10 Tips for Effective Creative Brainstorming

Brainstorming can either be a creative gold mine or a time wasting disaster. Brainstorming is often discussed in relation to a business environment. In college, nearly every one of my business school textbooks had an entire chapter dedicated to the concept. Though creative brainstorming is in many ways a different beast due to its visual nature, many of the same concepts apply. Today we’ll take a look at ten tips to consider before you pull your creative team into a brainstorming session. When applied properly, they can drastically increase productivity and quality of results. #1 Assign a Moderator Assigning someone to guide the brainstorming session into a productive direction is an absolute must. Who Should Be the Moderator? Choose someone who knows the project scope intricately and is seen as an authoritative figure. How Should the Meeting Be Managed? #2 Identify Goals It’s best to begin a brainstorming session by briefly stating an overview of the project. Good Goals vs. SMART Goals

Deconstructing Creativity: The 4 Roles You Need to Play to be Fully Creative D o you want to be fully creative? To not only have wild ideas, but to actually create and bring remarkable things to life? There are four distinct roles to be performed for the creative process to be as effective as possible. Each one requires that you play different characters, with different mindsets and skills. The roles are: . Learn how they help unleash your creativity and how to master the skills each one requires. 1. Ideas do not come out of the blue. He is relentlessly curious and never limits himself to a particular area of experience and knowledge. How to Develop Your Explorer Poke around in unknown areas. Do not limit yourself to the tried and true. Get to know many different perspectives. 2. He takes the raw materials from the Explorer and combines them in novel ways. When people say someone’s “creative”, they’re usually referring to the Artist. How to Develop Your Artist Write down new ideas as they come to you; it stimulates your brain to generate more and more ideas. 3. 4.

The Ultimate Excel Cheatsheet Working with the new Excel 2007 is now more frustrating than ever when it comes to finding the right commands. Sometimes it seems like part magic and part luck. That’s why we’ve put together the cream of the crop of Excel shortcuts in easy to use cheatsheets you can print up and keep handy. Highlighting the most commonly used and commonly looked for Excel commands, this list puts it all at your fingertips. Learn how to get around Excel using only the keyboard. These cheatsheets have the keyboard shortcuts for mainpulating files, editing content, changing formatting and navigating around workbooks. Excel Function Cheatsheets The key to being efficient with Excel is knowing which functions to use. Excel Formula Cheatsheets If you need specific calculations, this is a good place to start. How To Read Cell References Simple Math Formulas From Microsoft.com Adding Numbers Calculate Percentages Rounding Numbers Advanced Excel Tips From Microsoft.com Guidelines and Examples Of Array Formulas

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