Reading broadly is a great tool for creative problem solving.

Are you a fountain of great ideas? When issues inevitably arise in your life, are you able to resolve them effectively? Are you known as someone who applies creative solutions to pesky problems?

Graham Wallas Image published in Pease, E.R.: The History of the Fabian Society, E.P. Dutton & Co., New York 1916. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In his 1926 book The Art of Thought, Graham Wallas, the English political scientist and psychologist, adopted and expanded Hermann von Helmholtz’s process to idea development. Wallas describes a four-stage creativity process for generating great ideas — preparation, incubation, illumination and implementation. The preparation stage is the one where you gather data, whether it is interviewing people, reading books, reviewing what’s been done before. It’s the input section – you take in information.

In James Webb Young’s A Technique for Producing Ideas, in the preparation section, where you gather information, he added an activity to data collection step, which is a process you continue for your entire life – gathering general information. Whenever you come across useful information, you record it so you can access it easily. Reading broadly allows you to discover lots of interesting information, and over a lifetime you build an immense body of knowledge, which is at your fingertips during problem solving.

In computer programming, they have a concept called Garbage In, Garbage Out. The concept is appropriate for reading as well. What you read (your input), will impact the quality of your ideas and solutions (output). And when you read, never do it in a vacuum. Connect the new information with what you already know. Innovation occurs when an old idea intersects with a new one.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Additional Reading 

The Formula for Generating Great Ideas

Do You Read in a Vacuum?

Related articles

• Why You Must Read Broadly – Tip 1(theinvisiblementor.com)

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We have talked about problem solving and generating great ideas on this blog a few times, but it’s never a bad idea to be exposed to other techniques or related techniques. Recently I attended a presentation “The Secrets of Creative Problem Solving” by Otto Schmidt hosted by Innovation Initiative. The Innovative Initiative is a non-profit forum supporting innovative businesses, so many inventors are members. The technique outlined below is also good for inventors who need some stimulation.

Key Objective for Creative Problem Solving

• Observe and notice more
• Improve ability to analyze
• Learn and use problem solving
• Practice solving real problems and situation

Observe and Notice More

• Scan: Notice and identify as many details as possible. Gather a set of details which the mind processes into ideas, concepts and understanding.
• Search: Consciously find details.
• Focus: Make clear in the foreground, middle or background. What the senses make clear is what the mind will think about.
• Attention: A willingness to give things time.

Improve Ability and Analyze:

Examine things methodically by separating into parts and studying interrelations to discover essential features.

1. Take things apart and put them back together. Notice the relationships when putting it back together, can you leave parts out?
2. Look from different points of view.
3. Use your imagination and determine the orders and steps. Why in that order?
4. Notice cycles or systems in the world. An example they gave is to look at your digestive system, if you take it away, the body stops to function.
5. Sort things in different ways.
6. Look for double meanings and hidden elements (parallels to past problems).
7. Find “ING” Words (Gerunds). An example: Say for instance your task is to build a superior bicycle, what are the important things you have to think about? Using “ing” words you would probably come up with sitting, pedaling, steering, braking, levering, changing, rolling, balancing, turning, protecting, rotating. You would use this concept with other problems.

• Problem Solving (Graham Wallas Creativity Model)
• Preparation: Data collection
• Incubation: Laying the issue aside, unconscious processing
• Illumination: Aha, new ideas emerge
• Verification: Check it out

Problem Solving Model Simplified

• Identify the real problem.
• List ways to solve it.
• Plan and test solution.
• Review the effectiveness of the solution.
• Adjust the solution.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Image Credit: Google images (redferret.net)

Further Reading

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

The Art of Invention

Creative Problem Solving

How to Read to Problem Solve

Do You Have This Critical Workplace Skill?

Related posts:

1. Creative Problem Solving
2. Reverse Problem Solving: When You Must Have a Certain Outcome
3. Book Review: How the Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie Can Help You Improve Your Problem Solving Skills
4. What Kind of Problem Solver Are You?
5. How to Read to Solve a Problem

Over the past six months I’ve seen the word infographics coming up a lot in blog posts, articles and so on. Looking at the word combinations and the way it was used I had a clear idea of what the word infographics meant. According to Wikipedia, the definition of infographics is “Visual representations of information, data or knowledge.”

