It’s summertime. For many of us, that means time spent staring out at the ocean. A lot of brainstorming happens while that’s happening. I also tend to think of a good friend of mine, Henri Gerhard Willem (Wim) Pierson, who perfected the art of brainstorming. Wim, who unfortunately passed away in 2011, had lived in Tenerife in a house on the north island with two views. He could either look out over the Atlantic Ocean or at the Tenerife volcano, Teide, or Mount Teide, the third-highest volcano in the world. He was always there with a pipe and a glass of red wine, thinking about solid-liquid filtration. He and I worked on many projects together solving interesting problems and authoring several papers.
Wim is someone I often think of when I’m doing my own brainstorming. But recently Nikola Tesla also came to mind. My wife and I were touring Croatia for eight days to see the sites of Zagreb, Plitvice Lakes National Park, Split, Hvar and Dubrovnik. Biking in Zagreb, we came upon a statue of Nikola Tesla. He was of Serbian origin, born and raised in Croatia (which was, at the time, a part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy). While Tesla never lived in Zagreb, you can find this statue and a street named for him.
Highlighting how not all good ideas get accepted at first. An interesting fact is that Tesla in 1892 presented his work to the city assembly. This included his idea to electrify Zagreb’s streetlights. Instead, the city leadership kept the old gas lamps. Even today, Zagreb still has 241 old gas street lamps that are turned on and off manually, each day.
Generating ideas through the art of brainstorming
Bringing this all together, how do I go about generating my own ideas? First, I recognize that quantity yields quality. In the industrial space, James Dyson developed 5,127 prototypes when trying to design a better vacuum cleaner. Meanwhile, Thomas Edison still holds the record for the most patents with over a thousand in his name. Think how many ideas famous artists discard before we see their best work: Stephen King has published more than 55 novels. Agatha Christie wrote 91 books. Picasso painted over 20,000 artworks.
I have developed a routine to underpin my brainstorming. Just as do with my yoga practice, which I engage in with intention, typically two to three days per week, and always in the early morning. In approaching my business brainstorming, I have a routine of reading many different types of materials to generate ideas. Then, I use multi-faceted creativity and let those ideas “hang around” until they’re needed. Next, I’ll test and refine ideas to suit the individualized context for my partner. That’s my practice.
I also enjoy sharing ideas with others and hearing their thoughts to see what happens. Contact me and maybe we can put the art of brainstorming into action together.