The Brainzooming Group

I first connected with Sage Bray when she was nice enough to do a tweet pointing her Twitter followers to Brainzooming as a great blog for creative inspiration. Her Twitter name (@aSageInRealLife) and profile were both tremendously intriguing. Sage is involved in a very cool blend of freelance writing, art, and consulting with small businesses and solopreneurs. Her published work has appeared with Inc. Magazine, The Poor Chef, Examiner.com, and a myriad of other online periodicals. She blogs about making a living from creative endeavors on aSageInRealLife.com.

In today’s guest blog, Sage shares her perspectives on the benefits of placing creative thinking at the heart of planning:

Creativity isn’t really about random inspiration although it does seem that way sometimes. What it is really about is exploring options. Instead of falling into the “It’s done that way because that’s always how it’s been done” mode of thinking, you step outside the box, break new ground, push the limits, or get radical. Those are acts of true creativity – an essential, but often overlooked, component for a growing, vibrant business.

Even if you ask for innovative thinking from your employees or yourself, it can still be a fairly rare occurrence. That’s because it’s too easy to jump at the first viable idea that comes along. I have a rule: I must come up with an absolute minimum of three solutions to any business problem—although I try for at least 10. This means lots of wacky, crazy ideas which are fun and do result in some really interesting ideas. But it’s having choices that forces me to compare the pros and cons and really analyze what is possible.

For instance, if you want to get the word out about, say, your new casino style gaming site, you may think it’s innovative to start a campaign on Facebook, get fans, and start networking on gaming forums. And you could, and probably should. But what else could you do? There is traditional print advertising, which is becoming the rare thing to do these days. Under certain circumstances though, that could be the best choice to direct your funds, especially if you have a very targeted market. How about getting someone to dress up as Elvis and pass out coupons for free trials at local festivals? Or offer free life-long subscriptions to a couple big entertainment bloggers? Are these viable solutions for your marketing? You may laugh at the idea of some guy dressed up as Elvis promoting your business, but I know several businesses that do exactly that and they have seen significant measurable increases from this kind of promotion. No solution is too crazy – not if it works.

However, being creative and innovative does not mean just doing it differently. It means doing it well, in the best way possible, using the ingenuity you draw from others and from your experiences. Keep up your reservoir of ideas by reading plenty of blogs and newsletters, attending trade shows and local meet-up groups, and brainstorming with colleagues.

Don’t limit your exposure to things related to your specific industry either. You can glean fantastic ideas from both related and unrelated industries by simply asking yourself how their innovative ideas can relate to what you do.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel (although that sometimes happens) to keep your business growing and flexible. But you do have to be prepared to do things differently and look for creative solutions to even the most common problems. Keep in mind, the objective is to do whatever you do well. Sometimes the answer you need will be something completely ordinary and what you’ve been doing all along. The thing is, you won’t know if it’s the best solution without thinking creatively about it. – Sage Bray

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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I’m chairing the American Marketing Association Marketing Research Conference October 4 – 7. It’s going to be a great event, with three educational tracks all tied back to theme, “Making Business Sense of What’s Next.”

Our main programming objective for the conference is providing ideas, tools, and networking to help researchers approach business more broadly and with a clear means to help lead their companies successfully into the future. Through the conference social media effort, you’ll be able to track the conference’s progress using the hashtag #amamrc on Twitter and on the conference website, where I’ll be blogging along with others next week.

To give you an early sense of the conference tone and content, today’s guest Brainzooming columnist is presenting a workshop this Sunday at the conference’s start. Sean Buvala is an award-winning trainer who teaches businesses and nonprofit organizations how to improve their business results through the power of storytelling. You learn more about his work at www.seantells.net.

In this piece, Sean challenges researchers (and really anyone communicating in business) to better incorporate framing to fully realize the impact of great storytelling.

The more esoteric your work, the more you need storytelling in your job. Those of you in research, I am talking to you.

Sometimes it is hard for others to understand the ins, outs, and mysteries of research. By using the power of storytelling in your communications, you can create “frames” to highlight, carry, and explain bigger concepts.

