Fast Company: 10 Rules of Effective Brainstorming

Somehow they didn't get the memo: In order to do brainstorming right, you need to make ideas visual!

Still, this slideshow by Fast Company itemizes (and validates) the creative elements needed for innovation sessions. 

[A facilitator] is the traffic cop of the session, and should be an outsider. An insider brings baggage that can inhibit the free flow of ideas. HR consulting organizations are one possible resource; if you are working with a design firm like IDEO or Continuum, they may be able to help.

If bringing in an outsider is difficult for some reason, the second best option is to bring in someone from a different group inside the company. Facilitators need to be skilled at group dynamics, able to read when the team is flagging or when it is hitting on all cylinders.

They have to be patient, yet willing to exercise discipline if one person can't stop talking or is becoming aggressive. It is more a matter of personality than formal training, but it can't hurt to bring in people to watch a well-run brainstorming session to see how it works.

Alphachimp Emergency Vehicle Purchased

Thanks to everyone in the Alphachimp Studio Network for once again making the impossible possible.

This spring and summer have been busy with bizarre challenges, interesting new projects (including animation) and frantic last-minute requests (Hey! Keep'em comin'!).

Launa passed on to me that Drew D. suggested an ambulance as the company car.

So, thanks to Ebay and the internets, I have purchased a custom-built red raised-roof 1971 Chevrolet Suburban Sentinel ambulance from Langford's Funeral Home in Jonesboro, Arkansas (see photo).

Unfortunately, it only gets 4 miles to the gallon and they forget to clean it out after its last job in 1988.

So, it will be on display in my mother's driveway until further notice.

Thanks team!

Ups and downs of zero gravity art

And I thought creating drawings in front of a live studio audience was tricky!

clipped from www.reuters.com Jul 9 - British artist Nasser Azam goes weightless for his latest creations. Azam led a team of five artists aboard a Russian transport plane specially modified to simulate zero gravity conditions feet for his new project, Life in Space.

The Future of American Men

Whether a Young Carefree or an Above Average Joe, the life and role of the American male in the 21st century is being redefined.

Social Technologies sketches out 5 American Male personas that also include the Good Ol’ Boys, Mac Daddies, and Worry Warriors--each with a different take on where they feel they are in life and where they may be headed.

clipped from www.socialtechnologies.com What are guys’ lives like today? What is important to them and how can we better relate to them? That was what Spike TV asked the Washington DC-based futurist research and consulting firm Social Technologies to help the network find out. As the home of everything "men," Spike TV commissioned the study to gain a deeper understanding of the many facets of men, according to Kimberly Maxwell, senior director of brand and consumer research. "We wanted to check the pulse of American guys to be better able to understand their lifestyles, their daily habits, and values," she says, noting that the research builds upon Spike’s 2004 "Guy's State of the Union," which delivered a wide-ranging overview of guy's lives. Social Technologies analyzed the segmentation data to create descriptions and composite personas, used by Spike to better understand different types of men and how their lifestyle and consumer habits may change in the near future. So what are these five types of American guys? [PHOTO: Matt Andrews]

The Cartoon Lounge

Graphic facilitator and intermittent cartoonist for The New Yorker Magazine, Drew Dernavich, announces the launch of The Cartoon Lounge, a blog--or "blorg" according to contributor Zach Kanin--for non-New Yorker content.

clipped from www.newyorker.com Let’s make this clear. This is not The New Yorker magazine. To get a cartoon published in the magazine, we must submit dozens of original ideas every week. The cartoon editor rejects the overwhelming majority of them, and the ones that survive must still make it past the editor and the publisher, and are subject to further fact checking, copy editing, and layout considerations. Getting something uploaded on this blog will be different. For instance, one of us will be eating lunch on top of our computer keyboard, and we’ll set down that half-eaten chicken quesadilla a little too hard, and—BAM!—instant blog post. It will work something like that. And not just weekly, but daily. So, it’s the same cartoonists, but a different process.