Wanted: Inspiration

It happens to the best of us – even the pros here at Burns Marketing Communications. Major brain blockage and a deadline breathing down your neck. You need the big idea, and you need it fast. But you can't force creative inspiration to happen, can you? Well, sometimes you don't have a choice. Jack London once said, "You can't sit around and wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." A recent article by Gwyneth Dwyer offered 10 Innovation Ideas When You Are on a Deadline:

1. Zero in – Make sure the task in front of you is clearly understood.

2. Take off – Open your mind's flood gate and don't close it until you've squeezed every last idea from it.

3. Talk it over – Bounce your ideas off others for varying perspectives and reactions.

4. Avoid the cops – Don't let critics kill ideas prematurely.

5. Get reckless – Mix your ideas up, randomize them, and put them back together in different ways.

6. Zone out – Take a break, let some time pass.

7. Narrow in – Look at the ideas again and choose the 3 best.

8. Get rational – Establish the rationale that proves the merit of your ideas.

9. Polish and persuade – Add detail and present them formally to the key decision makers.

10. Decide to decide – Put a stake in the ground and select the big idea.