Brainstorming: How to Hatch Your Dreams into Reality

What if you could dream dreams you had never dreamed before.  What if you could tear the wrapping from ideas like you once ripped paper off a Christmas gift.  Remember the squeals of delight? What if you stayed up all night because you couldn’t wait to develop those new ideas into products,  ministry or income potential.  McNair Wilson’s new book “HATCH, brainstorming secrets of a theme park designer” recaptures that spirit and opens the possibility to all the above.  NOTE: Hatch isn’t a normal book.  McNair Wilson is not a normal person.  Reading Hatch is like following a child through a candy store.  The path isn’t always straight, but it is fun and very productive.  You may occasionally think you’re lost but you will find a plethora of culinary delights, insights, ideas, and practical direction that will stimulate your imagination and unlock creativity you and your team never thought you had.  The imbedded humor, doodles, quotes and illustrations are worth the price of the book by themselves.

I loved this book.  Whether you are an artist, an executive, a team leader, or a mom, you will enjoy Hatch and it’s power to make you dream and make your dreams reality.  Here are just a few of the pieces of candy I found while reading.
                                                                                                            1  The biggest sin in brainstorming is failing to distinguish and separate Creative Thinking and Critical Thinking. Brainstorming, to succeed, requires that these two fragile, equally important components be kept far away from each other—because each is capable of destroying the other.

2  As a part of the creative process, Think it, Say it, (without fear or reservation) and Write it.  Get it on the wall.  This isn’t the time to refine or critique ideas.  That comes later.  As testament to the power of this process, I honestly cannot think of a single dream that I wrote on paper that didn’t in some form come true. Free style thinking leads to magical places.

3  The quality of the ultimate idea is directly related to the quantity of early ideas. The creative process can be loud and messy.  Once a the members of a team or family feel safe, ideas spill into the room like water through a broken levee. Let it flow.

4  Critical Thinking Is Not a Ballot, It’s a Menu It does not matter which ideas we DO NOT like. What matters is selecting ideas that work best for the objectives of the project. Ignore the ones that don’t; they’re not necessarily bad ideas, they’re just not the right ideas right now.  

You actually can read this book backwards and still find lots of candy.  Okay that’s all the sugar I am allowed in one day.

How effective is your family or team at sharing ideas freely?  A safe place to brainstorm will reveal more about the people you work with and the people you love than a room full of family rules or corporate guidelines.  As always I love your comments.