I recently downloaded a great little ebook from Nigel Collin’s website. It’s a collection of 21 articles from Colin’s Weekly Bits -The Early Years.

 One of the first articles suggests setting up an Idea Board in a common space either at work, or at home. Then you write up a problem and invite others to contribute to the solution. I’m going to give this a try.

Colin makes the point, and I totally agree, that this is a great tool to foster creativity and  collaboration in an organisation. The phenomenon of blogging, the likes of twitter, other online networks, and commenting in general on the “net” have set the expectation that it’s quite ok to anonymously or publicly contribute. Of course it helps if you have something of value to say.

So perhaps the time is good for this very simple and low tech idea to produce some really creative outcomes.

Tags: collaboration, Ideas, Problem Solving, tools

So you’ve got a great idea! Now you need to share it with others to give it real life and power. This might mean a speech or presentation to your Peers, a Manager, or an Investor.

How do you take your ideas and transfer your passion and enthusisum in such a way that it is understood and shared by others?

A two part podcast by Lisa B Marshall, the Public Speaker (Quick and Dirty Tips) gives a great “starting with a blank sheet” technique for preparing a speech. While your presentation will not be a speech as described in these podcasts, the process that Lisa describes could easily be adapted and is a great starting point. During the Podcast Lisa covers the following points:

1. Step One - Brainstorm Descriptive Adjectives
2. Step Two - Defining Your Descriptive Adjectives
3. Step Three – Telling Your Stories
4. Step Four – Fleshing Out Your Stories
5. Step Five – Pulling It All Together

Listen to Lisa B Marshall’s Quick and Dirty Tips Public Speaker’s Speech Making Podcasts Part 1 and Part 2  (these will open in separate windows.)

Now - go share your ideas with the world.

Tags: Ideas, presentation, speech, toolbox