the best idea you’ve seen all year.

But sometimes the common forms of brainstorming don’t work as well as they should. Everyone will get pretty burnt out on just shouting out ideas, so implement these four new and innovative brainstorming strategies during your next project meeting. You’ll be amazed by how much synergy you guys will share, and the ideas will come pouring out.

Change the scenery a little bit

Sometimes what’s really blocking all of your creativity is staying in the same old meeting room and office space over and over again. Even if you work in the most inventive and creative office in the world, staying in the same place every day stagnates your creativity. Instead of staring at the same wall again, suggest everyone move somewhere else.

The best place for sparking creativity is somewhere engaging, like the outdoors, but even moving to a different room can get the juices flowing again. Being in a different setting can give you a refreshed sense of newness. Oh – but if you’re a cool boss or have some pull in your workplace, definitely go for the work picnic option.

Stop applying all that pressure

One of the reasons you’re drained of ideas is probably that you’re trying too hard to force them out. The best ideas are organic – they simply spring out of you without effort. When you sit there and think, think, think yourself into a stupor, you aren’t going to get anywhere.

This idea is two-fold: first, always keep a pen and paper handy – even in every room in your house. Don’t let that idea slip past you in the shower. Hop out and write it down! Just let your engines rest and write things down as they come to you.

Utilize some group therapy techniques

No not in a somber way. When you all pile into the meeting room, sit in a circle and just talk – you can pick a question or topic to answer, but just get talking about something other than brainstorming.

When you engage with others on a more personal level, you get your mind working in ways that get it ready for more extensive brainstorming work ahead. Talking about critical thinking or personal questions makes you actually think about your answers, so you aren’t just regurgitating ideas using the same old brain techniques you usually use.

Also, try the opposite strategy

Sometimes what really gets people motivated is keeping them apart from the rest of the pack. Skip the meeting once and tell employees that they have an hour to come up with an idea – just one. After the hour, bring everyone to the meeting room and go around in a circle, reading off the ideas.

Also work in making small groups with different dynamics, instead of just one large group. Some people work better with other personality types – if you can make an ideal match made in heaven, you’ll get brainstorming ideas in no time.

Keetria is an entrepreneur, wellness advocate, and brand strategy coach for creatives & entrepreneurs with 16 years of public relations expertise working with some of the world’s leading brands, startups, media personalities, and entertainers. If you would like to work together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Five Ways to Revitalize your Creative Mind

Published on February 6, 2015August 31, 2022

Startup & Small Business

When your mind isn’t creative, there are going to be many elements that suffer. Sure, you can just churn out the work that needs to be done, but your upper end of production is simply not being reached. To truly revitalize yourself could take many different activities and avenues because your best work is not going to come through when you are not at your optimum output level.

Putting the right things into your body and making sure you commit to truly taking care of yourself are essential! Whether creating content or being on your best productive level, these tips are important for you to make sure your mind is sparking your brain to produce the valuable goods you know you can.

Food

This is so mandatory in your mantra because the nourishment that our bodies thrive on is a key to brainpower that makes it be able to constantly produce. Just like the need for water, the need for energy food is dire in your system. Antioxidants found in berries are crucial, and their anti-inflammatory properties of them are beneficial. It has also been shown that eggs have properties that enhance memory, and salmon has a lot of ammunition such as iron and B vitamins for reasoning. Eggplant has also shown to enhance communication with brain cells and the molecules themselves that make up our systems; you’re always going to perform better with at least these types of foods as a starting point.

Exercise

When your heart rate is up, a lot of things are going to happen. First of all, your creativity factor will rise just based on the fact that you automatically feel better about yourself once you start moving. There is a period after the initial rush where your muscles may relax enough to where you don’t actually feel productive. We believe that the best time to fester creativity is while you are getting the exercise! When the treadmill is rolling or the bike is cruising fast downhill, you’ll map out all sorts of new possibilities. Just like any element, it needs to be timed perfectly, but getting exercise is going to help you right off the bat.

Brainstorming

When you are staring a large project down in the face and at the beginning point of its life cycle, its so important to take a crucial step back. Keeping your creative mind focused does involve starting with a blank slate, and seeing what you are capable of in the long run.

During a moment in which you are not feeling fully creative, brainstorming is going to involve asking yourself questions. Where does your business go from here? Am I spending too much time on unimportant tasks? And if you are in the slogan or logo department, you can really benefit from brainstorming. Writing out huge flowcharts of ideas is always to your advantage, and you can take small elements from each new idea to build one large final idea. Another large part of brainstorming is going around the table asking all sales or creative personnel their opinions on any new ideas on the horizon.

Close Friends

Just having someone to lean on that knows your true creativity is always going to help. Being through thick and thin with a close friend will absolutely help your creative mind. When someone that has known you a long time is helping you in the creative process, you’re going to always trump whatever elements you are facing.

Looking at a blank canvas can always seem daunting, but when people that have known you through thick and thin come into the picture, the creative light may shine down on you sooner and in more abundance. Truly hearing what everyone who cares about you has to input on your situation will stoke your creative scale in a good way.

Close Friends and Peace/Down Time

When you don’t have to be going full force and taking care of all your daily tasks, downtime and being away is one of the best boosts to creativity. Just ridding yourself of all the overstimulation and stress that daily life brings with it can really make you whole again. It doesn’t have to be a getaway in a different location, it can just be some time in a room with not as much light or relaxing music. Even though it is not as kinetic, and energy-laden as a brainstorming session, peace and downtime are very essential to the creative mind.

After being fully powered down for a while in a zone where the daily pressures don’t manifest themselves, creating and being successful can sometimes reappear naturally after some downtime. Revitalizing the creative mind can be a long process, but these tips will help point you in the right direction.