Every house I have ever been in has place filled with pictures of family and friends. Rather than just glue these pictures to the wall, the pictures are placed in frames that help draw the eye to the subjects within. In the most artistic homes, frames surrounding pictures have been carefully chosen to emphasize the content of the pictures. More important pictures (the “everybody in the family” type) have the most expensive and sturdy frames. Done well, frames are an extension of the pictures.

Just like picture frames in someone’s home, framing complicated and important data in the context of a memorable story protects and carries your message to your listeners. Here’s an example.

You could talk about the collection methods used to complete a survey and how that proves the validity of the data. However, folks want results first. So, instead of talking first about how the data means you must completely drop an ingrained and “sacred cow” program from your company, you could start with the story of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” (JATBS) emphasizing how Jack’s mother was furious with Jack for trading her sacred cow for a few magic beans. In the end, however, Jack ends up with a goose that lays golden eggs, giving Jack and his mother more than they ever dreamt.

You’ll still present your data, but after you tell your version of JATBS, showing the data that correlates to your conclusion. Then, you might lead a discussion based on the data asking, “Just like the mother in JATBS, what do we fear in what the data tells us? In what ways is this data like magic beans for our company’s future?” Finally, end your presentation with a recap of JATBS.

Now, you have framed your data (which is important and needed) in the center of a very familiar and comfortable story. I can assure you the first time you do this you will wade through some discomfort and come out with a presentation that will cement the conclusions into the minds of your listeners.

Here are three things you should know about story and narrative as framing tools:

1. People just want to know, “What’s in it for me?”

Co-workers aren’t as interested in you job’s mechanics as you are. I know you have gone to school to learn how statistics work. However, the people you work with haven’t. For most of them, how you collected the data is not nearly as important as what the data means for their work. Storytelling lets you talk about benefits of research, not just mechanics.

2. Stories remind you to speak in the language of the people: your fellow employees.

Although stereotypes of overly detailed researchers may seem unfair, there are those in your company still slightly afraid of you. When they know you will speak understandably, they are more open to hear what you have to say. When you share the story of how others have benefited by what you are proposing, they will feel better about providing tools and time to fulfill your projects. It’s far better to talk to others about how Susan at the other office was twice as successful after incorporating research results you reported. In a sense, storytelling allows others to know you are “on their side.”

3. Your CFO approves funds for results not information.

Most people hate the process of change. Results are better than promises. Stories are frames that carry results. You will get much more support for a project when folks know how others have benefited from your proposals. How the office across the city became so successful that they now have doubled sales is 100% more effective in getting results than any presentation mired in how the research was conducted.

Your work in research and statistics is vital. Even more vital is your ability to communicate the benefits of your work to the rest of your company. Information framed in the context of story, information carried by understandable narratives, will stick with your fellow staff members much longer than data alone. Take a chance and frame your next presentation in a story. - Sean Buvala

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Today’s guest post was contributed by Elissa Shuck, another cool innovation, creativity, and improvement connection met through Twitter. Based in the Phoenix metro area, Elissa is CEO and President of ES-STRATEGIC, LLC. With more than 2 decades of multi-dimensional leadership experience, Elissa has made a lifelong commitment to innovation, creativity, and improvement while striving to help other experience personal and organizational excellence.

In her guest Brainzooming post, Elissa makes the case for the daily decision to be optimistic!

Life happens; it can be good, bad or ugly and even the most positive outlook has a lifespan.

We get beat up on the job, in traffic and in relationships – all of which can drain even the most committed of optimists of every ounce of water in that “half full glass.” In order to stay positive amid the simplest or most challenging of circumstances, we must consciously and constantly feed our optimistic propensity for it to serve us in times of trouble. A Native American parable calls it feeding the wolf that represents this positive outlook.

Unfortunately, many of us have been feeding the wrong wolf for so long our brains have been conditioned to automatically look for the negative in a situation rather than the positive.

So how do we make a change? We must deliberately choose to “feed” the positive by retraining and renewing our way of thinking.