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is an infographic of how to generate great ideas, which is a combination of the steps from Graham Wallas and James Webb Young models. It’s a topic we have covered a few times so it should be familiar if you have been reading this blog for a while. The process to generate great ideas is a four-step process: Preparation, Incubation, Illumination, and Verification/Implementation.

What are some ways you can use infographics in your work to make complex ideas simpler to digest? How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Further Reading

The Anatomy of An Infographic: 5 Steps To Create A Powerful Visual

How to Create Outstanding Modern Infographics

InfoGraphic Designs: Overview, Examples and Best Practices

10 Awesome Free Tools to Make Infographics

The Formula for Generating Great Ideas

How to Generate Creative Ideas

Summary of a Technique for Generating Great Ideas by James Webb Young

Related articles

• Infographics could be a cool solution for information overload. What makes them cooler and eye-catching are of course, the nicely done visuals. Information graphics (i.e. inforgraphics) takes boring data and statistics and dresses them up with graphics (makeuseof.com)
• Keep An Eye On These 10 Blogs For Stunning Infographic Collections (makeuseof.com)

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2. 7 Quotes That Inspire Successful People

While I was reading How to Get Great Ideas by Estelle H. Ries (1961), it became evident that it was simply a new spin on the information by James Webb Young (Technique for Producing Great Ideas) and Graham Wallas (Creativity Model in Art of Thought, which is an extension of Hermann von Helmholtz‘s model) that we have covered on this blog, but generating great ideas is an important art so it’s worth repeating. To make this process relevant, think about the following or any other pressing need, and use the formula to see where it leads you:

• Process that needs improving at work
• Product does not work the way you’d like it to
• Past ideas that were ahead of their time that could work now
• Problems that keep recurring
• Or any pressing issue that you’re facing

Step One: Preparation

• Choose your topic of  interest from the list above
• Develop a set of decision criteria to judge the quality of the ideas

There are two types of information to gather:

Specific

1. Gather as much information as possible on the topic of interest
   1. Look for  case studies in your industry and unrelated industries
   2. Conduct research on the internet
   3. Conduct research using commercial databases, you can access many through your public library portal
   4. Research industries different from your own to determine if there are ideas you can transfer
   5. Interview subject matter experts
   6. Brainstorm with colleagues
   7. Conduct focus group interviews
2. Read all the information gathered and synthesize them
3. Write down the information on 3×5 index cards, one item per card
4. Classify the information by sections of the topic of interest

Read the post How to Analyze Information to evaluate the quality of the data you gathered.

General

1. This is an ongoing process throughout your life. Information from wide experience prepares your mind to see a particular subject matter in relation  to other things
2. Record any interesting information you come across in a scrapbook or other filing method that makes sense for you
3. Use your cell phone if you have one, or a camera to capture any interesting scenes that you see, both photos and videos and create a file on your computer in which to save them
4. Attend speeches, workshops, seminars and so on that are unrelated to your work just because they interest you, and take notes
5. Visit the websites How Stuff Works, AskNature.org and Ted.com often and read for a while
6. Go to your favorite bookstore and pick up magazines that are unrelated to your area
7. Go to magazine portals such as MagPortal.com and Magatopia and read about what’s happening in other industries and countries
8. Find incubator programs and innovation centers to learn about what new innovations are in the pipeline. There is a National Business Incubator Association. There is an association for practically anything
9. Discover what university research labs are working on
10. Re-read the answers to, “What process do you use to generate new ideas?” in the interviews conducted on this blog
11. Subject yourself to new experiences
12. Every so often, pull up the information and review them

Step 2: Working Over the Information in Your Mind

1. Look at the information you gathered from many different angles
2. Synthesize the information
3. Merge two facts and see how they fit together
4. Connect the information with what you already know (could be your general knowledge), nothing exists in a vacuum
5. As tentative or partial ideas come to you, no matter how crazy or incomplete, document them on the index card, one idea per card
6. Do not stop until you have at least one partial or incomplete idea
7. When everything is a jumble or it is pointless for you to do additional work, it is time for the next step

Step 3: Incubation

1. Turn over the problem to your subconscious mind
2. Take a break or work on an unrelated task or do something which stimulates the imagination and emotions

