president of Kidz Blitz
1. Grasp the power of a single idea. Always be on the lookout for a better way of doing things.
2. Be a sponge. Observe everything. Look at colors, shapes, ideas, etc. Read interesting books. Never stop learning. Relish the fact that there are always cool ideas to learn. Read something that will kick your brain. Try Purple Cow by Seth Godin.
3. Create an environment that promotes questions. Why does this work? Would this work if we did it another way? Has anyone ever tried this? Ask hard questions and surround yourself with people who thrive on asking questions. The important thing is not to stop questioning (Albert Einstein).
4. Never assume anything will or won’t work. If you don’t know for sure, then you don’t know at all. Never assume. Never.
5. Embrace failure. Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes. (Tom Peters). Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm (Winston Churchill). Some ideas are worth trying even if they fail. You learn your best lessons when you fail. You have to TRY some things before you know whether or not they will work. Failure is part of it.
6. Be careful whom you listen to. We should do something when people say it is “crazy.” If people say something is “good” it means that someone else is already doing it (Hajime Mitarai, CEO of Canon). There will never be a shortage of people ready to squash a good idea.
7. Exercise. Your mind and body are connected. Get your blood flowing. It is hard to be creative when your body is out-of-shape. Moving your legs helps your brain work better.
8. Welcome change. If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less (Gen. Eric Shinseki). If you never change anything you do then you will eventually not matter to most people.
9. Experience the end of an idea before working through the process. If the idea works, are the results worth it? Don’t get bogged down with the “how” until you work through the “what if it works.” Some ideas are not worth doing even if they work. Make sure it’s worth trying.
10. Hang around quirky people. Make friends with people who think differently than you do. Boring friends=boring ideas.
11. Forget size. Seriously great ideas often come from small churches and small organizations. Big used to beat the small. Not anymore.
12. Use 2 Corinthians 12:10. Admitting you are in over your head (weak) allows God to work in you and through you. His power “rests” on those who admit weakness.
Great List! Thanks Roger