July 11, 2005
Ideal Idea Generators
We were recently asked “What are the characteristics of ideal Idea Generators ?”
The idea generators we select for a particular BrainReaction session are chosen based on several specific factors related to their topic and experience correlation, synergy scores from past brainstorms, etc. However, here’s a fairly broad overview of what makes ideal Idea Generators:
Ideal BrainReactions Idea Generators -
- Love being center of attention
- Have trouble waiting their turn to speak
- Are competitive
- Are prone to daydream
- Have an answer for everything
- Are comfortable with their ego
- Ask questions in front of entire lecture hall
- Think out aloud
- Resistant to criticism
- Can start a conversation with strangers
- Can draw from diverse knowledge sources and make new connections
- Have the ability to accept ambiguity and vagueness
- Have contagious optimism and energy
- Have high self-esteem and risk-taking ability
- Ask lots of questions, in class or otherwise
- Are unusually imaginative
What do you think of these characteristics? Let us know your thoughts via comments or email.
- Nate [nate.altfeather@brainreactions]
- Anand [anand.chhatpar@brainreactions]
|
Creativity & Brainstorming, Generating Ideas & Ideation Techniques |
Email Article |
Share on Facebook | 
del.icio.us |
digg this
15 Responses to “Ideal Idea Generators”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
July 15th, 2005 at 3:00 am
My favourite tip is to respond to ideas with ‘yes and’ rather than ‘yes but’.
July 18th, 2005 at 5:47 am
They are usually NOT team players - very individualistic.
July 18th, 2005 at 6:26 am
Probably not so,
“Yes but” makes the idea proponent support it and may uncover more info - and believe me, creative thinkers are not shy!
July 20th, 2005 at 7:17 pm
I agree with your points up there. I would say I am really strong in ‘idea generation’ and would also have to say that all your bullets are my personality traits. I would want to add that the reason for most of these bullet points being correct is that most of the time, the ideas are great. But you already knew that by stating bullet number 6.
July 21st, 2005 at 10:33 am
I totally agree with Mr. Hanzerelli.
I want to add one more trait,
Idea generators are easily bored and loose interest
in the idea with the passage time.
July 21st, 2005 at 8:57 pm
HI Anand ,
I been reading, practicing and writing about applied creativity since a long time now
I think this is what you need to look at I hope this will help you…
Would like to know how you are related to applied creativity, what work you do etc
THE CREATIVE PERSONALITY
The Basic Theme is SYNERGY
1. Delayed closure
2. Converging divergence
3. Mindless perception
4. Constructive discontent
5. Detached involvement
6. Disinterested selfishness
7. Confident humility
8. Relaxed attention
9.Flexible Persistence
Specific Characteristics
Unconventional
Discerning and observant
Possesses wide range of information
Sensitive
Emotionally responsive
Report unhappy childhoods
Early exposure to domain and mentoring
Perceptive of their own personalities
Neither conformists nor non-conformists–truly independent
Unconscious of what others think of them–internal
Flexible, open to experience
Concerned not with facts but with meanings and implications of facts
Communicative
Intelligent, but not necessarily the highest scorers on IQ tests
Not a joiner
Bold, courageous, assertive
Conventional morality
Preference for things and ideas over people
Skeptical, critical
Precise
Resourceful and adaptable
Experimenters
Tolerant of ambiguity
Persistent
Introspective, egocentric
Less in need to protect one’s self
Spontaneous, enthusiastic
Stubborn
Excitable, irritable
Compulsive
Dedicated
Inner maturity
Strength of character
Less acceptant of self
Self-sufficient
Expressed femininity of interests (males)
Expressed masculinity of interests (females)
Reference: Dellas, M., Gaier, E. L. (1970). Identification of creativity: The individual. Psychological Bulletin, 73, 55-73.
TEN POLARITIES OF THE CREATIVE PERSONALITY
Source: Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. New York: Harper/Collins.
1. Creative individuals have a great deal of physical energy, yet they are often quite and at rest.
2. Creative individuals tend to be “smart” (in the traditional sense of knowing things) but also can appear to be quite naïve.
3. Creative people can appear quite playful and undisciplined, but also can be exceptionally hard-working and responsible.
4. Creative people can alternate between imagination and “flights of fantasy” on the one hand and a very “down-to-earth”, concrete sense of reality.
5. Creative people seem to harbor opposite tendencies to introversion and extraversion.
6. Creative individuals are both very humble and proud of their achievements at the same time.
7. Creative persons tend to escape the typical “masculine” and “feminine” gender stereotyping.
8. Creative people are thought to be rebellious and independent, yet they cannot create absent the knowledge, rules, conventions of their cultures. They have internalized the values of their domains as well as maintained their instinct for questioning the “givens” and assumptions of their domains.
9. Creative individuals are both passionate about their work as well as extremely objective about it.
10. The openness and sensitivity of creative persons exposes them to a great deal of pain and suffering as well as enjoyment
Regards
Rushikesh
July 22nd, 2005 at 2:35 pm
Rushikesh, forgive me, but the long list you posted includes so many polar opposites that one might conclude that anyone who manifests any trait on either end of any pole — in effect, everyone — is creative!