The good news is our brain physiology supports us in our efforts to make these changes. For instance, cognitive therapy offers some insight on how thoughts, emotions, and behaviors interact and suggests a technique that can be utilized to identify automatic negative thought processes and redirect them toward a new optimistic course. The technique is to not dwell on the negative thoughts when they pop up. Instead, we must stop ourselves at the moment of a negative response and then intentionally refocus our minds toward a better reaction or self-talk message. Practicing the new response by writing it down and reviewing it regularly will help strengthen the newly formed neurological pathway and reinforce the new habit of optimism.

Reading books and listening to speakers encouraging constructive, truthful self-talk can also be a way to condition our minds toward alternative, positive thoughts.

Glasses half full. Clouds with silver linings. Optimism is available to everyone, but it is a daily, moment by moment choice and must be deliberately cultivated. News flash to pessimists: you don’t have to be “realistic” any more. With a little practice and tapping into our natural brain physiology, the habit of thinking positively in any circumstance can happen in no time. - Elissa Shuck ©2009 Elissa Shuck and es-strategic, LLC

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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This week’s guest post is from Twitter friend John McClung, who describes himself as having been, “a student, college debater, debate coach, manager, food consultant, builder marketer/home & community designer, and real estate agent with a mission of helping people make good decisions. I love my wife, wine, food, Kentucky basketball and traveling. I am currently working on new twists on food, and interpreting wine tastings on canvas using all appropriate shades of red. ” What a variety of interests and activities!

And John’s varied interests are further confirmation why it’s great to have guests bloggers with varied experiences: his post uses a Harry Chapin song as inspiration. Trust me folks, you’d have never gotten a Harry Chapin-related post from me. Yet, John’s take on it is a great example of how we can all try to get back to the creativity children so readily express:

Harry Chapin wrote a song about a young boy starting school, being told that “Flowers are red, and green leaves are green.” His response of seeing “so many colors in the rainbow” and using every one, was not well received and eventually gave way to the teacher’s criticism and philosophy of seeing things “the way they always have been seen.”

Want to be more creative? Let your inner child out.

If you feel that you aren’t as creative as you could be, there is a good chance you are looking at things through the rules and the “no’s” you have received over the years. We tend to apply things we are taught and have experienced to criticize ourselves. It is the self-critique that tends to kill our creativity faster than anything. The young boy above was not looking to criticize: he was in wonder of the possibilities. He wanted to incorporate all that he saw and started out not understanding “the rules.”

When I say “let your inner child out,” I’m suggesting you look at things with wonder. There is the sometimes overused command to think outside the box. I’m suggesting that you understand that there is no box to start. “The box” is an imaginary limit programmed into our psyche by others. Go back to the place where the programming doesn’t exist.

It doesn’t matter what you are trying to create: art, literature, a garden, a business, public policy, or perhaps a new dish for dinner. Look at the possibilities and not the tradition. After all being creative is no more than looking at and doing things in different ways.

Can’t release the inner child? Be evolutionary, not revolutionary.

Let’s face it, most of us are not going to abandon the “traditions,” “rules”, and “deep seated attitudes” about what is and what is not appropriate. Change is hard, and creativity is change others have not thought about.

To be evolutionary, you simply look at what is and ask: How could I change it to be different in a way that works? Here’s an example of how evolutionary change can work.

We have friends who occasionally join us to drink some very nice wines and have dinner. One friend once told me he didn’t like grits. Ever since, grits have been on the menu!

First, they were cooked with chicken stock, cream and finished with smoked Gouda cheese and served as a side dish. The second time, they were used in place of rice, with prosciutto substituting for nori and rolled with pablano, roasted red pepper, and andouille sausage resembling sushi. Finally, I cooked the grits in peach nectar, and rolled with fruit, and served on sauce for dessert.

Each rendition was an evolutionary step leading to a new, no rules variation. Sort of like the little boy who simply saw all the colors of the rainbow and wanted to use every one. So go ahead and release your inner child! – John McClung

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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We’ve spent time on Brainzooming talking about recycling ideas, yet haven’t touched on recycling physical materials. That changes with today’s guest post from Nancy Martini. She’s an Art Director and EcoArtist (as she’s known on Twitter), working with reclaimed materials.

