What good’s an idea no one gets? & Beyond brainstorming

Marilynne Miles Gray

This talk will be separated into two 5 minute talks!

What good’s an idea no one gets? Some solutions

Visit this session for a snapshot of the fascinating things about ideas that die or bloom on the vine. The picture includes: whoever tells the best story wins… emotions trump logic … competition in Darwinian free markets… unsticky ideas.

In a mere 10 minutes, we’ll slice through some of these challenges and look at what the research plus social experiments reveal about the highs and lows of people with great ideas that either engaged (or didn’t) their audiences.

Beyond brainstorming: there’s more than 1 way to problem-solve

Noting a strong tendency many people have to quickly opt for brainstorming as a way to spur creativity and problem-solve, Marilynne wondered if good marketing by gurus has gotten in the way of our selecting the best approach to match the challenge? Have we let our desire for “the quick fix” get in the way of even better solutions? Which methods do a better job of promoting creativity and problem-solving when we work alone and which help us when we work in groups?

Three years ago, she decided to wade through the tangle of hundreds of techniques, approaches, models and principles on the market looking for the overlaps, limitations and strengths of each to answer some of the preceding questions.

Out of her research has come a fresh synthesis of insights on the way the field is organized and the very human desire to get good answers to problems when crunch time comes.