Where Do You Do Your Best Thinking?
My answers:
1. In my car. I’m a working musician and I spend a lot of quiet time in the car driving to and from shows. This gives the mind a lot of time to roam and connect concepts. Long trips are ideal, especially if I’m sharing driving duties with my wife and will have time to write after thinking when she takes a turn driving.
2. While hiking in the woods, again alone. Another rather mindless activity, gives me a lot of opportunity to think great thoughts.
After thinking alone in either of these settings I like to jot my thoughts down in bullet form or in a mindmap. When I form enough mental connections I post things here and elsewhere. I think I would benefit by having a Dictaphone for when I’m driving alone.
3. After visits to new places with others, especially places focused on innovation. This is an ideal opportunity for sharing initial thoughts and ideas while they are fresh. During the visit I soak up as much information as I can and think about what everything means. At the end of the visit I sit down with my party and conduct a focused ’hot wash’ to identify everyone’s issues, challenges, opportunities, novel ideas, and points of clarity in writing. We take turns talking about what we have written and allow each other’s ideas to influence our thinking. I’ll collect everyone’s writing and commit to Word, categorizing if possible in order to facilitate making connections. Usually it’s easy to identify problem areas that warrant novel thinking. After identifying a few problem statements I’ll write down whatever ideas come to mind, rapidly. Often they develop in clusters. I might stretch my thinking with a few creative thinking tools, generating more ideas. At some point I’ll share the end product with others in the party to get their feedback and influence their thinking.
Your turn.
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