Nancy’s currently working on a collection called, “Lessons from the Dinner Table.” All the pieces contain environmental messages translated from simple lessons learned at the table. Her work consists of 95% upcycled materials: plastic bags, soda cans, coat hangers, plastic bottles, bottle caps, foil, wire, cereal boxes, egg cartons, tin cans, and gift wrap tissue. You can see her process through videos on her YouTube channel.

Today, Nancy provides her view on the need for creativity as the concept of upcycling expands:

Reduce, reuse and recycle are three words that haunt me everyday. How can I use less? What can I do to reuse what I already have? And, what more can be recycled? Now, the latest environmentally conscious word “upcycle” has proven to be even more of a challenge. It is easy to understand the process of recycling by means of breaking down a material then using that material to make something new. However, the idea of creating a second life for a package or product from its inception is a complex concept that needs more explaining and exploring.

Ten years ago, you didn’t see many people bringing cloth totes to the grocery store. I remember having to explain my totes repeatedly to cashiers. Sometimes they would even pack my groceries in a paper sack and then put it in my cloth tote. Change does happen, but it takes time and education.

When I see people bringing their own totes to the grocery store now, I can’t help but wonder if they think about all the plastic in their purchases. What happens to the packaging after we use its contents? Recycling should be the last resort, not a justification to buy whatever we want because we can always toss it in the recycle bin.

Recently at the grocery store, the early morning staff was stocking shelves. Each worker had a few garbage bags filled with plastic shrink-wrap and cardboard from unpacking merchandise off wheeled crates. “All the shipping packaging is going to be thrown away,” I was told. Disheartened by this obvious disregard for the environment behind the backs of the consumer, I thought about products and their packaging and pondered:

• What if containers were designed with an upcycled second life for the packaging so it wouldn’t go to the recycle plant or landfills?
• What could we build or create with discarded packaging?
• And, what if we could then change the way food companies produce packaging?

As I continue on my quest to upcycle packaging to create art, I encourage you to think of the possibilities that upcycling brings. I would love to hear your comments – the more creative collaboration, the greener the path. – Nancy Martini

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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It’s become clear over time that my strategic mentors tend to be visionaries who are actively pushing boundaries and seeing beyond what others anticipate. I match up well with these personalities because they stretch me also, and I help translate their visions into implementable steps necessary to realize new and big ideas.

So in keeping with the focus so far this week on Bill McDonald and Kansas City Infobank, Paula White’s guest column on renegades is right on the mark. As Paula describes herself on her blog, she’s a “grandma, an educator, a teacher, and a thinker.” She has numerous educational distinctions, and she’s on the forefront of actually applying social media in an educational setting (quick partial translation: I met her on Twitter!).

In today’s guest post, she shares her experience in encouraging students that it’s okay to think boldly and unusually because that thinking leads to great new things:

Think about people you know who have been considered renegades. WHY were they considered that? Did they do something different? Did they do something no one else would? Did they do something unexpected or unusual? Were they just out of the mainstream?

As a gifted resource teacher, I often see students who think there is something wrong with them because they ARE different. They recognize that they have thoughts others don’t—that they think more deeply about common things and that they look at the world differently than their peers. I sometimes have to work to help students accept who they are because they, too, are often out of the mainstream. They think differently, learn differently and may even try to lead or teach differently. That doesn’t mean that they are better or worse than others. They are just different. And all of us have to, at some point in our lives, learn to respect and honor differences to co-exist on this planet.

One way I begin the conversation with students is to show a film Apple produced in the 90s, called “Think Different.”

Misfits. . . rebels. . . troublemakers. . . and you can’t ignore them, because they push the human race forward. Students identify with these traits and by looking at the creative geniuses Apple chose to highlight, they begin to understand that learning differently, thinking differently, acting differently is okay.

Rebels, renegades, thinkers, doers, pushers, sometimes troublemakers. . . Does that describe anyone you know? Have you ever thought about how lonely that path might be?

Remember the renegades. . . and be their friend. Their creativity, their thinking, their pushing the envelope just may change the world. - Paula White

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Follow Me:

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