Before & After : Creative thinking in business

The best golfers use the most advanced clubs. Sure, anyone can still play golf with a 40-year old club, but you won’t find many serious players doing it.

The best carpenters use the most high tech drills and stud finders and table saws. When time is money quick setup tools that help you do it right the first time make the work better and the job more profitable.

My dentist scans the inside of my mouth with leading edge imaging technology, builds a computer model and then carves out a new tooth cap with an automated shaper in the back room of his office, all this before I can finish the cover article in Men’s Health. Remember when you used to wait two weeks as they sent this type of work out to some lab?

Before & After is in the creative training business. Sometimes even I think that sounds strange - “creative training? Oh, really?” But, hey, all we’re really doing is helping people improve their creative tools. And we do it with some pretty savvy companies; industry leaders in many fields, companies with some very bright, extremely creative people. The creatively rich working to get richer. Could this explain some of the success of the clients we serve?

So, what are the creative thinking tools we teach? (more…)

Did you ever get an idea seemingly out of nowhere? Of course you have. It happens to us all the time. Usually when we least expect it.

You’re riding in the car or on a plane or train. You’re playing with your dog. You’re out for a morning jog. Bam! A great idea strikes you for that project you’re working on. You write it down on a scrap of paper. Or, if you’re a flake like me, you don’t have a pen, so you call your own voice mail.

Of course, the idea didn’t come totally out of the blue. You can’t come up with a solution to a problem you are unaware of. You must have planted a seed at some point; five days ago, this morning, 30 minutes ago,… In Do-it-yourself Lobotomy workshop* terms we call it “ask the question early.” Everyone does it. But do you do it consciously? Do you do it consistently? It’s an amazing way to jump start the creative process and a great means of time management, too.

(* The Do-it-yourself Lobotomy is a professional development workshop we’ve conducted for over a quarter of a million people. “Ask the question early” is one of many “creative thinking “tools” covered in the workshop.)

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