Step 4: Illumination - Eureka! I have It

1. When you least expect it, the idea comes to you (You have an aha moment)

Step 5: Verification/Implementation/Shaping & Developing the Idea

1. The idea will unlikely be ready to be implemented as is
2. Subject it to criticism – test it, then refine it
   1. Use the criteria you developed in Stage I to judge the quality of the solution
   2. Refine the idea if you have to
   3. Implement the idea
   4. Evaluate the idea
   5. If you find that the solution doesn’t work, go through the process again

How did the process work for you? Was it easy or difficult? What do you have to add to the conversation? What process do you use to generate ideas? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

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Leadership Question # 5: Where Do Great Ideas Come From?

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2. Great Ideas – Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
3. How to Generate Creative Ideas
4. Great Ideas from the Mentor’s Spirit by Marsha Sinetar
5. Review of The Great Books by Anthony O’Hear, Professor of Philosophy

In what novel ways have you used information that you came across? What’s one concept that you discovered that has served you well? For me, it’s the creativity model presented in the Art of Thought by Graham Wallas. While conducting research on biomimicry, I came across information about a three-phase, 14-step process designed by Peter Floyd and Stephen R. Grossman that presents animal adaptations as models for problem solving. What got me excited was I had already decided that I was going to look at the idea of Evolution on this blog, which is one of the 50 ideas presented in 50 Big Ideas You Really Need to Know About by Ben Dupré, and here were two guys who are using Darwin’s three-step process for evolutionary change: extinction, mutation and selection. Floyd and Grossman have taken the three-steps and broken them down into a problem solving model. I thought that was simply brilliant, but I know that you can create a model that’s equally brilliant.

As presented by Ben Dupré, the idea of Evolution is a short read and only four pages in length. He talks about the origin of species, natural selection and the fifth ape.

“In the Origin, Charles Darwin succinctly summarizes natural selection as follows: ‘As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it very however slightly in any manner profitable, to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected . From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.’”

From the information presented in Dupré’s idea of evolution, I have extracted three great ideas that are very useful in a personal context:

1. In nature, resources such as food and mates are limited, so there will always be competition for access to them
2. Some people will be better equipped than others to prevail life’s struggles, and it is these individuals  that will live longer and produce more offspring
3. By minute and gradual changes over innumerable generations, animals and plants become better adapted to their surroundings; some species or kinds disappear, to be replaced  by others that have proved more successful for existence.

Possible Interpretation of These Ideas

• In flattened organizational structures, there are limited opportunities for promotions, therefore those expecting to excel must differentiate themselves and become more valuable to their clients, both internal and external
• The more skilled you become at problem solving, the better equipped you become at overcoming everyday challenges
• The more change resilient you are, and the more more receptive you are to ambiguity, the more longevity you’ll enjoy in the workplace
• Small and incremental changes lead to big changes in your life
• The more adaptable you are to change, the more success you’ll enjoy

As a professional, how can you use the idea of evolution to succeed in work and life? What changes can you make in your life to give you an edge?

Why evolution is one of the 50 ideas you really need to know about

Today you have to change or become extinct, so you have to mutate to be selected, in what ways can you change? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

Photo and Video Credit: Apture

Related posts:

1. Review of On Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
2. What You Can Learn From Marie Curie, Winner of Two Nobel Prizes

Every so often I present websites that I think you should know about. A few days ago I presented a hybrid creativity model based on Graham Wallas‘ and James Webb Young’s creativity model. In the model you have general information, which are things you discover and file away for future use. The websites today are geared toward rounding out your general knowledge. The more varied your knowledge, the more creative you are. The creative you are, the more creative ideas you unearth for problem solving.

One website I added to the mix because many people travel so I thought it would be handy for discounted airfares.

Space Adventures

Provides private spaceflight opportunities.  It’s the first company to have taken clients into space.      

Virgin Galactic

Are you interested in space travel? Virgin Galactic is a space tourism operator which will be providing sub-orbital flights. It is an offshoot of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson‘s enterprise.

Ask Nature

It’s the design portal for the Biomimicry Institute. Biomimicry is a fairly new field where nature is used to inspire problem solving. The Ask Nature website is filled with lots of information that will round out your general knowledge.

