“Become more conscious of the creative power within your reach”

Brainstorming was popularized in 1939 by Alex Osborn. He was a partner in an ad agency looking to expand the boundaries of projects and create a better context for idea generation. Osborn developed several rules for a good brainstorming session: encourage large quantities of ideas, include the outlandish unusual ideas, minimize judgment, and build on each idea.

In 1939 brainstorming methodology was solid but technology was still disconnected. Alex Osborn could have his secretary type up the groups’ ideas (as most real managers in 1939 didn’t type) and hand them out on a piece of paper to everyone.

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How to Ensure your Best Thinking is Leading the Way.

Today we are all under pressure to do more with less, and to do it quickly. This is why getting the big picture on projects and not losing sight of new ideas is challenging. Visualizing key decision points, company objectives and business processes can ensure that higher level goals are reached and that you are taking the best approaches now and for the future.

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“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

-Larry Elder

Whether you have resolved to lose weight or to take your production global in 2010, mind mapping your steps and progress to achieving any goal will help you go from thinking to achieving.

So instead of keeping your dreams and goals in your mind get them into your digital brain. This will let you become architect of your dreams, designing and fine-tuning, visualizing the grand scheme and refining the details for action.

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“For creativity you need your mind to wander, but you also need to be able to notice that you’re mind wandering and catch the idea when you have it.”   

                        Dr. Jonathan Schooler,
                        Discovering the Virtues of a Wandering Mind,
                        New York Times, June 28, 2010.
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Use TheBrain for Outstanding Presentations

We had a great webinar today with a ton of questions.  Thanks to all attendees for their participation. We focused on how you can use TheBrain as a presentation and persuasion tool for more effective communication before, during and after your meetings. If you missed the webinar, feel free to watch the on-line recording.

Template Brains from Webinar

• Here is the BrainZip I used for my presentation. A Brain on “Presenting with TheBrain…”
• Here is the sample Brain of an executive annual meeting presentation done with TheBrain.

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Adding More Meaning to Your Brain

There are so many possibilities for classification and organization of information in TheBrain. If you are just creating a new Brain, the first step is to map out your ideas with Thought relationships. Once this is done, you can add another compelling level of insight to your knowledge map with Thought Types and Tags.

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Using PersonalBrain for Project Management

Driving your ideas to completion can be a challenge especially when you are dealing with multiple data sources, complex and sometimes ill-defined requirements in addition to many stake holders. However, creating a complete context for all your project goals and information makes it easy to manage everything and bring projects to a successful completion.

With PersonalBrain’s visual interface you can create an all encompassing view of your project to see even the most complex relationships more intuitively. Your project brain will help you take control of your information and execute more effectively. PersonalBrain and BrainEKP can be used from the initial stages of a project all the way throught to completion. Here’s how:

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So often we have the most amazing ideas but sometimes our plans are only half realized.  If we don’t capture key ingredients before they are forgotten or overlooked, our projects won’t reach their full potential.

With PersonalBrain you can leverage the power of visual thinking to make your goals a reality. Here are seven essential steps to making your creative vision a reality. Be sure to download the template Brain and watch the recorded webinar at the end of this blog entry.

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Stay Clear and Focused on Your 2012 Resolutions with Visualization

The New Year is shiny and bright. Now is the time when we can look back on past accomplishments and mistakes of the previous year and start anew. Whether you are building on your previous Thoughts and projects or starting a new Brain, visualization software and mind maps enable you to formulate clear and doable plans for the New Year in a way that captures your best thinking.

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One Brain to Rule Them All:
Creating a MegaBrain.

There are many types of Brains you can create from your favorite hobby to visualizing mission critical business strategies.

For some people your PersonalBrain is for organizing documents, for others its research projects or keeping organized at work. And then there are the MegaBrain users.  Oh yes.

Mega Brain users (who I personally adore) have reached what we describe in our stages of Brain development Webinar, Level 4: Mind meld.

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