Lines of thoughts

What is the stuff you like thinking about? How does it connect to other topics you like thinking about? 

Is there a line or thread that runs through it all?  

Some people are straight line thinkers. The connections between their ideas, thoughts and themes are straight lines. 

Others are zig-zag thinkers. Their ideas and imaginings are here ... and there. 

Still others ‘go with the flow’, open to wherever their thinking takes them. A little more organic perhaps 🌱 

This is what makes us unique. 

It doesn’t really matter what you like to think about. 

But if you can find the theme or thread and see the ‘bigger picture’ that connects them all, you go a long way to learning more about yourself and how you make sense of the things that happen in your world. 


I love posing the ‘desert island’ question : if you and I were stuck on a desert island and could only talk about two or three topics, what would they be? 🏝 

Thinking about what you think about ... that’s a powerful thought among many. 

Make some lines and connections between your thoughts. 

What’s the box you’re thinking outside of

‘Be innovative ... but not too innovative,’ said the team leader. 

They wanted creative and innovative thinking, but not too much, not too ‘out there’. 

The need to generate clever and creative ideas is often called ‘thinking outside the box’. 

So... what’s the box? 

And how do you know you’re thinking beyond it or outside it? 

With the team, we identified their current ways and types of thinking, their usual ‘inside the box’ thinking

This helped identify what would be out there... or waaaay out there. 


Being more creative and innovative gets easier the more you do it. But the early days of a team thinking beyond their usual ways can mean taking a big step indeed. 

Courage, risk taking, speaking out, throwing in crazy ideas... and collect a heap of them. 

These are all good practices for extending your thinking beyond your usual boundaries. 

Take a step or two - once you identify what your ‘usual’ thinking is. 

Then you’ll be able to step out, out out of the box of your routine and habitual ways of thinking. 

Do you know how you solve problems

It’s a curious question because we can often blaze ahead problem solving ... without being aware of our process for how we’re actually doing it. 

Perhaps we’re on auto pilot, not conscious of what we’re doing or too busy in the details of the problem solving task to think about it. 

We can’t get better at a critically important skill like problem solving if we’re not tuned in to it. 

The World Economic Forum suggests problem solving is right up there in the skills we need for today and even more frequently in the future. 

So how do you solve problems? 

▫️Do you get all the information you can? 
▫️Assess your options? 
▫️Generate some alternatives? 
▫️Try out some solutions? 
▫️Experiment a little?
▫️Consult with respected peers? 
▫️Try a Google search to see what others have done? 
▫️Or phone a friend? 

Each of these is part of a suite of problem solving tools and techniques. 

As you work through solving your next problem, challenge or tricky situation, make a mental (or physical or digital) note of what you do... and how you do it. 

There’s greater 
▫️possibility, 
▫️efficiency and 
▫️creativity 
on the other side of our awareness. 

A little more creativity please

You can see I’m a fan of regularly applying the skills of creativity: in thinking, writing and idea generation. 

The World Economic Forum said the top 3 skills we’d need by 2020 would be
- Complex Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Creativity.

In their updated skills list for 2025, creativity features in half of the top 10 skills, in one form or another. 

And here we are… in a world where we’ve been adapting to a global pandemic, working from home, leading remotely, changing business practices, generating new products, serving customers in new ways and ... keeping it together!

Sir Ken Robinson said “...we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it.”

It’s worth putting some of that creativity back in, and learning to be even just a little more creative! 

We need creativity now and for our future.

When you’re stuck for ideas

It’s tough running on the idea wheel, waiting, searching for ideas. 

We often need ideas for:  
- projects
- business or branding
- writing and blogging 
- product naming
- workshops and meeting activities
- presentations and pitches
- problem solving. 

Every day we need to draw on our creative abilities to add our opinion, get something started (or finished) or make something happen. 

If you’re focusing on doing the work of a task, it’s tricky to then switch over into a more creative way of thinking. 

We might expect the magic will just flow... but no 😢

While there are plenty of tips on how to come up with ideas, we don’t usually think of those tips when we’re under pressure to make ideas happen. 

I’ve shared previously my use of an ideas book: a journal or sketchbook that catches what I’m thinking about. I can fill a book every few weeks! 

Then it’s an easy flick through a few pages and something will connect. The power of our creative mind swings into action, connecting something with something else and ... boom... 💥 an idea is born! 

Wait forever for the perfect idea to show up or better still, collect them as they come to you, whenever they come to you.