Idea generators are able to imagine what is not tangible or real today. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator refers to these people as intuitives. They recognize patterns, categories and relationships. They prefer to deal with ideas, possibilities and the future, as opposed to facts, figures and history.
The only hesitation I have about Anand’s list is that those intuitives who also happen to be introverts may be needlessly omitted because they process and respond more slowly than extroverts. However, since Anand’s application is time-limited, there’s a sound reason for his list of qualifications.
Anand, I hope you are doing well. Keep me posted on your progress.
August 19th, 2005 at 9:15 pm
David:
The “Mayo and Bricks” indicator is entirely bogus. There is absolutely NO scientific evidence to back it up…Its nothing but bunkum wrapped up in pseudo-scientific terminology peddled by “consultants” hoping to make a quick buck off the ignorant. “Mayo and Bricks” is nothing but Astrology without the stars…
On the other hand the references which Rushikesh cites (Csikszentmihalyi, and Dellas) are considered heavy-weight authorities in the area of creativity. And although on the surface the list of characteristics which he provides seem contradictory on the surface, it is precisely these contradictions that make creative people creative. It is because creative people can live at either extreme without actually being either (switching back and forth as needed) that makes them creative. Their personalities are as malleable as their ideas. In other words, it is because creative people are lateral people that they can be lateral thinkers….
August 29th, 2005 at 9:07 pm
Hi David,
Well the list which I had posted was from a research paper any way. It does NOT mean that a creative individual lies in between this two poles, what it means is that a creative individual has both the characteristics and ability to shift from one pole to other depending on the situation this is what makes them creative.
And one more thing there is was some research that I had read s few days before which was related to the trails of creativity. The researches tried to find what makes a person creative. . They conducted some experiments with people form various background and age group. And found that children from age 7-12 were found to have most creative ideas. Also there was very less variation in the level of creativity in between these children. There were relatively low creativity inthe elderly people. (Old people were most unlikely to be creative) a high amount of variation in level if creativity was found in the elderly. They interviewed the people and found a pattern from which they concluded that over a period of time people loose or gain creative skills depending on some factors( like family background, social restriction etc) They found various factors and variables like these which were not “inborn”. They came to the conclusion that everyone is creativity. And those who loose the creativity assets have ability to be creative.
At any point a person can start becoming more and more creative or loose his creative assets.
PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR COMMENTS ON THESE.
September 9th, 2005 at 6:14 am
It takes courage and effort and intelligence to invent something.Marketing and Proctoring does not.
September 27th, 2005 at 9:08 pm
your list of traits of ideal ideagenerators is interesting. i agree that a lot of great ideas come from thinking out loud and then translating these thoughts (that may have at first sounded extremely outlandish) into genuine products. i think you could definitely do with a bunch of people who sit back and take in the thoughts and comments of other people and use these to come up with their own opinions. while these people are unlikely to come up with something totally innovative on their own, they would be great at spotting the very best of ideas coming from the ones who keep chattering away. after all, there might be a danger of losing some potentially great ideas if the group does not have people who are good at evaluating ideas.
October 4th, 2005 at 10:53 am
It’s like sneezing, you will get the idea, it comes on its own – not for everybody but for some people – mostly irrespective of environment, situation, pressure, time and any thing else.
Looking at every thing differently, looking at the thing other way, looking at the way he looks at and whatever comes in mind is the innovation.
Question is how many people can do that. Important question is how many people can bring it to the fore and most important question is how many ordinary people will recognize that innovation.
I am afraid to say that the person who has got the built in innovation will not keep quit, and according to the environment and circumstances he may become a Bill Gates or being called written off as Mad man and thrown out on the streets.
A Mad man is not mad man, He has been segregated by the people and given him a name “Mad man” What is madness? Thinking differently is! Looking at things differently is! Thinking and looking and talking loudly about it is madness!!
The ordinary people who were unable to digest the peculiarity of that person, when that person is not thinking as we do, as we act, we call him mad…
People call me a dreamer, day dreamer, fool, idiot and reckless… All these names connected to them as they are not in a position to see things as I see.
No one can learn, get educated, trained or taught about and on Innovative skills – it is not C++ or Java. Like famous managers, innovative people are born not made
March 9th, 2006 at 3:11 am
i dont agree that ideas come like sneeze . It has a cognative side to it which is absolutely scientific it is called a Schema. Schema is they way you associate things in mind and remember it. Any stimilus can activate the schema and the fresh associations are formed, this generates ideas. This means if you really give a hard try and think about what you were thinking about just before this idea came to your mind. you will find some associations you have made with your previous memories. most of the idea generation techniques work on the same principle
July 24th, 2006 at 3:17 am
i love all this contributions and i would like to add a few.
Idea Generators have a tendency to believe their ideas are the right Ones.
one important thing to note though is that instead of saying ‘YES BUT’ to another person’s idea, I think is better to say ‘YES AND’.
August 19th, 2006 at 4:25 pm
i think all contributors are saying the same thing is like love it cannot be defined it is an elusive quality. the gift of of stimulating the rate of thought and connecting with the infinite intelligence is wha t makes the great , GREAT