98 Resonate
It’s now time to collect and create information. Resist
the temptation during this initial phase to sit down with
presentation software; it’s not quite time for that yet.
This chapter covers various idea-generation techniques.
It’s rare that the first, most obvious idea generated is
the best one. Tenaciously generate ideas along a theme
until you’ve exhausted all possibilities. Usually, the truly
clever ideas appear in the third or fourth round of
idea generation.
You will use divergent thinking—the mental process
that allows idea creation to move in any direction you
can imagine. Divergent thinking enables new, original
content to emerge. This is a messy phase, so suspend
neatness and allow yourself to stay unstructured—
you’ll be scouting for new ideas and mining existing
ones. Broadening the amount of possibilities creates
unexpected outcomes, so explore every solution and
suspend judgment.
Generate as Many Ideas as Possible:
Idea collection:• While you can avoid starting from
scratch by collecting presentations from peers,
that’s not the only type of information out there;
and regurgitating someone else’s slides is not the
best way to connect with your audience. Collect
readily available ideas—but more importantly,
purposefully mine for inspiration from all other
relevant resources.
When panning for gold, prospectors scoop up a
pan full of dirt and swish it around until the heavier
Everything and the Kitchen Sink
and more valuable gold settles to the bottom—
never knowing which pan full of dirt will yield a
great nugget. So scoop “dirt” from everywhere
during the idea-collection phase. Look at industry
studies, competitor insights, news articles, partner
programs, surveys—everything. Go both wide and
deep. Gather as much as possible about the com-
petitor’s messages so you can position yourself dif-
ferently than they do. Find out everything about the
subject, and roam into tangential topics for insights.
Idea creation:• Inventing new ideas is a different
process from mining existing ones. This is where you
need to think instinctively—from your gut. Be curious,
take risks, be persistent, and let your intuition guide
you. Draw from your creative side to generate ideas
that have never existed or been associated with your
big idea before. Recognize that when probing into
what’s possible, your ideas will exist in a bit of a fog—
because you can only see the future dimly. Approach
this in an open-minded state—one in which you’ll
explore the unknown. You’re experimenting, risking,
dreaming, and creating new possibilities.
Grab a sheet of paper or a stack of sticky notes and jot
down everything you can imagine that supports your
idea. The goal is to create a vast amount of ideas, and
you’ll be prompted to add even more over the next
several pages! But don’t worry; you’ll filter, synthesize,
and categorize all of them and craft a meaningful
whole later on.
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