Author Archive

Idea Discovery: Article – 30+ Mind Mapping Tools

Make your IMPACT(c) … one idea at a time!

Here's my Idea Discovery for today to help you do just that.

Mind-mapping tools are one of the ways we can organize our thoughts and ideas. Check out this article from Mashable.com for 30+ mind-mapping tools; paid AND free! Mind-mapping – writing out details and steps for your thoughts is part of my IMPACT process. Having a process to follow to get clarity, organized, and implementing your idea helps you get your idea out of your head and into action.

Click HERE to read the article.

My goal is to serve you with resources and strategies that help you clarify, organize, and implement your ideas.

Stay connected with me for more Idea Discoveries.

IdeaSuccessNetwork.com

Sylvia Henderson, Your Idea Coach

Author: "Hey, That's MY Idea! How to Communicate and Get Recognized for What You Know and Think"

CPSI Conference #13

The culmination of this entire CPSI experience! It hit me in my final session that I was making my notes more visually-appealing (to retain info more effectively), playing with toys (to unlock my brain and focus on the session content), and jotting ideas onto separate note sheets so I could put them where they needed to go in other notes). Here's my certificate. I'm ready to help you (even more) get your ideas out of your head and into action!

CPSI Conference #8

Let me explain a little more about the CPS (Creative Problem-Solving) steps. The goal of "clarify" is to understand the problem / issue / idea at hand. We get a good picture and definition of the issue at this stage. The goal of the "ideate" stage is to explore tons of ideas to see how we might address the issue at hand. This is idea-generation on steroids, without getting to perfect yet. The "develop" stage is where ideas get whittled into workable solutions. We work through those that can actually be implemented. The "implement" stage is just as it sounds. It's where we put the "real ideas" into action. The process so resonates with me. Actually I've been using the process all along with clients. I just didn't have a firm vocabulary nor the science behind what I knew to work.

CPSI Conference #12

When are questions not just questions? When they help us build trust through incremental steps that question types and bridges allow us to build! Tricia Garwood, with the Disney College program, took us through seven question bridges designed to facilitate clients through their ideas. Lesson: specific types of questions help anchor us and allow time to reflect on our issues, then take us through looking inward at what we currently do, make us think about the change we wish to create, cause us to look outward at what's possible, and challenge us to reach for new ways of doing and being.

CPSI Conference #11

If you think a picture is worth a hundred words, imagine what a picture deck is worth! I attended yet another session to get tools for helping my clients with their ideas. This tool was a picture deck – basically a pack of cards with photographs taken by our facilitator. Lesson: Photographs, especially of abstract objects, helps us "loosen" our brains with visual stimulation so that we can make get ideas flowing. Mash-ups (taking 2 disparate photos and coming up with ideas that combine both) and making up stories about a photo also help get our idea juices flowing. Check out her photo deck at

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs023/1103489242782/archive/1108867104639.html.

CPSI Conference #10

We retain 60% of what we see versus just 15% of what we hear. Had a great, too-short session with Leanna Murphy (Organized for Discovery, LLC). She did a visuals "night flight" program and this was exactly up my alley! We practiced how to draw figures, scenery, concepts, and lettering in a fast-paced 90 minutes. I love making my reference materials and notes more visually-interesting and Leanna's techniques help me do just that. Another program to watch for … "Back of the Napkin" by Dan Roam. I have the course info and materials to start, and it's difficult for me to get going on it as an online course. Lesson: There are only 10 basic seed shapes for drawing. Check out MS Office – "insert shapes" menu. We can draw just about anything using squares, circles, triangles, lines, rectangles, curves, hearts, starts, spirals, and bursts! Check out Leanna's website for examples.

http://www.organizedfordiscovery.com/gallery.html

CPSI Conference #9

We had a project to tackle and were to use the entire CPS process to tackle it. Eye-opening! I really do need to allow the "clarify" and "ideate" stages play out before jumping into "implement". Our egg didn't break after it was thrown! Project successful.

CPSI Conference #7

Learning continues. Ignore the three-stage process I posted in post #6! The four basic steps to Creative Problem Solving are (1) clarity, (2) ideate, (3) develop, and (4) implement. They all came together for me when we helped a "client" work through his idea from start to finish. Six of us in the class volunteered to take parts of the process and facilitate his idea. It's amazing how much you learn when you do!

Idea Discovery: Article – The Entrepreneurial Paradox: What Got You Into Business Isn’t The Best Way To Be Successful

I read this article online today – "The Entrepreneurial Paradox: What Got You Into Business Isn't The Best Way To Be Successful" by Paul B. Brown, Contributor Forbes Magazine.
It's a reminder that you can't always do it alone if you want to grow and flourish as an entrepreneur. Enjoy and please share!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/06/23/the-entrepreneurial-paradox-what-got-you-into-business-isnt-the-best-way-to-be-successful/

My goal is to serve you with resources and strategies that help you clarify, organize, and implement your ideas.
Stay connected with me for more Idea Discoveries.

IdeaSuccessNetwork.com

Sylvia Henderson, Your Idea Coach
Author: "Hey, That's MY Idea! How to Communicate and Get Recognized for What You Know and Think"

CPSI Conference #6

The Springboard program has us learning a 3-stage Creative Problem Solving process. The stages are Creativity, Diverging, and Converging.

Day01 we've been working in the Creativity stage. We're working on an idea (project) we came here to work on. I'm working on a 12-module "Sylvia-in-a-Box" program I'll be implementing in my new member site for my group coaching program. At least that's what I think right now. The point of going through this process is to allow myself to experience the process using tools I'm acquiring so that I can define, possibly change, and then strategize implementation of my own "stuff". This will give me more empathy for, and ways in which to facilitate clients' progress through, getting clarity, structure, strategy, and implementation for their own ideas.

My biggest take-away today has been to avoid jumping right into implementation from clarifying my project and to allow ideation to take place more thoroughly. I had my project already laid out with timeline and strategy and the facilitators had me back off to return to further clarifying my idea. Do as I say?!