Keep an ideas book

Better still, curate an ideas book. Or even ‘work’ your ideas book.

When there are ideas and thoughts swirling about your head, what do you do with them? Try to wrestle with them? Try to ‘sort them out’ or get them into some semblance of order?

If your ideas are up there, mixing with all that other stuff like the inner critic, the self doubter, the small player ... it may not be the best space for our ideas to prosper or grow.

We trash and dismiss them, minimize and trivialize them.

Get your ideas out of there, quick!

Put them somewhere else ... to externalise them. Then you can work with them.

- As part of a habit or routine.
- As a source of inspiration and motivation.
- As a place of refuge and comfort.

Mostly, as a reminder of the possibilities and capabilities of the human mind .... without the weight and distraction of all that other stuff!

Get started on an ideas book.

And if you’ve already got one... share a photo of it below👇🏾- I’d love to see it!

Do you like ideas and creativity? Give this post a like and share it to encourage others.

You have an idea : now what

Think there are few original ideas?Let’s see how we can work to make an idea our own.

▶️ Ideation
A flurry of ideas or just one, is enough to get working on a project or creative task.

Ideas aren’t always original, aren’t truly our own or unique so we need to ‘work’ them some more before pressing ‘send’ or ‘publish’.


▶️ Exploration
What’s the history of this idea? Has anyone else written on it, published or created it? How original is your thinking? Do some research. (Or is your Google button broken?)


▶️ Extension
If you like the idea and want more of it, don’t copy it ... extend it. Do more thinking, reading, talking and developing. Take the idea further. This will require some work and it’s the point where some of us check out or seek a short cut.


▶️ Execution
Uniqueness and originality can often be found in the way things are done. Once an idea is explored and extended, then work on how it can be published or put out into the world in this new and improved form.


To advance your career, grow a business or build a brand, originality is absolutely worth the work.

Clever in constraint

Lockdowns, isolation and restrictions: they’ve been challenging and frustrating. But they’ve also been constraints. And we can make constraints work in our favour.

Many people have shown creativity and ingenuity as they ‘work around’ a constraint looking for a solution. These could be solutions for a problem or solutions for entertainment, distraction and release of emotion.

With limited resources, restricted time or constrained choices, our brain goes to work to find something for the situation. It’s evident from the funnies, tips, solutions and hacks people have shared over recent months.

There is such resourcefulness in us ... when we let it out.

If you think you’re not clever or creative enough ... try applying some constraints. When we have wide or seemingly unlimited choices, supplies or resources, ingenuity can seem harder to tap into.

To find more clever, put a limit or constraint on the situation. It will gently ply the ingenuity out of us as we seek a way to work within the boundaries.

How do leaders adapt

Adaptability isn’t just a switch we flick. It’s an integrated set of thinking, learning and practical behaviors that help us change. It’s a skill and capability. We can break it down and learn it.

To support leaders and their teams, we need to provide them with this capability of adaptability.

12 capabilities of adaptability are:

1. Sensemaking
2. Listening
3. Learning
4. Collaborating
5. Facilitation
6. Visualization
7. Experimentation
8. Improvisation
9. Ingenuity
10. Empathy
11. Creativity
12. Curiosity

These are the more contemporary and impactful ways of thinking and being in today’s world of work.

I’m pleased to offer my new Leadership Adaptability Program: for leadership teams in business, community, not for profit and government.

Take one capability and then take them all. Integrate them into your existing organizational development schedule to refresh and update it. Or let’s launch a new initiative together that delivers leaders the skills, techniques and practices for the new ways of work.

Adaptability is the capability. 

Explore your ingenuity

When we’re faced with a problem or challenge, things may not work the way we’d like them to. We can become frustrated about that; we might complain, wish it were perfect, give up or... we can explore our ingenuity.

Ingenuity is our very own Department of Clever. Ingenuity is when we’re resourceful, using what we have. It’s how we fix or juggle things and make them work.

It could be how we make things fit in a cupboard or shelf, or how we prop up a computer screen on books or boxes so the camera is level with our eyes.

Ingenuity could be how we’re cleverly using space at home, or how we throw a few ingredients together for a kind of meal we’ve never made before.

Some of the best, most practical solutions come about when we explore our own resources of clever. And even if you don’t think you’re clever all the time, your ingenuity is still there ... waiting to go to work the next time you challenge it.

Try the ‘explore’ option next time a struggle or challenge is upon you and see what your mind delivers up to you in order to solve it. Ingenuity is a different resource to creativity, and it’s part of how we learn, survive and adapt in the world.

Clever you!