Travel Alerts

You will find discounted vacation and last minute travel. Get the alerts sent to your email box each week http://www.travelalerts.com.

If money were no object, would you invest in space travel? Please keep the conversation flowing, click on the comment link below and leave a note for me. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

Ted talk: Biomimicry in action: Janine Benyus

Biomimicry in action: Janine Benyus

Space Tourism Markets What We Know And What We Don’t Know

Space Tourism Markets What We Know And What We Don’t Know

Photo Credit: Zemanta
Video Credit: YouTube via Apture

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1. Five Websites to Expand Your Mind
2. Websites Where Knowledge Rules
3. Are You an Avid Reader? 10 Websites to Save You Money
4. How to Generate Creative Ideas

How creative are your ideas? How many creative ideas do you get? And what process do you use to generate creative ideas. The ability to think creatively, or generate creative ideas might just be the skill that gives you a competitive edge. Below is a model which is a combination of Graham Wallas’ and James Webb Young’s creativity models (Based on my life experiences, I have added information to the models). What can you add to the model to make it better? If your project is just for fun you do not have to follow all the steps, especially the ones in data collection (for example interviewing subject matter experts and conducting focus group interviews). Some of these steps are more appropriate for a work project.

Step 1: Preparation (Gathering Information)

1. Describe your topic of  interest
2. Develop a set of decision criteria to judge the quality of the ideas

There are two types of information to gather:

Specific

1. Gather as much information as possible on the topic of interest
   1. Look for  case studies in your industry and unrelated industries
   2. Conduct research on the internet
   3. Conduct research using commercial databases, you can access many through your public library portal
   4. Interview subject matter experts
   5. Brainstorm with colleagues
   6. Conduct focus group interviews
2. Read all the information gathered and synthesize them
3. Write down the information on 3×5 index cards, one item per card
4. Classify the information by sections of the topic of interest

Read the post How to Analyze Information to evaluate the quality of the data you gathered.

General

1. This is an ongoing process throughout your life
2. Record any interesting information you come across in a scrapbook or other filing method that makes sense for you
3. Use your cell phone if you have one, or a camera to capture any interesting scenes that you see, both photos and videos and create a file on your computer in which to save them
4. Attend speeches, workshops, seminars and so on that are unrelated to your work just because they interest you and take notes
5. Visit the websites How Stuff Works and Ted.com often and read for a while
6. Every so often, pull up the information and review them

Step 2: Working Over the Information in Your Mind

1. Look at the information you gathered from many different angles
2. Synthesize the information
3. Merge two facts and see how they fit together
4. Connect the information with what you already know, nothing exists in a vacuum
5. As tentative or partial ideas come to you, no matter how crazy or incomplete, document them on the index card, one idea per card
6. Do not stop until you have at least one partial or incomplete idea
7. When everything is a jumble or it is pointless for you to do additional work, it is time for the next step

Step 3: Incubation

1. Turn over the problem to your subconscious mind
2. Take a break or work on an unrelated task or do something which stimulates the imagination and emotions

Step 4: Illumination – Eureka! I have It

1. When you least expect it, the idea comes to you (You have an aha moment)

Step 5: Verification/Implementation/Shaping & Developing the Idea

1. The idea will unlikely be ready to be implemented as is
2. Subject it to criticism – test it, then refine it
   1. Use the criteria you developed in Stage I to judge the quality of the solution
   2. Refine the idea if you have to
   3. Implement the idea
   4. Evaluate the idea
   5. If you find that the solution doesn’t work, go through the process again

Along Yonge Street in front of the Eaton Centre in Toronto, Canada there are always people who are very creative in earning money, what are your thoughts? What have been some of your most creative ideas to generate some extra cash? Did any of these translate into a viable business?

Man Playing Drums in Front of The Eaton Centre, Toronto from Avil Beckford on Vimeo.

Man and Boy Playing Drums from Avil Beckford on Vimeo.

Please keep the conversation flowing, click on the comment link below and leave a note for me. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed.

Photo Credit: Avil Beckford

Related posts:

1. Summary of A Technique for Producing Great Ideas by James Webb Young
2. Great Ideas – Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
3. Creative Problem Solving
4. Timeless Ideas Worth Exploring

Readers of this blog may have figured out by now that I am a voracious reader, but what some of you may not know is that I often integrate what I have read into my personal and professional life. Reading is a way for me to expand my body of knowledge. In How to Read a Book , the authors Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren suggest that there are three reasons for reading – for entertainment, information and for understanding. I read for all three reasons. What are your reasons for reading?

