By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here are few ideas to help you become even more creative.

Let’s rodeo! Bronco busting, bull riding, calf-roping, I can’t even imagine how challenging it must be to compete in the most dangerous eight seconds in sports. My butt gets sore just thinking about a 2,000 pound bull throwing me around like a ragdoll. In fact, just the thought of shaking up my world in an explosive burst for survival got me to thinking how I could learn to rodeo in my head -creatively- if not on my butt -painfully.

So let’s rodeo today creatively (and save both our butts). Think of word RODEO as an acrostic for five ways you can become more creative as a leader.

Rearranging

Randomly select two words out of the dictionary or two business entities out of the phone book. Then rearrange them to make a creative connection between them.

Take for example the words rock and pet. More than $5 million worth of ordinary rocks called Pet Rocks were sold in the last 90 days of 1974. The rearranging of rock into a pet made a creative connection that sparked 1.3 million people to pay $4 each for a rock. Use the same random approach to create similes that broaden the scope of a subject.

Take for example the word “life.” now randomly select a word from the dictionary and connect those two words or concepts with the bridge phrase “is like.” So if you selected the word “confetti”, you would rearrange your concept of life to generate the creative thought: how is life like confetti.

Orienting

Gutenberg’s press oriented two previously unconnected ideas: the wine press and the coin punch. Continue reading →