Brainstorming

"Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes." – Napoleon Hill

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Have you ever had a hard time getting people to come up with new and useful ideas? Sometimes getting ideas out of your team seems impossible, either everyone just stares at you in silence or they offer up the same old same old. One trick I like is to ask people to give their most ridiculous and absurd ideas. This serves three purposes, it gets people's creativity going, it helps people feel safe sharing, and it also means that all of the ideas will be out of the box ideas. Likely none of them will be usable as is but it isn't unusual for these crazy ideas to spark ideas that are new and exciting. 

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Leadership Lesson

Next time your team struggles coming up with new ideas ask them to come up with the most ridiculous off the wall ideas. The more absurd and impossible the better because it helps get the creative juices flowing. You might be surprised what they come up with if you break down all the barriers.