However, when I read, I do not read in a vacuum, I build on what I already know, so I am continuously furthering my knowledge. This has served me well as a writer and researcher because I am able to question things that do not look right to me. This has also served me well when working on projects. For instance, while I worked on a project for an association where I had to write 15 stories for an Anniversary Booklet, because I read extensively and broadly I had a large pool of knowledge to draw so I was able to do a good job and make the stories very different.

Recently, I have found myself writing many articles, and studies have shown that over 80 percent of people read an article because of the title or headline. So how can you increase the chances that your information gets read? To answer this question, I will demonstrate how reading has helped me tremendously with writing good headlines. I am not a master headline writer, but the more I practice writing headlines, the better my headlines, and the more they grab attention.

In the 1926 book The Art of Thought, Graham Wallas, an American psychologist, adopted and expanded, Hermann von Helmholtz‘s process to develop an idea. In the book, Wallas describes a four-stage process for generating great ideas – preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. (I have mentioned this book before)

In the preparation stage, a period of study and fact-finding, you gather information to resolve any issues, challenges or problems that you may be facing. This phase includes activities such as reading about the subject matter to identify what’s been done before, interviewing subject experts and any other means of collecting opinions or ideas on the subject. When you become stressed, bored, overwhelmed, or distracted, or feel that it’s futile to gather more information, it’s time to take a break. Stop thinking about the problem(s) and let all the information incubate. Mull it over for a while. Though you are not consciously working on your issues, challenges or problems, your subconscious or other than conscious is busy working at connecting the different pieces of information to form ideas, creating something different and new.

When you least expect it, you have a sudden flash of insight, an “aha” moment where the new ideas to resolve your issues, challenges or problems surface to your conscious mind and you suddenly become illumined – the light bulb goes on. The great ideas that surface could be implemented the way you conceived them, or you may have to refine them so that they’re workable.

So, even though The Art of Thought was written to help people generate new ideas, I have expanded that concept to help me generate better titles and headlines. I prepare myself by knowing the material that I am writing about inside out. I also have a list of 52 headline archetypes and a headline file I have been building with some of the most successful headlines over the past 100 years. I practice using the archetypes to write my headline. Sometimes I will write at least 100 headlines as practice for coming up with the right one. When I feel as if I have done enough, I forget about it and move to another task. Incubation is a very important stage for the appropriate headline to form. Suddenly the light bulb goes on and I have the right headline. The time it takes to move through this four-stage process varies. For me, it has taken as little as under an hour to as long as two months. One thing is sure is that the process works.

So, the next time when you are reading, have a notebook and pen handy. Think about what you already know on the topic that is covered in the book, so that you bring it to the forefront of your mind. While you are reading, capture interesting and useful information in your trusty notebook for further use. Combine the new infromation with what you already know because ideas are formed wheb you unite elements in unique ways. Practice this technique until it becomes second nature and remember that nothing exists in a vacuum.

How do you create great headlines? Let’s keep the conversation going, please comment.

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Books to Get the Most out of Your Reading

Summary of a Technique for Producing Ideas

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To Read Or Not to Read, Now That’s the Question

Photo Credit: Flickr Free License

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I first learned about A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young a couple of months ago, so I did a quick search on the internet to get additional information. I found two articles that summarized the book, which is only 48 pages in length, and felt the method described sounded similar to the one outlined in the Art of Thought by Graham Wallas, which I have written about several times.

As a professional with over 15 years research experience, I felt it important to read the book for myself because information that I may think is important might have been left out of the articles that I read. It is interesting that I noted the similarities between the idea generation process outlined by James Webb Young and Graham Wallas because Young recommends at the end of his book that readers also read the Art of Thought (as well as Science & Method and The Art of Scientific Investigation) to better understand the whole idea generation process. Incidentally the Art of Thought was written in 1926 and A Technique for Producing Ideas in the 1940s.

This is my interpretation of the information outlined in A Technique for Producing Ideas.

