Look around in the course of a day for examples of inconvenience

Innovation starts with pursuing our own thoughts in the privacy of our consciousness. 

Answering the questions life is asking us.

And the good news is, this process doesn’t require extraordinary effort, merely habitual attention. 

Debono, the godfather of innovative thinking and creativity, once released an obscure book about this very issue. It contains dozens of previously unreleased, privately subscribed issues of his lateral thinking newsletter from the early eighties, outlining strategies for thinking in a groundbreaking creative way. 

One technique that caught my eye was called setting a framework for directing attention. Debono teaches students to look around in the course of a day for examples of inconvenience. Little human moments of frustration and annoyance and awkwardness and hassle and disruption. Troubling interactions that make people shake their fists to the heavens like skinny little antennas, cursing and wondering what they must have done in their past life to deserve such inconvenience. 

It’s a bit melodramatic, but it’s also where innovation is born. 

I wish there was a blank so I wouldn’t have to blank. 

Imagine how many of the world’s greatest creations are rooted in that sentence. 

Proof positive that necessity isn’t the mother of invention, inconvenience is. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

What’s your framework for directing creative attention?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

Now booking for 2017-2018.

Email to inquire about fees and availability. Watch clips of 

The Nametag Guy in action here!