5 Steps to Idea Generation

Step 1: Gathering Information

There are two types of information to gather:

Specific

1. Gather as much information as possible on the topic of interest
2. Write down the information on 3×5 index cards, one item per card
3. Classify the information by sections of the topic of interest

General

1. This is an ongoing process throughout your life
2. Record any interesting information you come across in a scrapbook or other filing method that makes sense for you

Step 2: Working Over the Information in Your Mind

1. Look at the information you gathered from many different angles
2. Synthesize the information
3. Merge two facts and see how they fit together
4. Connect the information with what you already know, nothing exists in a vacuum
5. As tentative or partial ideas come to you, no matter how crazy or incomplete, document them on the index card, one idea per card
6. Do not stop until you have at least one partial or incomplete idea
7. When everything is a jumble or it is pointless for you to do additional work, it is time for the next step

Step 3: Incubation

1. Turn over the problem to your subconscious mind
2. Work on an unrelated task or do something which stimulates the imagination and emotions

Step 4: Eureka! I have It

1. When you least expect it, the idea comes to you

Step 5: Shaping & Developing the Idea

1. The idea will unlikely be ready to be implemented as is
2. Subject it to criticism – test it, then refine it

5 Great Ideas

1. An idea is a combination of old elements
2. The capacity to combine old elements into something new is dependent on the ability to see relationships and make connections
3. Build a reservoir of knowledge, which is filled with life experiences, facts and other information
4. Learning is a lifelong process
5. Constantly expand your experiences personally and vicariously

I liked A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young and will integrate his process into Wallas’ process. It is a fantastic idea to keep a scrapbook for general information. I had a beautiful “great ideas” jar which I broke, and have not been able to replace it. When you come across really interesting information that you are presently unable to use, where do you park it so you do not forget it? Please keep the conversation flowing by making a comment.

Related Posts

How to Problem Solve

Reverse Problem Solving

Further Reading

James Webb Young’s technique for producing ideas

Related posts:

1. Great Ideas – Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
2. Review of As A Man Thinketh By James Allen
3. 10 People Who Would Have Been Great Bloggers
4. Do you Have the Traits of Great Thinkers and Innovators Who Shaped the World
5. Timeless Ideas Worth Exploring

Benjamin Franklin said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

The main purpose of the Invisible Mentor blog is to offer you a guiding hand through the information it provides. On a more basic level, its intent is to unleash the latent genius within you. After interviewing people for my book Tales of People Who Get It, a recurring theme that was apparent is that to be successful, you have to be focused, learn continuously and have passion. A few days ago, we talked about focus (You Can Only Walk Down One Road At A Time) and today we will talk about knowledge (learning).

What does Franklin’s quote mean to you? 

 For me, the quote means to plant the seed of knowledge, to learn continuously: read broadly, take courses, observe people, try new things, experiment, be prepared to fail, brainstorm, collaborate… This quote also reminds me of Jim Rohn‘s book, The Seasons of Life, see book review Planting to Reap Full Rewards: A Book Review of The Seasons of Life by Jim Rohn. In the spring farmers plant their crops, water and nurture them in the summer, harvest the crops in the fall, and rest the land in the winter.

 Plant your seeds of knowledge, creating your body of knowledge.  Continuously build on the knowledge, connecting the dots and taking care of what you know. Test yourself to ensure that you remember the important stuff. Whenever you need the information you harvest it, and you take a rest and reflect on the information. So, in Connecting the Dots When There Are No Dots, let’s add Graham Wallas‘ 4-Step Creativity Process: Preparation, Incubation, Illumination, Verification/Implementation into the mix.

1. What type of information will allow you to perform your job better?
2. What type of information will allow you to navigate your career to the next level?
3. What type of information will allow you to significantly improve your life?

Based on the answers to the questions above, gather the relevant information (preparation). Take a break when you feel as if you have collected enough information (incubation). Mull over the information and start making connections among disparate pieces of data. At some point you will have an aha moment where you get an idea (illumination). Test the idea then implement it (verification/implementation).

 When I started to write this post I had no idea that this is where I would end up. Who would have thought that thinking about a Benjamin Franklin quote about knowledge could lead to generating new ideas.

 Again, what does ”An investment in knowledge pays the best interest” mean to you? Start with the quote and end with an idea, and fill in the dash, all that in-between information.

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